Chicago's Transformers Business Experience

From explosions and gunbattles on Wacker Drive to parachutists plummeting from Trump Tower and celebrity sightings on Michigan Avenue, the “Transformers 3″ film shoot provided plenty of free entertainment in downtown Chicago last week.

It also has caused more disruption than any previous movie filmed in the city — snarling commutes, clogging sidewalks, distracting office workers and cutting off retailers from foot traffic.

So is it worth it?

Steve Shern, general manager of Hotel 71 on Wacker, says yes: “We’ve been sold out each of the past seven nights,” largely due to “Transformers.” The hotel, located on the block where battle scenes were filmed last week, peddled “Transformers”-themed packages that included screenings of the first two installments and promises of some live action out the front door.

Next door, Bella Bacino’s restaurant closed down for most customers Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, serving only those with previous reservations and Hotel 71 guests. But co-owner Linda Bacin says film crew members “filled the bar for a couple of nights. Michael Bay came in, ate pizza, said ‘thank you,’ tipped appropriately.”

She says film company Paramount Pictures has agreed to reimburse her for lost business. She hasn’t yet calculated the total.

THE LOCAL ANGLE

Figuring the overall financial impact on Chicago is trickier. Movie productions hire local workers, buy from local companies and generate publicity for the city. They also collect tax credits from the state and interrupt the normal flow of downtown commerce.

Paramount says “Transformers” will bring in $20 million and 200 jobs; Betsy Steinberg of the Illinois Film Office says the job number will be closer to 400.

So far, “Transformers” has hired 184 locals as production assistants and 27 Illinois National Guard members to play soldiers, a spokeswoman for the movie says.

“We try to hire as many local crew members as possible, but we did run into the issue that a lot of crews here were already working on other projects,” she says, including a Ron Howard-directed comedy starring Vince Vaughn that’s been shooting in the city since the end of May.

The caliber of those jobs, which range from a few days of on-set work to months of set-building, has been debated. An experienced camera operator can earn more than $900 a day, while low-level production assistants make about $100 to $200 a day.

“Even though some of these camera crews might be working 16-hour days for six weeks and then not working for a month, they’re still taking home enough to support their families,” says Tom Fletcher, an executive at Chicago-based Fletcher Camera & Lenses, which rents camera equipment to film crews.

Location scouts for the movie struck deals with local business owners such as Ms. Bacin, promising to compensate them for lost business and damage caused by the filming. Damage appears to have been minimal: Bella Bacino’s lost a few patio chairs and a carpet ruined by debris. An explosion blew out a window in the business offices of Crain’s Chicago Business, which overlooks one of the film sites. No one was injured.

The Ron Howard movie, tentatively titled “What You Don’t Know,” has actually spent “significantly more” here than “Transformers,” Ms. Steinberg says. The movie didn’t release a local spending estimate, but its overall budget is $79 million. It will shoot for more than three months in Chicago, compared with six weeks for “Transformers.”

Chicago Film Office chief Rich Moskal says the city won’t bear any of the costs of shooting “Transformers.” The studio pays for all security personnel (including about 15 off-duty police officers and firefighters hired at $30 per hour) and cleanup expenses. A spokeswoman at the Chicago Transit Authority says the rerouting of 27 buses to accommodate filming has had no financial impact on the agency.

TAX INCENTIVES

According to the Illinois Film Office, movie studios spent $476 million in Illinois from 2005 to 2008. The state returned $39 million under a tax credit program enacted in 2004 to help Illinois compete for Hollywood productions.

Some 42 states offer film tax credits, often more generous than Illinois’. Here, the 30% credit applies only to spending with local companies and wages for Illinois residents up to $100,000 each.

Michigan offers a 40% rebate with no residency requirement. That tax break applies to the huge salaries for non-Michigan-based actors, directors and producers. Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm estimates the state will pay $155 million in tax credits to the film industry in 2010, causing some state officials to question the value of the program.

Experts say tax credits can be worthwhile if they help a state establish a permanent local film industry. Illinois is third behind California and New York in terms of having a strong local crew presence, says Cornell University professor Susan Christopherson, who studies film tax credits.

“Chicago might be able to make a go of the film credits because it does have a strong production presence related to advertising,” Ms. Christopherson says. “But in other states, you have to ask why you’re giving subsidies to movie workers coming in from other places.”

Source: Crain’s Chicago Business

Shooting For The Edit on Wacker Drive

Nelson here…

The joy of being Focus Puller on that first scene with Bay operating camera!

The Chicago Tribune Talks to Michael Bay

Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley and Transformers Director Michael Bay, by Nelson Lauren for Michael Bay Dot Com.

Michael Bay talks ‘Transformers 3′ on set in Chicago

As Mayor Richard Daley stood on Michigan Avenue in shock after watching a series of explosions go off on the set of “Transformers 3″ July 17, director Michael Bay — no stranger to things that go “boom” — stood next to the wide-eyed mayor and laughed.

“His face was funny to watch,” Bay recalled during a break from filming on Wabash Avenue and Wacker Drive Sunday afternoon. “He was in shock, like ‘That didn’t hurt anybody? It looked very dangerous.’”

Bay has built a career on making action scenes look dangerous, and, in the case of the Michigan shoot, destructive. The usually photogenic street looked like it had been hit by a natural disaster when Bay brought “Transformers 3″ there from July 16-18, with junkyard-bound cars and charred, fake chunks of cement scattered around the area.

The 45-year-old director and his production team began talking about Chicago as a potential location for the “Transformers” sequel in late October/early November. They liked that it was new territory for Bay and had a “wide” structure. (“We can show off the city more and have spectacular attacks that we couldn’t have in cities that are more canyon-like,” said producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura). The tax incentives offered by the city didn’t hurt either, they said.

A scout was sent to Chicago immediately, and by December, Bay and company were meeting with Daley. During the mayor’s visit to the Michigan Avenue set, Bay reminded him of a past conversation the two had.

“I told him, ‘Remember how I told you I was going to make your city beautiful? Well, I kind of lied,’ ” Bay said. “But it will look beautiful in the movie. It’s in the third act.”

Filming in Chicago began on LaSalle Street July 10 and is expected to continue in the city through August 23. Plot details have been scarce — “I don’t say much,” Bay said — but it has been reported that the film deals with the Transformers’ role in the space race between the U.S. and Russia.

On Sunday afternoon, Bay filmed actors Shia LaBeouf and Patrick Dempsey on top of a pile of what appeared to be building remnants. Bay stood on the pile of rubble with the film stars and yelled “More smoke” as he motioned up with his hands.

“He is very much in command of what he wants to do and how he wants to do it,” di Bonaventura said of Bay. “He’s a little more intense on set — I mean, he has a lot of people — but he’s a fun guy to be around. Even in middle of a take, he has a joke.”

As busy as he is with the robots in disguise (between takes, Bay ate off of a plate sitting on a monitor), he has taken notice of the spectators standing behind barricades downtown. He said the large crowds have been the biggest surprise of the Chicago shoot and added that he enjoys hearing them cheer after an action-packed stunt.

“I look at other movies, and there’s not that,” Bay said. “I heard one director complain that nobody ever comes to see their movie. Maybe it’s the (Transformers) franchise. It has a lot of fans and is kind of a big spectacle.

“We had someone here Skype-ing — they were holding their laptop out the window — with a camera on us,” said Bay, pointing at a floor of the Hotel Monaco high above South Water Kitchen. “Women were flashing us as well. Chicago has been amazingly receptive.”

Um, you’re welcome?

Fewer than three weeks into the shoot, the crew already has filmed car chases on LaSalle Street, fireballs on Michigan and gunfire-heavy battle scenes on Wacker.

According to producer Ian Bryce, the most nerve-wracking stunts to film were the basejumping and skydiving scenes.

“Having guys jump off helicopters and (Willis Tower and Trump Tower) is very unusual,” Bryce said. “We’ve done a lot of stuff, but we haven’t had that. That’s a little scary and unnerving. But logistically and aesthetically, it went great.”

Bryce felt the Chicago shoot is “definitely the most complicated shutdown we’ve tried to orchestrate,” which is why he said he was grateful things have run so smoothly and accident-free — for the most part.

“I got hit by gigantic, gigantic piece of foam,” said Bay, laughing, as his cast waited for his signal to start the next scene. “It fired too late and wacked me in the head while I operated a camera. It gave me a neck ache for three days.”

The interview ended on that anecdote and Bay, not one to waste time, was back to work before the tape recorder stopped.

“OK guys,” Bay shouted. “Let’s go.”

Source: Chicago Tribune

ABC7 Chicago Interviews Michael Bay

The “Transformers 3″ movie production was extremely busy over the weekend as the third installment of the science-fiction franchise took over the center of Chicago.

ABC7 Chicago headed out Sunday evening to catch up with the director, Michael Bay, who was busy making movie magic.

An apocalyptic Chicago figures intensely in the secret script of Transformers 3. The destruction of Wabash and Wacker is integral to the final scene where Bay’s middle America takes a beating but survives, in line with his grandfather’s advice on success.

“He said, ‘If you can sell to Middle America, that is where the heartland is, and my movies really gear toward that,’” said Bay. “They are big around the world, but really they are every patriotic, and they’ve just got a lot of that Americana.”

Blow by blow, this most American of sets was ‘transformed’ throughout a weekend that cost the producers nearly $400,000. Producer Lorenzo di Boneventura, whose “Salt” with actress Angelina Jolie is now in theatres, says he loves filming in Chicago.

“As you can see, a lot of people are cheering us after this thing, and you know what, it gives us energy to feed off the crowd,” the producer said.

When asked if he could write that into the script at all, Lorenzo di Boneventura said, “No, no…Chicago is taking a pounding right about now. So, nobody would be standing around looking. They would be fleeing for their lives.”

As the crowds screamed for the movie stars, including Grey’s Anatomy’s Patrick Dempsey, the man behind the viewfinder would work until sundown milking everything he can from the set.

“The skyline, it is just a magnificent looking city, in terms of how it is open. And you compare it to New York City, where you have to get away on a helicopter to really see what it looks like because you are in a corridor, whereas this it is open; it is beautiful,” said Bay.

Transformers 3 is employing 3,500 people throughout the production, including copious Chicago specialists in the crew, on the animation team and providing services.

“Let me tell you, I have shot around the world. I’ve shot in a lot of famous cities, and I have had the most fun shooting in this city because the town is so into it,” Bay said.

Filming will carry on in Chicago for another month before heading off to Detroit.

The producers say Transformers 3 will end up costing north of $200 million — with $20 million or so flowing into Chicago.

Click to see the video.

Source: ABC 7

Michael Bay Using the iPad 3G

Nelson here… a while ago I told you about Michael showing me some animatics on his iPad 3G. Here’s a photo of him showing Patrick Dempsey’s stunt double on the set of Transformers 3 on Michigan Ave. Click here to view a larger version.

Michael Bay using the iPad 3G on the set of Transformers 3 (view larger). Photo courtesy of Colin Hinkle.

Michael Bay's Thoughts on Chicago

Trump Tower in Chicago, Il from the Transformers 3 set, originally uploaded by Nelson Lauren for Michael Bay Dot Com.

From the Chicago Suntimes:

”The city’s been unbelievably amazing — from Mayor Daley all the way down to each and every police officer helping us out,” said Bay. ”We don’t want to inconvenience people too much, so we’ve been working hard to play ball with the fire department and the police.”

Pointing toward Lake Michigan, he said, ”You go over to Michigan Avenue — right there by the Wrigley Building … and you look back this way [pointing west along the Chicago River] and it’s the most beautiful skyline in the world. … The reason it’s so interesting is — unlike New York, where you’ve got to get far away in a helicopter to make it interesting — Chicago has so many interesting bits of architecture, you can capture very close up.”

Transformers 3 Chicago Set Photos

Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley and Transformers Director Michael Bay, originally uploaded by Nelson Lauren for Michael Bay Dot Com.

Michael Bay on the set of Transformers 3 in Chicago, Il, originally uploaded by Nelson Lauren for Michael Bay Dot Com.

Michael Bay and Tyrese Gibson being interviewed by CBS 2 Chicago, originally uploaded by Nelson Lauren for Michael Bay Dot Com.

Tyrese Gibson on the set of Transformers 3 in Chicago, Il, originally uploaded by Nelson Lauren for Michael Bay Dot Com

Shia LaBeouf with fans on Michigan Ave, originally uploaded by Nelson Lauren for Michael Bay Dot Com.

Bumblebee Hope, originally uploaded by Nelson Lauren for Michael Bay Dot Com.

Lester Speight and Tyrese Gibson on the set of Transformers 3, originally uploaded by Nelson Lauren for Michael Bay Dot Com.

Tyrese Gibson on the set of Transformers 3 in Chicago, Il, originally uploaded by Nelson Lauren for Michael Bay Dot Com.

Tyrese Gibson on the set of Transformers 3 in Chicago, Il, originally uploaded by Nelson Lauren for Michael Bay Dot Com.

Michael Bay setting up a shot on the set of Transformers 3 in Chicago, Il, originally uploaded by Nelson Lauren for Michael Bay Dot Com.

Josh Duhamel on the set of Transformers 3 in Chicago, Il, originally uploaded by Nelson Lauren for Michael Bay Dot Com.

Ferrari 458 Italia (Parked on Rush St) on the set of Transformers 3 in Chicago, Il, originally uploaded by Nelson Lauren for Michael Bay Dot Com.

Chicago, Meet Optimus Prime & Bayhem

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Michael Bay to Film TF3 at the Milwaukee Art Museum

Photo by Orlando Argueta

From OnMilwaukee:

Rumors have abounded recently and now it’s official. Director Michael Bay and producers Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Ian Bryce are bringing a cast and crew — about 150 all told — to film a scene from the new “Transformers 3″ at the Milwaukee Art Museum on July 12.

“We’re really excited to showcase the Art Museum in what will be one of the most anticipated blockbuster films for next summer,” said Milwaukee Art Museum Director Dan Keegan.

“Logistical planning for the film began last November, and the cooperation between the city, the county and the private sector has been tremendous.”

“All factors considered, including salaries, hotels, food, fuel and miscellaneous equipment, supplies and rentals could pump more than $1 million into the local economy during its very limited shooting window. That does not include the incalculable positive image visibility for the city when the film is released in July 2011,” said Paul .

Wanna be an extra? Click here.

Transformers 3 to Bring $20 million & 200 Jobs to Chicago; Mayor Daley Welcomes 'Bayhem' of Transformers Movie

From the Chicago Sun-TImes:

“Transformers 3” — the sci-fi action thriller filming in Chicago this summer — will pump $20 million into the local economy and create 200 jobs, including ten internships for inner-city students, Mayor Daley said today.

“Transformers 3” is certain to include even more scenes of death and destruction on the streets of Chicago.

“You’re gonna see a little bit of mayhem. You know, I mean it wouldn’t be ‘Transformers’ without it,” Di Bonaventura said.

“Hopefully, it’ll be fun. What we find is, people really end up enjoying the spectacle of what we’re doing.”

From the Chicago Tribune:

When asked about the potential for “mayhem,” Daley said it was being created in the name of art with all manner of safety precautions. He also asked “everyone for our understanding” when the filming leads to “street closures or other potential problems.”

Daley said the film and TV industry “is a growing part of our economic development strategy . . . because movies and TV shows made in and about Chicago showcase our city to the world, create excitement about it and create jobs for our residents.”

Di Bonaventura said they were still selecting specific sites to film, but would “be shooting a lot in downtown.”

The jobs generated by the Transformers project will include 10 internships for South and West side high school students.

Bay, Transformers 3, and Shockwave

From USAToday:

“I’ll take some of the criticism,” says Bay, standing at a set built to resemble a dilapidated nuclear reactor. “It was very hard to put (the sequel) together that quickly after the writers’ strike (of 2007-08).”

Producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura says the rush strained the plot: “We tried to do too many things in the second movie, which didn’t give enough time in any one of them. We were constantly jumping to the next piece of information, the next place.”

Bay is not one for mea culpas, but he says he can do better. “This one really builds to a final crescendo. It’s not three multiple endings,” the director says.

Bay calls the second film’s villain, The Fallen, “kind of a (expletive) character.” The new movie’s foe is certain to make fans of the original ’80s incarnation smile: Shockwave, the robot cyclops-turned-laser-cannon, who became dictator of their home world of Cybertron after the other Autobots and Decepticons journeyed to Earth.

“One thing we’re getting rid of is what I call the dorky comedy,” Bay adds. So the twins, the two bumbling, slang-spewing robots? “They’re basically gone,” he says, though John Turturro returns for comic relief.

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.”

Bay hints that there may be a lot of that. “As a trilogy, it really ends,” he says. “It could be rebooted again, but I think it has a really killer ending.”

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Michael Bay Meets TV

Director Michael Bay is making his first entry into unscripted television, teaming with “Top Chef” producers Magical Elves to produce “One Way Out.”

In the series, contestants from all walks of life are pitted against each other in extreme competitions in hostile new environments. Bay, the bombastic director of “Transformers,” “Armageddon” and other hits, promises “a game with no rules” that “remains true to the filmmaker’s signature style.”

“For my first television project I wanted to do something that had never been done before, and I believe that ‘One Way Out’ accomplishes that,” Bay said. “Combining unique twists, death-defying challenges, and stunning visuals, we are reinventing the genre, showing just how far people will go when they are stripped of their bare necessities and forced to do whatever it takes to survive.”

Source: THR