Longer Access Hollywood Piece and November Trailer?

Seibertron.com has posted up a few pieces of news today about Transformers. The main event is a fairly long 4 and a half minute piece showing Michael Bay directing Shia LaBeouf as he is trying to escape a Transformers claw. Its also shows a little footage of Bay directing Shia and Megan Fox. No spoilers really, just a hint of some of what is planned involving the human cast.

The footage is here.

The other piece of news is Michael Bay's official site, ShootforTheEdit.com, the site admin Nelson indicated "...come November people will be forgetting the Mars Rover announcement", indicating that the plan is to release the trailer for Transformers in November. This of course assumes the special effects etc can be finished and prepped by then. Be a close schedule to keep but doable depending on what the plan is to (or not) reveal. My guess is if they are going to do that, then James Bond's Casino Royale will be the film its attached to.

The thread is in regards to the Paramount fan-made teaser trailer and how people think it should be used for the next trailer. I can't disagree with that notion and feel free to share your opinion about the trailer here.

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NEW Transformers Teaser Trailer

JesterJJZ over at Don Murphy's message board has gone all multimedia for us fans by posting up his fan-made Transformers teaser trailer.

Jester's post:
Alrighty...This is something that's been in the works for a long time...just never got around to finishing it. Initially I wanted this to come out right before the actual teaser was supposed to be released, but since they blew it and launched early, well that kinda put plans on hold. So with a bit of re-tweaking, I give you what the teaser should have been and how the actual film should start.

Special thanks to Tasty Crisp for his awesome Ark model and animation. A nod to Raymond T. for help with the Cullen sample.

Its completely different then the officially released version, and he has three versions that have subtle differences in each. One is the straight up trailer, the second as a nice voice treat at the end, and the last uses the Transformers title sequence from the trailer released in theatres.

Description of the second version:
The posted teaser opens with a hilarious version of the "The following preview..." card. It then changes to what at first seems like the usual Dreamworks moon. Except look closer. As the screenshot to the left shows, damn if that doesn't look exactly like the TF: The Movie version of Cybertron in some CGI glory. This is then followed up with the familiar Paramount clouds and stars rushing at the camera. Wait, check out the first two "stars". Sweet! The Paramount logo finishes its star arc, formation, Viacom bit, and then you get a shimmy followed by the Arc smashing into the paramount mountain. This is then followed by title "Transformers" which switches to 7/4/07, with the dates separations changing to the Autobot and Decepticon logos. Oh and listen to the music, some of those chords should rings some bells. At the very end, well listen for yourself.

I love this trailer. Its all geeked out for us Transformers fans. I would love to see it in a theater. Having said that, I think the previously released trailer, while not as great, probably worked better for the average laymen who wouldn't recognize Cybertron, the faction insignias, and so forth.

Still, please, Don Murphy and powers-that-be, release that trailer in some big screen glory. It really deserves it as the person did an excellent job on this. Maybe incorporate it in the next trailer that gets released.

Also with the links to the trailers is something called "Anatomy of an Ark Crash". All it needs is some music ala the Superman Returns behind the scenes bits from AICN to complete its coolness. It shows that even for just a quick 5 second part of a teaser, just how much work, tweaks, experimenting, planning and effort can go into CGI to give it that final wow factor.

Click here to enjoy the all the other goodies including mp3 of the music.

If only want a quick drive by on YouTube: trailer and Anatomy of an Ark Crash.

JesterJJZ's website is here.

- Thanks Shan for providing the link.
At this point wish was good at photoshop so could use some up that stuff on this site.

Update: Made changes to remove the seemingly official aspects and credit to Don. Its my understanding that this trailer is fan made by JesterJJZ over on Don Murphy's website and is not an official release from Paramount, Dreamworks, Don Murphy or any of the cast and crew of the movie. My apologies for giving any wrong impressions. Either way, impressive job (and someone might want to think about giving him one for the movie).

Pirates Reaction to Transformers Teaser Trailer

Seeing the teaser trailer on the internet, my reaction was one of disappointment. I was hoping for something more. Possibly in part because of the Spider-Man 3 teaser showed just how good a teaser can be even though the comparison is unfair due to how short a period principle photography has been going on.

Tonight I went to the 12:01am showing of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest in a sold out theatre with an audience of a nearly 50/50 mix of male and females with age range of 18 to 40ish. The very first trailer was the Transformers teaser.

The trailer plays much better on the bigger screen then the internet. The audience watch this new trailer showing the Mars rover, talking about warnings etc. Everyone looks confused, trying to figure out what was going on. Then then robot appeared. A few people jumped, most still just really confused. The "WTF?" expressions on many. No one really had a clue what was going on.

Then the "Transformers" title appeared. Cheers. Loud cheers. Mostly male but still cheers from most. Even better, when it transformed into the Autobot symbol, it solidified to the audience "yeah, those Transformers". A second, louder cheer erupted.

Its not often you hear cheers for a trailer, Spider-Man 3 teaser got one, but the cheers for Transformers was louder. Let the buzz begin and congrats to the producers, Bay, etc for a successful lift-off.

Trailer Logo and its Designer Interview

VFXTalk.com has posted an interview with the team leaders of the crew over at Imaginary Forces that designed and animated the titles for the Transformers teaser trailer that was released last week.

"The teaser marks the first branding effort for the film," explains IF Art Director Sean Koriakin, who was also Imaginary Forces' Lead Animator and Designer. "We knew there would be limited footage available and only a glimpse of a robot so it was important that we define this new world and aesthetic in the title reveal. The title is a detailed piece of architecture that is intricate, logical and clearly articulated. There are many elements
and panels that fit into each other perfectly like a giant jigsaw puzzle. We spent a lot of time working on textures and creating the shapes of the parts - with interiors that were anatomical and derived from a human muscle form. In keeping with the film's portrayal of the Transformers, we had to make the title appear as realistic as possible."

No spoilers in the brief interview but it does give a hint that the overall goal of the film is to ground it with a real world look and feel.

Interview here.

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Michael Bay Posts about the Teaser Trailer

Michael Bay put up a brief post on his blog about the recently released Transformers teaser trailer.

for those of you asking:

1- None of the Mars story, launch footage, and rover footage is going to be in the movie.

2.- Yes, Bay did shoot the rover footage.

Number one seemed liked a gimme considering the leaked script and it being a teaser and all. The second, uh I guess its good to know if you have a TF trivia night or something otherwise not sure why it matters who shot it unless its going into the final film which seems unlikely.

Teaser Trailer Released!

Click here to see the teaser trailer.

Just as I made my previous post, news comes that the teaser trailer has been officially released on TransformersMovie.com in what appears to be the QuickTime format. I guess they had to give it up once it briefly showed up online as its quickly spread across the web. Wonder if that means I can post the bumblebee pic again? Sigh probably not.

If you still see the countdown clock, clear your cache and refresh your page. Instead of the countdown timer, you should now see the phrase "Watch the Exclusive Announcement Now". Click that and away you go. The trailer goes exactly as described here.

As far as a teaser trailer goes, I am less then impressed. Its does absolutely nothing to excite me about the movie. The Spider-Man 3 trailer is the very definition of how a teaser should go. The audience cheered when that one ended. I think for this one most are just going to have a wtf? reaction.

Having said that, its also understood why the teaser is so-so. A teaser pretty much forces the studio to work with the footage they have and right now I doubt they have much they can use yet. Filming started only about a month ago vs Spider-Man which has been filming for about 3 or so months. The final script was only done recently and I seriously doubt they are even close to having any final CGI sweeps done for the movie. Hopefully come Christmas or roundabout, a second teaser trailer will be released that has some footage to blow our collective minds.

Transfomers Teaser Released - for about 2 seconds

It seems like someone did a little programming oopsie today, as briefly the Transformers trailer was released on the official website for a little while before being removed. By then, the trailer showed up on Youtube.com, which then later also removed it.

Based on various forums, it appears that the trailer closely matched the leaked descripition of the teaser:

Transformers
Trailer #1
Running time: 1:36

The trailer begins with quick shots of a rocket preparing to launch. Your basic pre-flight stuff. You can hear flight control and the countdown. You then see the rocket blasting off.

IN 2003,
THE BEAGLE 2 MARS ROVER
WAS LAUNCHED

You see the probe entering the red atmosphere of Mars.

WE WERE TOLD IT CRASHED

Many shots of the rover on the surface of Mars, all shown from a variety on cameras on-board the probe itself.

ITS FINAL TRANSMISSION WAS
CLASSIFIED TOP SECRET

More shots from the rover’s point of view.

Suddenly, you hear heavy footsteps coming toward the rover, and a shadow falls over the rover. A humanoid robot shape steps into the rover’s view, but it stands in front of the sun, silhouetting the robot.

After a beat, the robot smashes the rover with its fist.

IT WAS THE ONLY WARNING
WE WOULD EVER GET

Now we see the Earth almost exactly as it appears in the teaser poster (but without the eye). The orchestral theme begins to swell in an ominous way.

The TRANSFORMERS logo then appears as it looks in the teaser poster.
The logo itself then transforms very complicated-like into 7.4.7 Which then transforms into the Autobot symbol.

From: seibertron.com

Apparently there where photos that back this up, but I missed the whole lot. Either my work schedule keeps getting in the way or the that NewMedia company is really on top of their game at getting this stuff removed asap.

If anyone managed to snag some pics or the entire trailer or knows a site that still has it, please email me the info.

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Teaser Trailer with Pirates of the Caribbean with Score

Comingsoon.net has confirmed that the release information for the Transformers teaser trailer. As most of us already know and the official website made clear with the countdown, the teaser trailer is coming 7/4/06. If seeing it on your tiny screen doesn't do it for you, check out the teaser with Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest when its released July 7th. Just a little warning, most theatres get to choose what trailers go with the movie so no guarantees.

Along with that little bit of joy is that the trailer comes news from Soundtrack.Net with a score from Steve Jablonsky (Pearl Harbor, Desperate Housewives) that is about 90 seconds long. The score was recorded 6/17/06 at Sony Scoring Stage in Hollywood with Bruce Fowler conducting the 59-piece orchestra. To get a hint of the sound, hit the official website for a listen and go here for some pics and little more information. Hopefully along with the teaser, the TF powers that be will be kind of enough to release a .mp3 of the score.

Thanks Bill for the heads-up. Also lot more set pics and car pics are located here.

Teaser and Poster out 7/4/06

Michael Bay in a brief blurb on his blog: "The teaser and poster for the Transformers film will be out July 4, 2006."