Meaning
Film studios produce films they think will draw in large audiences and make them a profit over the amount of money spend on the film. They choose content, style, and production techniques they know are popular in the industry and will bring people in to see their movie and buy their merchandise.
Products
One of these films is Transformers, made in 2007 and directed by Michael Bay.
Introduction &Purpose
This film is related to a franchise that pre-existed the movies made by Michael Bay. It would therefore already have an audience that would want to see the films. The familiar story draws crowds in while also opening up the potential to add new insights and storylines that are more relevant to the market and audience filmmakers want to address in the present day. Not only are they representing the franchise, but also the production studios, such as DreamWorks SKG, that allow the production to happen.
The plot of this movie is centered on a young man, Sam Witwicky, who teams up with Autobots to destroy Decepticons and prevent them from harvesting enough energy to exterminate mankind. Sam is the great-great-grandson of Archibald Witwicky, an explorer who discovers a crashed and frozen Megatron and accidentally has the power from AllSpark absorbed into his glasses. The glasses later come into Sam’s possession, and when he buys his first vehicle, which ends up being Optimus Prime, his journey to helping to save the world begins. AllSpark is the technology that can be harvested by transformers, who are from the planet Cybertron, and brings them life. When they access this power, they have the potential to wipe out humankind. This is why Optimus Prime, an Autobot, tries to get the AllSpark out of reach of Megatron, a Decepticon, who goes after it and ends up with it on earth. The U.S. military is also involved, as they want to be able to harvest the power of AllSpark as well. In the end, all of the Decepticons are defeated except Starscream. The rest of the Autobots are invited to earth to live among the humans disguised by the machinery they are able to transform into.
Transformers is a 2007 American science fiction action film based on the Transformers toy line. The film, which combines computer animation with live-action, is directed by Michael Bay, with Steven Spielberg serving as executive producer. It is the first installment of the live-action Transformers film series. It stars Shia LaBeouf as Sam Witwicky, a teenager who gets caught up in a war between the heroic Autobots and the villainous Decepticons, two factions of alien robots who can disguise themselves by transforming into everyday machinery, primarily vehicles. The Autobots intend to use the AllSpark, the object that created their robotic race, in an attempt to rebuild Cybertron and end the war while the Decepticons desire control of the AllSpark with the intention of using it to build an army by giving life to the machines of Earth. Tyrese Gibson, Josh Duhamel, Anthony Anderson, Megan Fox, Rachael Taylor, John Turturro, and Jon Voight also star while voice actors Peter Cullen and Hugo Weaving voice Optimus Prime and Megatron respectively.
Genre
Transformers is an American sci-fi movie. An ancient struggle between two Cybertronian races, the heroic Autobots and the evil Decepticons, comes to Earth, with a clue to the ultimate power held by a teenager.The Autobots learn of a Cybertronian spacecraft hidden on the moon, and race against the Decepticons to reach it and to learn its secrets.
This movie falls under many different genres, including action, science fiction, adventure and thriller. Action is its most important feature as the spectacular fight and escape scenes are what draw in most audiences. It is sci-fi in the way that it uses alien machine races from another planet that have the capacity to take over human life. Sam is forced into this conflict without really wanting it, and he has to learn how to become a hero and save mankind, which puts the film within the adventure genre. Finally, it is a thriller because there is suspense and fear that Sam will not be successful, the Decepticons will win, and mankind will be eliminated.
Style
This film depends a lot on spectacle. It is typical of Michael Bay movies in this respect. There are very exciting, loud scenes that involve death and destruction. Sometimes, there is no dialogue at all, as almost entire scenes just feature characters fighting or trying to run away from other characters. Typical car chases, explosions, and more are used to create this exciting kind of film.
Content
This work is a film, so it depends on video and audio. The video often has quick-moving shots that establish how quickly the plot is moving along. There are also a lot of explosions, dirt flying, and loud noises that ilustrate the danger, destruction and the excitement of what is happening to the characters. The inclusion of the U.S. military, especially secret services, such as Sector Seven, which tries to interfere with Sam saving the world in order to steal the AllSpark technology, also add to the danger and destruction of the movie. The fact that Sector Seven is shut down in the end shows that saving the world is more than just about shutting down the threatenig alien forces, but is also about stopping the threatening forces on Earth.
Meaning
People like action films with big spectacles. It draws in audiences, as it is exciting to watch, even if the plot is not very good. Michael Bay is especially known for making films that are very visually exciting. What people can take away from the film beyond the excitement is the underdog story of Sam. Sam did not ask to get involved in the war between the Autobots and Decepticons. He is only involved because he had the glasses that absorbed some of the Decepticons’ power after an ancestor of his had discovered Megatron. Still, he eventually accepts his responsibility even though there is danger involved, and he risks his life in order to save the world. Sam becomes an inspiring character who grows into an adult throughout the film, in front of the audience’s eyes, which is meant to give people the courage to do the same, whatever trials they may face.
The contrast of the images of Sam doing regular school-aged boy things, like trying to pursue his crush who ends up helping Sam and the Autobots defeat the Decepticons, with the images of him after all of the battles, are used to show his transformation. At first, he is a relatable character, and after everything has happened he becomes an inspiration for other people to face their fears and fight their battles.
Main Cast
Content
A long time ago, far away on the planet of Cybertron, a war is being waged between the noble Autobots (led by the wise Optimus Prime) and the devious Decepticons (commanded by the dreaded Megatron) for control over the Allspark, a mystical talisman that would grant unlimited power to whoever possesses it. The Autobots managed to smuggle the Allspark off the planet, but Megatron blasts off in search of it. He eventually tracks it to the planet of Earth (circa 1850), but his reckless desire for power sends him right into the Arctic Ocean, and the sheer cold forces him into a paralyzed state. His body is later found by Captain Archibald Witwicky, but before going into a comatose state Megatron uses the last of his energy to engrave into the Captain's glasses a map showing the location of the Allspark, and to send a transmission to Cybertron. Megatron is then carried away aboard the Captain's ship. A century later, Captain Witwicky's grandson Sam Witwicky.
Meaning
there’s viable media that entertains both adults and children alike -- take Phil Lord and Chris Miller’s recent ‘The LEGO Movie,’ or even the films of Pixar. But, those films are primarily made for a youthful audience and they appeal to the inner child in every adult. These films refuse to talk down to their target audience, which is why they feel more mature in both humor and subject matter, and why they can appeal to all ages. Michael Bay takes a weird, reverse approach with the ‘Transformers’ films: the primary target audience for these films is adults, but Bay is talking down to them as if they were children, and the humor and subject matter is exceedingly regressive.
Post-production
Post-production is frequently a total mystery to fans. Once is film is finished, sometimes a studio will release concept art or set photos showing us pre-production. We see the actual production on the screen and in lots of behind the scenes featurettes. But once filming is done, you’d think the movie was magically willed into existence with special effects, music and sound, all perfectly timed to specially selected shots.
Of course, that’s not the case. Post-production frequently takes much longer than either of the other two thirds of production, and is really where the film is found. You just don’t see the process because it all takes place behind closed doors. So it’s a rare treat anytime we get a glimpse at the post-production process on any movie. It’s especially exciting when we get the see how a big name filmmaker does it.
Which leads us to this awesome new video called “Transformers 4: The Final Touches.”
This film is based on a cartoon that was popular in the 1980s as well as a comic book franchise, and so the races of Transformers, the story surrounding them, their images and their abilities already existed. Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman wrote the screenplay that was used. However, John Rogers wrote the first version of a screenplay for this film. Steven Spielberg, the executive producer, wanted the focus to be on the character of Sam and his car that he eventually realizes is a transformer. Orci and Kurtzman were fans of the franchise and were excited about the opportunity to write the script and to turn it into a coming-of-age story rather than it just being about robots or military action. The addition of and focus on this adventure and coming-of-age story added more to the film than it just being about spectacle. It gave audiences a character they could relate to and aspire to be like. The introduction of the new writers ended up being crucial to the film’s success, showing that it is not worth settling on first versions of scripts.
When Bay was first asked to direct the film, he found that it was geared too much to children and so he started to increase the military’s role in the film as well as add more excitement through explosions and battles. This benefited the film because it made it enjoyable for adults as well as children.
The team also partnered with Hasbro to create the images of the robots in the movie. Hasbro designed toy versions that could be sold in conjunction with the film to maximize profits and get people excited for the movie to come out. This affected the characters’ names, as they were decided after the toy versions of them were built so that they could match their designs.
The design of the robots also depended on the vehicles they transformed from. The film depended on a product placement deal with General Motors, who supplied the “normal” versions of the transformers, or the versions that allowed them to blend in on earth. This supply consisted of nearly 200 cars. So many were needed because they were often destroyed in scenes featuring explosions or chases. Once the robots transformed, they had to look like aliens and not like the machines they transformed from so that these forms were distinguished from their earth machine forms.
The movie was filmed over 83 days. Most of the shots depended on there being many different cameras involved filming many different angles so that they could be edited together in quick succession later, which adds to the action-packed feel of the movie. The film used iconic places such as the Hoover Dam and the Pentagon and other places around the U.S. that would make the film feel familiar and American.
It also depended on CGI, or computer-generated imagery, obviously because transformers are not real and it is cheaper to animate the transformers than build functional robots that could act the parts. The animations are incredibly detailed to make them feel realistic, and the animators studied machines and older concept versions of transformers to create these images.
Overall, many people contributed to the film and a lot of work and different teams went into creating this blockbuster movie that went on to have two sequels and a lot of merchandise and products associated with it.
Camera Angles
More than 750 parts stretching a half-mile long. Some 350 engineers working round-the-clock. Thousands of rusty, old mechanic photos — clutch plates, transmissions, brake discs — spilling across the table. All for one beat-up Camaro? Sure doesn't sound like your average auto manufacturer.
"The idea is they're not fresh off the showroom floor," says Jeff White, the man charged with creating the yellow sports car and 13 others for a big new garage. He's right: They're supposed to look realer than that. And be from outer space. And turn into 30-ft. robots. And save the universe.
That's all in a day's work for the motor magicians at George Lucas's Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), who for the last two years have been juggling the limits of the possible (turning a real car into a fake robot and figuring out what the heck to put inside) and the demands of reality (studio budgets, GM sponsorship, the wrath of fanboys worldwide) to build the most painstaking — and maybe most believable — effects achievement in movie history: Transformers.
