Seibertron.com news crew member (and resident motorcycle enthousiast) Skowl recently spoke with Will Kenefick, the owner of
RetroSBK, and the creator of the three Arcee motorbikes (Arcee, Chromia & Flareup) from
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen about his experience working on the Transformers movie sequel.
Mr. Keneficks provides some behind-the-scenes details of his experience working with Dreamworks and Michael Bay - and what it was like to have his work become firmly established as part of the Transformers universe. He also reveals that some pieces from one of the bikes will be put up for auction, and the money will go to charity - so stay tuned to seibertron.com for more on that!
Thank you to William Kenefick and his staff for granting us the interview!
Skowl: How long have you been building custom bikes?RetroSBK: I built my first custom bike at 7 years old with the help of my father, but my first REAL custom bike was named Isabella, in 1996. She was a Ducati Monster 900, and won the Del Mar Concours d’elegance.
Chromia - Suzuki B-KingSkowl: How and when were you approached about working on Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen?RetroSBK: Early in 2008, with a phone call. I spent the first five minutes of the call trying to figure out who was pulling my leg. They had seen my work in a magazine.
Skowl: How much did you know about Transformers beforehand?RetroSBK: I grew up playing with the Transformers toys and watching the cartoons. Loved them when I was a kid, but when I discovered girls and cars and motorbikes, I think all that went out the window. I hadn’t even seen the first movie, after having been so disappointed with some of the other adaptations from my youth. Needless to say, I watched it, and loved it, the day after my first meeting with Dreamworks.
Skowl: Is this the first time your bikes have been used in a movie?RetroSBK: No, bikes I have built have been used in other movies and television shows in the past.
Skowl: Does your company have any forthcoming marketing tie-ins that relate to the Transformers film?RetroSBK: Dreamworks and Michael Bay are extremely protective about the characters in the movie, and rightfully so. We don’t have any direct tie ins with the movie, however they have been very accommodating with any requests we have had. All in all this is a VERY enthusiastic group of people, and they take the TF2 brand very seriously.
Skowl: What information, if any, were you given about the bike characters before you started working on them? Rumour is the bike characters were meant to combine but it was cut from the film, were you told about that?RetroSBK: I was given pretty much the low down on the bikes and the big plan for them. I cant comment on any rumors about the bikes or what they may or may not do.
Arcee - Ducati 848Skowl: We know you and your team worked long hours to get the bikes finished on time. How difficult was this project compared to your usual work?RetroSBK: These bikes are more of a styling exercise, where the normal bikes we build are much more performance oriented. Our last bike was built in 4 weeks for my television series, taking more than 400 man hours to complete. The unique thing for me was these really were the first bikes with such unreal paint, and so much graphic detail. Our painter, Chris Wood, from AirTrix came up with new techniques just to do these bikes.
Skowl: What was your level of involvement in the process? Were you given creative liberties with the look of the motorcycles, or was it strictly a "build this for us" thing?RetroSBK: We weren’t given any, but we still took some. Having our painter, who is the best in the world, we were able to do things that the guys who work in CGI full time couldn’t believe were possible. Usually the CG is far beyond the ability of the real world, but not in this case.
We did work on other scenes in the movie, supplying many of the bikes in the “Mikes Custom Cycles” scene with Meagan Fox painting the bike. That was another scene where we brought in our painter, Chris Wood, to consult, and he worked the entire day teaching her how to airbrush and setting up the shot. Funny part is that in the “goofs” sections on the IMDB website, it says that the airbrush is being held sideways and wouldn’t work, but it’s a very special airbrush that Chris actually uses, and works on its side, just as he showed her to use.
There were other things we had our hand in as well, and it was a great time, and a great way to express ourselves.
Skowl: How do you feel about the motorbikes being female Transformers?RetroSBK: Its great! How could you not like a beautiful, fast woman! Even if she is made out fo metal...
Skowl: Were you disappointed by the little amount of screen time your motorcycles had in the movie?RetroSBK: Actually, I was quite happy with it. Knowing where the movie was shot, and where it takes place, the bikes play a pivotal role in the opening sequence, and have the most beautiful shot in the entire movie, the dolly around the newly introduced characters. That shot really showed just how beautiful the bikes came out. Motorcycles don’t go to well on the desert sand, so I knew the time would be limited, but there is always TF3!
Skowl: We heard Michael Bay say he wanted to kill-off the bike characters because he didn't like them - how did that make you feel?RetroSBK: I thought it was awesome! I knew how much he liked the bikes, he really went out of his way to tell me how pleased he was with the bikes in person, so I knew he was doing his thing about keeping the fans on their toes.
I got to hang our with Bay, under his canopy in Bethlehem, and it was a great experience. He actually inspired me to direct, and produce, both of which I have started to do in film and television. Despite his reputation, he is a genuine guy, and a perfectionist. Bring him perfection and he is thrilled, anything less doesn’t meet with his approval, and you suffer the wrath of Bay!
Skowl: We've seen plenty of the other new Transformers vehicles (Trax, Beat, Volt, Stingray concept) in car shows and photo ops leading up the film's release - but we never saw the bikes anywhere, why is that?RetroSBK: We worked VERY hard to keep it that way. The ONLY thing that wasn’t leaked in the movie, the ONLY real surprise was Arcee. It was great! In that part of it, reading the forums, and the speculation about the bikes and some of the plot lines about them was awesome, I loved it. The best part was the huge amount of mis-information that was out there about the bikes. Honestly, they generated such an enormous amount of press pre-release that it made it really hard to hide.
Flareup - MV Augusta F4Skowl: Do you know how Michael Bay felt about doing action scenes with motorbikes? Bikes can be very dangerous, were you comfortable with the stunt crew pushing your bikes to such limits?RetroSBK: The real limits that these bikes keep are MUCH higher than the stunt guys can push them to on the set. These are race bred motorcycles, and I have ridden each of them on the track and street, although not THESE bikes. You can go MUCH harder and much faster than the camera can get to do the stunt orient shots. I think Bay was enamored with the bikes from the get go, and wanted to use them more, but the story takes on a life of its own and just grows and grows. So some of the “good stuff” gets trimmed for other “good stuff.”
Skowl: Speaking of pushing the bikes to the limit, we heard about one of the motorcycles crashing while filming in Bethlehem, PA - what happened?RetroSBK: It was just a simple low speed miscue. No one was hurt, but maybe a bit shaken up. Part of riding is falling down sometimes, and the rider wasn’t quite prepared. Quite a bit of damage was done to the bike, but it was quickly fixed, and we had a backup bike as well. We actually have the crash damaged pieces of the bike, and will be auctioning them off for charity and other fund raisers over the next few months. A good chance to own a bit of the REAL movie and help some great causes, like the Pediatric Brain Tumor foundation.
Skowl: Have you seen any of the Hasbro toys based on your bikes yet? What do you think of them? One of them has a Burger King kids meal toy, what do you think of that?RetroSBK: I think the toys are awesome! We did use some special race type parts on the bikes, Leo Vince Exhaust, SpeedyMoto triple clamps and race parts, CRG levers, and Pirelli tires. They carried over most of the parts to the toys and the models, which is great to all of us!
Skowl: And finally, who is your favorite Transformers character?RetroSBK: Arcee of course!
