posted 05-13-2010 01:39 PM               

Space Coast Film Commissioner Bonnie King tells Central Florida on Demand that filming will last about eight days in early September.

She said location scouts have visited the area for two to three days at a time, looking at other areas to shoot. Those included Patrick Air Force Base; Space Coast Regional Airport, in Titusville; Merritt Island Airport; Lone Cabbage Fish Camp, in Cocoa; and a Cocoa Beach house.

Scouts also checked out some swamps and went into the woods.

Film Director Michael Bay shot scenes for 1998's "Armageddon" at Kennedy Space Center. King said Bay is familiar with the area, which is why he chose it again for "Transformers 3."

King said the film crew will be working around the scheduled launch of space shuttle Discovery on Sept. 16.

Bay is looking for an airport with a big hangar for the movie, which could bring him and the film's crew and stars to Patrick Air Force Base, Space Coast Regional Airport or Merritt Island Airport.

The location scouts also looked at scenes of local airboat rides, swamps and woods while they were in Brevard. Whether those scenes will be used depends on the developing plot twists for the film, King said in a news release.

posted 06-07-2010 10:34 AM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Jay Chladek:
Hmmm, could we finally see Astrotrain make an appearance?

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posted 06-11-2010 10:54 PM               

USA Today: Next 'Transformers' is due for a switch

Plot details are under wraps, but it delves into the space race between the U.S.S.R. and the USA, suggesting there was a hidden Transformers role in it all that remains one of the planet's most dangerous secrets. "The movie is more of a mystery," Bay says. "It ties in what we know as history growing up as kids with what really happened."

posted 07-13-2010 10:58 AM               

Michael Bay's third Transformers movie won't have Megan Fox. And it doesn't need the Space Shuttle. Or they don't need it on the pad while they're shooting on Florida's Space Coast.

So the Brevard Co. filming dates have been pushed back, according to Bonnie King, Brevard County Film Commissioner.

"They seem to be looking at mid-Sept. to early October now," King says. "NASA is in the business of launching shuttles and they can't be working around a film crew's needs, and with the last shuttle launch shifted (Nov. 1, now), things have eased up on the production schedule for the movie."

posted 07-16-2010 04:30 AM               

There's a disturbance on the Moon. A robot shaped disturbance. Scientists on Earth see this and the information gets passed up the chain of command. In the White House men in black suits are breathlessly running through the halls, and they burst into the Oval Office. The president is behind the desk, back turned to the door, looking out the window. One of the men tells the president, 'Sir, something's happened on the Moon!' The president turns around. It's John F. Kennedy.

Yes, the opening scene of Transformers 3 takes place in 1961 or 1962. The gist of the story has to do with the Transformers' involvement in the space race, and this is the reason why JFK was so hot to make sure America was first to the Moon. It sounds like a fun direction; there are a lot of stupid conspiracy theories about Neil Armstrong et al meeting ETs on the Moon, and this is a fun way to play with them. I hear this was Spielberg's idea, and it really does sound like something he'd come up with. If you're like me and you like the Spielberg-influenced Transformers but hate the mostly Spielberg-free Transformers 2, this is all good news.

posted 07-29-2010 02:15 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Rob Joyner:
Who do you contact to be an extra?

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Bonnie King has never seen anything like this in her more than two decades promoting the local film industry.

She has received more than 1,000 phone calls and e-mails from people interested in working as acting extras or crew on the sci-fi action movie “Transformers 3.” The film is scheduled for shooting at the Kennedy Space Center during a 12-day period, tentatively starting Sept. 17.

Details for interviews to apply for the temporary positions haven’t been released yet. But King said people have been contacting her ever since a FLORIDA TODAY news story published May 13 revealed plans for the local filming at KSC.

posted 08-23-2010 05:56 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Rob Joyner:
Who do you contact to be an extra?

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Transformers 3 will be filming on the Space Coast in late September. A production office will be set up in early September and an email address will be given so you can send in your resumes. They are seeking the following positions:

• catering
  
• craft service
  
• medics
  
• PAs
  
• electricians
  
• grips
  
• set dressing

Casting for extras will also take place. We are waiting for the Casting Director to give us the info needed for you. Please keep watch on this website for all updates.

posted 10-05-2010 03:21 PM               

Later this week, filming is expected to continue at the pad, with its rotating service structure in the retracted position, revealing Discovery, which will coincide with the STS-133 payload being delivered to the payload changeout room.

Sources report seeing lead actor Shia LaBeouf but the movie stars that seem to be catching the most attention, at least judging by these photographs, have been the Autobots themselves, including Optimus Prime seen here near the VAB and OPF-3.

posted 10-05-2010 04:04 PM               

A number of local residents, mostly employees of Kennedy Space Center and its contractors, as well as military personnel, were hired as extras for the local shooting. About 60 were on the set last week...

KSC life support system specialist Kyle Mallory of Oveido, an employee of contractor URS Federal Technical Services Inc., said he is looking forward to being one of the extras on set this week, playing a CIA agent.

posted 10-08-2010 11:53 AM               

Prop oil barrels near Launch Pad 39A's perimeter fence.

Film crews working on Launch Pad 39A with space shuttle Discovery.

posted 10-18-2010 06:52 PM               

In this new movie, the Autobots and Decepticons become involved in a perilous space race between the U.S. and Russia, and once again human Sam Witwicky has to come to the aid of his robot friends. There's new characters too, including a new villain in the form of Shockwave, a longtime "Transformers" character who rules Cybertron while the Autobots and Decepticons battle it out on Earth.

posted 12-11-2010 05:20 PM            

quote:

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Originally posted by cspg:
If you land on the dark side of the Moon, you can't see the Earth, can you?

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posted 12-13-2010 08:27 PM               

'Transformers: Dark of the Moon' film trailer transforms Apollo history

In the teaser trailer released last week for "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" director Michael Bay rewrites the history of the first moon landing. Apollo astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin are sent on a mission that takes "a giant leap" beyond collecting rocks and planting the American flag.

According to the preview for Bay's third film about "robots in disguise," while everyone thought the astronauts were exploring the moon "for all mankind," they were really off discovering a crashed alien spacecraft.

But that's not all Bay did to transform Apollo. Although the teaser is only about two and a half minutes long, it packs in a surprising number of changes to how the 1969 moon landing — and to quote the trailer, "a generation's greatest achievement" — was accomplished.

posted 12-14-2010 04:50 PM               

Trailers are made by splicing together all sorts of images grabbed from different parts of a movie and combining them with snippets of dialog or soundtrack that likely don't accompany the same images in the actual film.

The timing of Neil's words on the footpad, the mention of the dark side of the moon, all that stuff is likely taken out of context.

posted 12-14-2010 05:34 PM               

Finally! I owe Michael Bay a beer!

posted 12-19-2010 11:10 AM            

quote:

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Originally posted by Robert Pearlman:
If in the end, the film corrects the nits in the trailer, then that will offer yet another opportunity to point out where Bay got it right and where the real history is more than meets the eye...

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posted 12-19-2010 11:14 AM            

quote:

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Originally posted by Glint:
Since when did any LEM ever land facing into the sun?

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posted 04-20-2011 01:20 PM               

Who do you play in the new Transformers film and what can you tell us about your experiences on the film? What were the first thoughts that ran through your mind when you got the script?

I play Neil Armstrong in Transformers: Dark of the Moon and it was an amazing experience. Actually, I never got a script — I was given sides to audition with, but they were just a vague outline of the actual script. Director Michael Bay did not tell me this, but apparently he’s had many attempts to hack his computer and steal the script so he is, justifiably, very guarded with regards to the script. Cory Tucker, who plays Buzz Aldrin, in the film, and I were shown a page of script while Michael held it in his hands on set. I can say that when my agent called me to tell me I booked the role, I was here in my apartment and fell down yelling for joy on the floor!

What sort of research did you do for the parts and what challenges did each present?

...for the role of Neil Armstrong, I did a ton of research and preparation for the role. It took a few days, but I watched every bit of Apollo 11 footage I could get my hands on and some of the other moon landings. One hurdle to overcome was that there are a lot of conspiracy theories regarding the moon landing and I knew I couldn’t have even the smallest doubt that it actually happened when I was on set. I finally came across a series of MythBuster videos that disproved all of the conspiracy theories and put my mind at ease. I also visited the space museum in Los Angeles to get as close to the actual vessels as possible and it is amazing how small and cramped the orbiters were. We were fitted for our space suits many weeks prior to being on set and after I tried on the 50 lb space suit I started hitting the gym hard doing heavy squats and dead lifts to make the suit feel as light as possible. I also spent a lot of time in the sauna to get used to the heat from the non-ventilated suit under the hot lights of set. The sweat you see on our faces in the film is very real. I also did a lot of running in water to observe the different ways the body moves while weightless.

posted 06-30-2011 09:06 AM               

NASA Adds Unique Touch to Transformers

NASA's historic adventures and cutting-edge technology provide some of the underpinnings for "Transformers: Dark of the Moon," and there are also some star turns of a different sort for some of the workers who appeared as extras in the film.

Director Michael Bay and his production team all but moved in to NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida for a week in October 2010. There were casting calls, costuming and catering tents, and of course a flotilla of high-performance cars and trucks.

Credit: Paramount Pictures

Above: Michael Bay works at Launch Pad 39A with space shuttle Discovery in the background during filming of "Transfromers: Dark of the Moon" while the production team was at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in October 2010.

Employees at the center were able to see the outcome of all the effort during a sneak preview of the movie Tuesday at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex's IMAX theater.

"I thought they did a great job," said Mike Cianelli, a NASA Test Director (NTD) at Kennedy who appears in the movie. "It was fun to see the production and then to see the end product."

The cast and crew filmed at Launch Pad 39A where Discovery stood ahead of its STS-133 mission, inside the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) and an Orbiter Processing Facility and at the Space Station Processing Facility.

Bill Heidtman, also an NTD, said NASA shined in the feature.

"It was kind of an homage to the space program," Heidtman said.

The feature film is the third installment of the Transformers franchise, covering the life-and-death battles of a species of robots that bring their war to Earth.

For Bay, the science fiction elements bring out the most in what audiences go to movies to see.

"The highest grossing films of all time are science fiction movies and things that are in space. I think it's something we still have to discover," Bay said.

The film's leading characters played by Shia LaBeouf, Rosie Huntington-Whitely and Josh Duhamel were on set at Kennedy at different times.

It was easy for them to get excited about real-life space technology during the filming, even though they're acting opposite computer-generated creatures that convert from robots to vehicles and back.

"It's kind of hard to believe that you're standing in front of the shuttle over here, said Paul Turturro, who plays Agent Simmons. "When you see something for real you kind of have to keep looking at it, walk around."

Kennedy was a natural backdrop for a science fiction story, said Lorenzo di Bonaventura, one of the film's producers.

"The idea of the space program always was how to get in contact with others, so we've brought the Transformers to the shuttle," said Lorenzo di Bonaventura. "The Kennedy Space Center has always been this sort of mythical thing, I think, for me. You imagine it out there and then you come here and you realize how many people are working here and what this kind of endeavor entails."

The production called for dozens of extras who were volunteers from the Kennedy work force. They would spend long days on the sets running inside the VAB, working at computers and performing other tasks at the other locations.

"I thought for the time that they were here we had an awful lot of play time in the movie," said Greg Gaddis, an NTD. "Not personally, but definitely the space center."

The Transformers film are a mix of live-action and computer-generated characters based on a cartoon series and toy line. Many of the people who took part in the filming got to relive a bit of their childhood when they played with the metamorphosing robots.

"Being that kid watching the cartoon back in the 80's and being part of it now is just an awesome experience," said Danny Zeno, another NTD who also took part in the filming.

The movie opened nationwide Wednesday and is expected to be a major summer blockbuster.