Transformers: Dark of the Moon Official Photos

Transformers: Dark of the Moon set photographer Robert Zuckerman has posted a large gallery of images from the filming of Transformers: Dark of the Moon. His role is to gather the still images used for help in advertising the movie, for press and related products such as posters, toys and the like. The full gallery of images can be found at Zuckerman's website or at MichaelBay.com.

Dark of the Moon VFX From Digital Domain

The Society of Digital Artists website has posted an interesting article with key members of the Digital Domain crew that helped created the visual effects used in Transformers: Dark of the Moon. Digital Domain was bought by Michael Bay after the first movie but has a long history working in Hollywood. Much like with Revenge of the Fallen, the company focused on certain characters and scenes while ILM focused on the key Transformers and larger scale effects.

The crew help created Brains, Laserbeak and the cannon fodder Decepticon protoforms. Key scenes the crew worked on include "Bird Men" (the Chicago skydiving sequence) and the Space Bridge jump from the Moon to Washington, DC. Below are a few highlights but best to read the details in the full article here. Note that references to "stereo" is referring not to sound but creating everything in 3D.
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Bay's The Island in Dark of the Moon

Michael Bay demonstrates what creative editing, good camera coverage and the excellent work by ILM can do with a scene. In a likely cost saving measure (and maybe the on set injury), resulted in the director repurposing footage from 2004's The Island for some moments of the highway sequence in Transformers: Dark of the Moon. The comparison video is below.

The Sound of Transformers: Dark of the Moon

A behind the scenes video at how the sound effects for Transformers: Dark of the Moon. It includes interviews with the members of the sound team that created what will likely be an awesome experience when the movie official comes out later today. I wish more movies did a look into sound effects, at least I find it interesting how simple every day objects are used to become something more like the engines of a starship.

Behind the Scenes of Birdmen

MichaelBay.com's Nelson has posted a behind the scenes video for the new TV spot Birdmen that will air soon for Transformers: Dark of the Moon. The commercial and video covers the helicopter and building stunt jumps that where filmed in Chicago last year. As for the TV spot itself I suspect it will debut on Entertainment Tonight. DJ.BigtymeBeats reports seeing a commercial about a DOTM story they are going to run tonight. On a somewhat related note, Nelson has also tweeted hi-res, large file size images of Bumblebee, Megatron, and Optimus Prime but they are not from DOTM. Thanks to Feris Othman for the heads-up.Read More »

Transformers: Dark of the Moon ET Report

Entertainment Tonight has posted their article of video of the behind the scenes report from the Chicago set of Transformers 3. The video includes set footage, explosions and the sales pitch of the movie from Michael Bay, Shia LaBeouf, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Tyrese Gibson, and Josh Duhamel. Pretty much no spoilers are revealed but the title does drop a "the" with official title being "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" which oddly enough does make a difference. If want to get a little meta, thanks to Colin Hinkle for the picture of behind the scenes of ET filming behind the scenes of TF:DOTM with Samantha Harris in the yellow dress. Also thanks to Teddy83 for the link.

"I think what we were lacking in the second movie was heart," says Shia about the last installment of the blockbuster franchise, 'Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.' "But, I think with the addition of Rosie and new characters … you still have the magic of the first film, but you have depth in the ending of the third."

"Sam's coming out of heartbreak," explains Shia about the film's emotional center. "He's looking for a rock. He's looking for stability. He's looking for a person who doesn't love him because of his involvement in the wars, or because of his involvement with the robots. … And, so he's looking to define himself and find a person who understands the definition and loves him for him, and he finds it in Rosie."

"The story, I think, is really rich," says Michael. "This is kind of a good old fashioned, kinda espionage 'Transformers' movie." He adds, "I just told Mayor Daley that I'm sorry about messing up his city."