Stressin’
From Michael Bay’s Blog:
After a month and half seven days a week most days going till midnight me and my crew have just about finished Transformers. I have never seen such a level of dedication from every crew member in a movie before.
Even today after the press in Japan and right before the premiere tonight, I have to sneak out to a digital house to approve the last few effect shots.
Wow. It’s hard to imagine the kind of stress that everyone involved in that film must be feeling right now. I’ve listened to a lot of visual effects podcasts, read a lot of interviews, and talked to a few industry professionals, and one thing that’s always common (especially for ILM, and especially after War of the Worlds had one of the first crazy-fast schedules that go producers excited) with big, blockbuster films is that they usually come pretty down to the wire. Whenever I hear a story about how close to the deadline a project was or how they almost touched the deadline before pulling through I can’t help but wonder what would’ve happened if they didn’t hit a deadline.
This is that time. From what I understand, films should be final at least a month before release in order to print the film and ship out reels in a timely fashion. From what I assume, IMAX film, being less common, would take even more time and resources. But to be finalising effects the same night of the premiere is insane, and I fully commend everyone involved if this gets into theatres on the 24th (which I am 99% confident it will). I’ve done little 48-hour film fests with up to 7 friends before. This is x1000 and so, so much more.
I’m looking forward to seeing your film later this month, Mr. Bay.
Godspeed.
