Travis Knight Talks Edits, Continuity, and Turning People into Goo in New Interview
Wednesday, April 10th, 2019 10:55PM CDT
Categories: Movie Related News, InterviewsPosted by: Emerje Views: 61,683
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On the topic of the cutting room floor:
We had this scene early on in the script. It was a “Sorcerer's Apprentice”-type moment where Bumblebee transfers his energon on to some of these appliances is in the house. We boarded it out and it was a lot of fun and but we never got it to work as a finished thing. It's one of those things where you share a work-in-progress with the world and you don't really want them to see it because I'm not done. But we did a fair amount of work on that sequence and in the end for a variety of reasons, for both tone and for pacing. While on its own, it was going to be a ton of fun, it just didn't propel the movie forward. It stopped the movie in his tracks for essentially this fun little moment and really wasn’t about our characters or their or their experiences, their growth or their relationship really.
On continuity:
Continuity is very important to me, as is being consistent. And so I did take a good hard look at the films that had been done in the past. And as we were thinking about this movie, I still wanted to move to be self-contained. I didn't presuppose any familiarity with the films or the franchise. I wanted someone who wouldn’t know anything about the Transformers to be able to sit in the theater to watch this movie and have a good time and enjoy the movie, not knowing anything about the transformers. But that said, it was important to me that if we were living within this universe and this mythology that it be consistent. At some point we realized that we were essentially boxing ourselves into a corner -- that we were, we were making choices that weren't really in the best interest of the film if we were trying to kind of sit within the overall mythology of the franchise.
Once I talked through some of these things with the producers and with the folks at Paramount, at some point we made the decision that this was the story that we're telling and we have to talk the best where we can. And if that means that we essentially are restarting the franchise and that means we’re rebooting these characters and they were taking aspects of the franchise and putting a different prism on it, then that's what we had to do. And ultimately it was a liberating choice because then we weren’t cornered into these decisions based on what had come before. We could tell our own story. And that that was the aspect of that.
On turning people into goo:
[laughs] Well, we wanted to showcase how much of a threat that our baddies and that if Charlie or Bumblebee some face-to -ace with these antagonists, they are in very big trouble. We wanted to show right away that these characters are a real threat. However in keeping with like you said, some kind of Joe Dante, family, Amblin-y vibe, you try not to be grotesque. We still wanted this to be a family movie. And so even though what the Decepticons do to people is horrific, there's still a comedic element to it. It’s still kind of fun, even though it's gross and awful. You can watch it and give you a little bit of a smile on the corner of your mouth. But that was the idea -- it wasn't horrific and grotesque, that that it was communicated what we want to but, in a family-friendly way. I will say that when we shot that stuff practically, people would get it all over their shoes. It was disgusting.
The full interview can be read at the link above and you can discuss it in the Energon Pub forums below!
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Posted by RetardedRyan2022 on April 11th, 2019 @ 7:52am CDT
“We wanted to keep the film in the same universe as the previous films, but I wanted to everything to be like my childhood only and have everything G1, because I hate change and everything has to be exactly as it was in the 80’s.
When paramount told me “FINE, JUST GET OUT’VE MY SIGHT PLEASE!!” You wouldn’t know how Liberating it was to make everything G1 and still call it a prequel to piss everyone off LoL.”
(Bit long, but thought I’d make my first post big)
Oh yeah...my name’s Ryan.
-I’m just a casual, mostly chill Aussie doing Tradework and lovin robots.
-that being said, I may Make the occasional long read...oops
-I actually don’t hate G1 (despite how this post comes across ).
-I like the first 3 movies
- Prime and Animated are Good stuff.
- I appreciate when continuity’s try to be interesting.
- hope I can fit in nice and easy.
- I can’t edit my profile and I don’t know how to.
Posted by robotcaveman on April 11th, 2019 @ 7:57am CDT
Posted by Sabrblade on April 11th, 2019 @ 9:39am CDT
So, business as usual.
Posted by o.supreme on April 11th, 2019 @ 9:48am CDT
Posted by Sabrblade on April 11th, 2019 @ 9:50am CDT
This is from Knight, though.o.supreme wrote:It seems like DiBonaventura has put out a statement almost every week for the past 4 or 5 weeks, each one making less sense than the previous. At this point, BB is just a solid film, and I personally don't care if it's a reboot or not. DiBonaventura's statements are to the point of not even being news really. Wait until Paramount actually has another movie in development, (not just random ideas) then tell us something.
Posted by william-james88 on April 11th, 2019 @ 5:54pm CDT
robotcaveman wrote:I’m still confused. Does this mean Travis confirmed Bee being a reboot?
He said the same he always said, a pequel to what we know with a bunch of elements that dont line up. A stand alone film for fans of movie bumblebee.
Posted by EunuchRon on April 11th, 2019 @ 9:28pm CDT
Posted by -Kanrabat- on April 11th, 2019 @ 9:53pm CDT
Posted by Shuttershock on April 11th, 2019 @ 10:36pm CDT
Posted by Shuttershock on April 11th, 2019 @ 10:36pm CDT
Posted by william-james88 on April 11th, 2019 @ 10:49pm CDT
-Kanrabat- wrote:So Bee is a reboot-ish. ¯\_(⏓ヘ⏓)_/¯
yeah, but its not something we didnt already know. The big thing people want to know is if we are done with bayverse. Bumblebee which stradles very closely to the prequel territory did not offer a definitive answer (purposefully) and I don't think we will get one. But I dont think it matters really. Bumblebee has a ton of Bayverse influence and was still great. As I wrote before, I dont think fans dislike Bayverse really, they just dislike bay. And Bumblebee was our first look at that distinction. I mean, he had the same Bayverse face and the same radio voice gimmick, criticisms that have been going 10 years now, and yet people still liked it.
AOE had just as much reboot elements as Bumblebee (new cast, new characters, new looks) but since Bay was still at the helm, no one ever mentioned the word reboot.
Posted by Burn on April 11th, 2019 @ 11:08pm CDT
william-james88 wrote:I dont think fans dislike Bayverse really, they just dislike bay.
I'm over the Bayverse stuff, but I have nothing against Bay.
Whether people like it or not, the guy is a talented Director, and while as Director, he has to shoulder a lot of the criticism, to me, the movie got progressively worse and worse.
What changed?
Not the Director.
Posted by william-james88 on April 11th, 2019 @ 11:13pm CDT
Burn wrote:william-james88 wrote:I dont think fans dislike Bayverse really, they just dislike bay.
I'm over the Bayverse stuff, but I have nothing against Bay.
Whether people like it or not, the guy is a talented Director, and while as Director, he has to shoulder a lot of the criticism, to me, the movie got progressively worse and worse.
What changed?
Not the Director.
I dont feel the films got worse though. I do think TLK is the worst but its not like AOE was worse than DOTM and on and on. I think what happened is the director kept doing the same thing and while some of us enjoyed it at first, the repetition got to us.
Also, Bumblebee is the best scoring film amongst fans and critics (it is my favourite live action TF movie) and what changed there was the director. Both BB and TLK came out of the writer's room, so it was the same think tank. And yet the biggest difference was the director.
Posted by Burn on April 12th, 2019 @ 12:18am CDT
After AOE and TLK, I was actually wishing for Orci and Kurtzman to come back.
Posted by no-one on April 12th, 2019 @ 3:07pm CDT
Or did people's tolerances lower? I agree either way. I found each movie less enjoyable than the previous.Burn wrote:to me, the movie got progressively worse and worse.
I have nothing against Bay (I like watching car chases and things blow up) but the TF movies never delivered much of what I wanted.
I enjoyed the Bee movie. Was it better, was it worse? That's an conversation I don't care to take part in.
Posted by Darth-Badguy on April 12th, 2019 @ 4:25pm CDT
robotcaveman wrote:I’m still confused. Does this mean Travis confirmed Bee being a reboot?
I have a feeling the people above Knight wanted it both ways so they could go back to the Bay continuity in case Bumblebee didn’t do well.
Posted by Burn on April 12th, 2019 @ 4:54pm CDT
carytheone wrote:Or did people's tolerances lower?Burn wrote:to me, the movie got progressively worse and worse.
...well shit. I never considered that.
Posted by -Kanrabat- on April 12th, 2019 @ 7:09pm CDT
Burn wrote:carytheone wrote:Or did people's tolerances lower?Burn wrote:to me, the movie got progressively worse and worse.
...well ****. I never considered that.
People change. And over 10 years is a long time to change. Things I liked before, I don't like anymore and vice-versa.
I used to like cartoon with mean and edgy humor like the Simpson, South Park, and Family Guy. Now I just cringe and hate the mean humor. I used to love obscene and mindless violence and gore. Now I just find it sad. I used to find movies about social situations and human things boring. Now I find them interesting.
… Getting old is weird...
Posted by william-james88 on April 12th, 2019 @ 9:10pm CDT
Burn wrote:carytheone wrote:Or did people's tolerances lower?Burn wrote:to me, the movie got progressively worse and worse.
...well ****. I never considered that.
Thats what I was trying to get at before.
Posted by notsoalex on April 14th, 2019 @ 1:12am CDT
Part 1 focuses on Bumblebee losing his memory, after Blitzwing attacks him, thus making him hide as a Volkswagen. Charlie finds him, and brings him to her home, which results in Bumblebee being scared of the dog, Conan. The tweet can be found here.
Part 2 starts off with Charlie wondering where Bumblebee hailed from, and they soon practice hiding, though Bumblebee doesn't seem to be good at it, destroying things. He accidently activates Optimus' holographic message, confusing the both of them. The tweet can be found here.
Part 3, Bumblebee learns how to cook! To no one's suprise, he absolutely fails, irritating Conan, destroying the inside of the house, and leaving the door open for Conan to run after. Charlie comes home, and chases after the dog, but they are aprehended by soldiers. Bumblebee comes and fights the men, and leaps away with Charlie and Conan. The tweet can be found here.
Thoughts on these cute animated shorts? Watch them from Twitter, or the YouTube links below, and reply in the Pub forums below!
Posted by Ultra Markus on April 14th, 2019 @ 2:02am CDT
Posted by -Kanrabat- on April 14th, 2019 @ 3:50am CDT
Posted by ZeroWolf on April 14th, 2019 @ 4:34am CDT
-Kanrabat- wrote:Charlie is a fine young man.
She's following the tradition of Akira from Zone then.
Posted by Sabrblade on April 14th, 2019 @ 9:15am CDT
Episode 1 is titled "Picked Up From The Junkyard", episode 2 is "Hiding In The Park!", and episode 3 is simply "Cooking!"
Charlie (and I think all of the other voices, but I'm not sure) is voiced by Ryohei Kimura.
Posted by Flashwave on April 20th, 2019 @ 1:50am CDT
Posted by ZeroWolf on April 20th, 2019 @ 2:17am CDT
Flashwave wrote:Soo... I picked up the DVD/Digial/Blue-ry set for the Movie. Am I missing something, or are the Special Features only on the disc [i]for the player I don’t have[/i? Haven’t looked to see if I can get into them with the Digital side yet, but if I can’t then frankly that’s a crock of spit. What’s even the point then of the DVD? I was on the fence whether I would even use the Digital option but reviews about the extras made it seem worthwhile. I never heard anywhere that they were Blu-Ray exclusive and I feel jipped.
Actually there's been a trend for a while (especially with Disney dvds) that they are just barebones releases, all the features are on blu Ray versions as a way to sell the format.
Posted by Flashwave on April 20th, 2019 @ 9:49am CDT
ZeroWolf wrote:Flashwave wrote:Soo... I picked up the DVD/Digial/Blue-ry set for the Movie. Am I missing something, or are the Special Features only on the disc [i]for the player I don’t have[/i? Haven’t looked to see if I can get into them with the Digital side yet, but if I can’t then frankly that’s a crock of spit. What’s even the point then of the DVD? I was on the fence whether I would even use the Digital option but reviews about the extras made it seem worthwhile. I never heard anywhere that they were Blu-Ray exclusive and I feel jipped.
Actually there's been a trend for a while (especially with Disney dvds) that they are just barebones releases, all the features are on blu Ray versions as a way to sell the format.
Welp, congrats to them for swindling (pun intended) me out of an extra $5. Won't be making that mistake again.
Posted by ToastBucket on April 21st, 2019 @ 1:16pm CDT
Posted by Sabrblade on April 21st, 2019 @ 6:36pm CDT
It's gotta be a typo.ToastBucket wrote:Noticed this while watching bumblebee as an in flight movie. Typo or new character? Probably the former but it'd be cool if it was the latter. Can anyone with the blu-ray/ DVD confirm wether the subtitles are the same there?
Jon Bailey himself has been on this site having talked about his voicing Soundwave and indicated the line to have definitely been "Ravage, eject!"
Plus, the movie's bonus features have a character feature for each of the robots, in which Ravage is named as such.
Posted by ToastBucket on April 21st, 2019 @ 6:56pm CDT
Sabrblade wrote:It's gotta be a typo.ToastBucket wrote:Noticed this while watching bumblebee as an in flight movie. Typo or new character? Probably the former but it'd be cool if it was the latter. Can anyone with the blu-ray/ DVD confirm wether the subtitles are the same there?
Jon Bailey himself has been on this site having talked about his voicing Soundwave and indicated the line to have definitely been "Ravage, eject!"
Plus, the movie's bonus features have a character feature for each of the robots, in which Ravage is named as such.
Okay cool! However, I'm still curious as to whether it also says that on the DVD / blu-ray or if my plane was just wierd
Posted by Emerje on April 21st, 2019 @ 7:19pm CDT
While it wont help you win feel free to post your answer in the Energon Pub forums below!
Posted by Emerje on April 21st, 2019 @ 10:28pm CDT
From that first audition that we did he made me feel so comfortable. […] Usually, at auditions, there’s something awkward about it, or you wish you did something differently. Just from that day and every day on set, he really not only did a great job of making us all feel comfortable, but also communicating with incredible efficiency. Like I could really understand what he was going for. He had a clear vision in mind. He just had that comfortability to know what’s going on and know that there’s this very good communication going on which made for a really nice time on set. He’s great, he’really great.
He also talked about some of Tripp's character development that ended up not making it into the movie.
Originally actually we deleted the scene where, in the end, I kind of disown that group of girls. When I’m like “You know what? I’ve seen the true side of you girls. Not cool.” But, yeah, that still is played upon, even though that scene didn’t make it into the final cut. That was definitely the attitude that they were going for. I associate with this group of people that maybe doesn’t jive with everything that I am about. Which I think is just like your classic kind of high school thing. We all kind of go through that where maybe people aren’t as nice as we want them to be in high school to others. But he’s a redeemable character. He sees through that. He’s not bullied like the other girls.
The entire interview can be read at the link above along with an audio version.
Posted by 15ngcs1 on April 22nd, 2019 @ 4:29am CDT
ToastBucket wrote:Sabrblade wrote:It's gotta be a typo.ToastBucket wrote:Noticed this while watching bumblebee as an in flight movie. Typo or new character? Probably the former but it'd be cool if it was the latter. Can anyone with the blu-ray/ DVD confirm wether the subtitles are the same there?
Jon Bailey himself has been on this site having talked about his voicing Soundwave and indicated the line to have definitely been "Ravage, eject!"
Plus, the movie's bonus features have a character feature for each of the robots, in which Ravage is named as such.
Okay cool! However, I'm still curious as to whether it also says that on the DVD / blu-ray or if my plane was just wierd
My plane also had this typo.
Posted by notsoalex on May 19th, 2019 @ 10:04pm CDT
Arcee: Arcee from Transformers: Bumblebee. By far my fav Transformer design for the movie. For all these concepts I tried to retain the essence of the G1 cartoon designs; I grew up with them so I wanted to update the designs, not change them. Also, pleeeeeease tell me how thick her thighs are for the nth time cause I can;t wait to hear it.
Brawn: Brawn from Transformers: Bumblebee. The first Transformer I designed for the Cybertron sequence. This once was the easiest, meaning that it didn't go through a lot of changes. Few changes make everybody happy. The 3D model was done by the talented Gerald Blaise here at ILM.
Ironhide: Ironhide from Transformers: Bumblebee. The basis body of the Autobot army. Funny how this was designed first and it's not that featured that much in the final movie. Final details on the head and the chest were done by Alex Jaeger.
Ratchet: Ratchet from Transformers: Bumblebee. Ratchet was mostly and after thought after I designed Ironhide. We needed to populate the Cybertron scene with a lot of Autobots and we didn't have a lot of time to do it, so we essentially cloned my Ironhide design, changed colors, replaced heads and had them as the Autobots army. Ratchet was the only "unique" clone since he ended up being featured more prominently. And because all of this you can see the Ratchet artwork is a little more rough since I only did a quick color swap to use as a color guide (don't really love that I left those reds that saturated). The 3D model was done by the talented Gerald Blaise here at ILM.
Ravage: Ravage from Transformers: Bumblebee. A collab design done with the talented Karl Lindberg. We originally tried the puma approach but as we progressed (and began wondering why Ravage should look like a creature from Earth) we tried to make him more of a hybrid. Inspired by dragons, wolves, and the puma, we put those together for the final version.
Shockwave: Shockwave from Transformers: Bumblebee. My second fav transformer to work on. Yes, he's thicc, deal with it.
Wheeljack: Wheeljack from Transformers: Bumblebee. The very first Transformer I designed for the show. This one was the one that took the longest to approve. This was a specific characters director Travis Knight wanted in the movie so I figured it'd be better to do him first to fine tune him the most compared to other Transformers. Final head design in the film was done by Thang Le and Alex Jaeger. The 3D model was done by the talented Gerald Blaise here at ILM.
Posted by Ultra Markus on May 19th, 2019 @ 10:33pm CDT
Posted by Sabrblade on May 19th, 2019 @ 11:02pm CDT
He's the Juggerbrawn, glitch!
(I'll see myself out)
Posted by noctorro on May 20th, 2019 @ 12:59am CDT
Posted by Big Grim on May 20th, 2019 @ 8:16am CDT
Posted by -Kanrabat- on May 20th, 2019 @ 3:20pm CDT
Big Grim wrote:Man, why did it take 10 years and 6 films to get Transformers looking right?
Basically.
I would have liked to see those vehicle modes though.
Posted by D-Maximal_Primal on May 20th, 2019 @ 6:18pm CDT
but I wish they officially just rebooted it, these designs would make me so much happier. I love the Bay designs and these ones, but I want them to exist entirely separately
Posted by Sabrblade on May 20th, 2019 @ 11:48pm CDT
Yeah, I said it.
Posted by william-james88 on May 21st, 2019 @ 7:58am CDT
Sabrblade wrote:The Bumblebee movie would have still been just as good as it is even if these designs hadn't been in the movie.
Yeah, I said it.
I agree, the part my family and I are most impressed with is the coreography at the end with BB vs the two evil bots. In everyone one of his fights, he is outmatched due to being restricted to land, and his smaller stature, but he uses his wits to beat them all. And he's got some sweet moves, there's this beautiful one where he uses his legs for a takedown. This is far more elegant than the brutish combat we see in DOTM, it's like Knight and Bay.
Posted by ZeroWolf on May 21st, 2019 @ 10:46am CDT
william-james88 wrote:Sabrblade wrote:The Bumblebee movie would have still been just as good as it is even if these designs hadn't been in the movie.
Yeah, I said it.
I agree, the part my family and I are most impressed with is the coreography at the end with BB vs the two evil bots. In everyone one of his fights, he is outmatched due to being restricted to land, and his smaller stature, but he uses his wits to beat them all. And he's got some sweet moves, there's this beautiful one where he uses his legs for a takedown. This is far more elegant than the brutish combat we see in DOTM, it's like Knight and Bay.
*ba-bum tish*
Ahem I was wondering how the film would be recieved if the designs used where 100% like the others that came with it.
Posted by Big Grim on May 21st, 2019 @ 11:14am CDT
william-james88 wrote:It's like Knight and Bay.
Oh, very well done! Get yerself an energon goodie!
Posted by Glarryg on May 21st, 2019 @ 1:05pm CDT
ZeroWolf wrote:william-james88 wrote:Sabrblade wrote:The Bumblebee movie would have still been just as good as it is even if these designs hadn't been in the movie.
Yeah, I said it.
I agree, the part my family and I are most impressed with is the coreography at the end with BB vs the two evil bots. In everyone one of his fights, he is outmatched due to being restricted to land, and his smaller stature, but he uses his wits to beat them all. And he's got some sweet moves, there's this beautiful one where he uses his legs for a takedown. This is far more elegant than the brutish combat we see in DOTM, it's like Knight and Bay.
*ba-bum tish*
Ahem I was wondering how the film would be recieved if the designs used where 100% like the others that came with it.
I think I would have enjoyed the movie the same, but I like these designs better. For me, they do a better job of depicting a human-like face on a robot without dipping into the Victorian-era-doll-level of creepiness found in the later Bay films (see: Drift, Crosshairs, Lockdown, etc.)
Glarryg
Posted by ZeroWolf on May 21st, 2019 @ 1:30pm CDT
Posted by hausjam on May 21st, 2019 @ 2:23pm CDT
I know they are trying to compete with cutrate overseas graphics firms, but ILM has really lost its way.
Posted by Ironhidensh on May 21st, 2019 @ 3:42pm CDT
Sabrblade wrote:The Bumblebee movie would have still been just as good as it is even if these designs hadn't been in the movie.
Yeah, I said it.
Absolutely. The real stars of this film were the better focus on quality writing, and the far more family friendly outlook overall. No stupid crude humor or out of place panty shots. Closer focus on a smaller number of characters who get some actual development. The fights you could actually follow instead of getting a blurry whirlwind mess.
The new designs were just a happy bonus.
Posted by Stargrave on May 21st, 2019 @ 3:54pm CDT
“The Texarkana, Texas Parks and Recreations Department fires up "Movies in the Park" this Thursday night with the first feature, "Bumblebee".
For the next several weeks, The Parks and Rec people will be providing these movies Thursday nights at Spring Lake Park, the movies will start between 7-8PM and are shown in the field across the street from the old airplane. The movies are free of charge and the Texarkana Parks Department wants to promote a very family-friendly atmosphere so no alcohol or smoking is allowed”
The article states food and drinks are allowed and suggests you bring chairs and/or blankets. Gather up the kids and have an awesome night enjoying this gem of a tribute to the franchise we love and the era that birthed it.
Posted by D-Maximal_Primal on May 21st, 2019 @ 6:42pm CDT
Ironhidensh wrote:Sabrblade wrote:The Bumblebee movie would have still been just as good as it is even if these designs hadn't been in the movie.
Yeah, I said it.
Absolutely. The real stars of this film were the better focus on quality writing, and the far more family friendly outlook overall. No stupid crude humor or out of place panty shots. Closer focus on a smaller number of characters who get some actual development. The fights you could actually follow instead of getting a blurry whirlwind mess.
The new designs were just a happy bonus.
This right here. All of this. Writing.