Pictures from the set

These images show Shia LaBoeuf with ‘battle damage’, Michael Bay filming shooting a catapult launch, Josh Duhamel and Tyrese.

Set Report

Skalor’s Postcard
Greetings from San Diego! Just got back today from deployment at sea on board the U.S. Navy carrier Stennis and thought I’d fill everyone in on what I experienced this past week with the ROTF cast and crew. It’s true, filming did take place this past week, all shooting was completed in a two day span, Saturday the 1st with the IMAX folks filming flight operations, and Sunday the 2nd with Michael Bay in action around the ship. Rumors flew around for weeks about what exactly was going to happen with the movie so it was really cool to see it all go down.

Saturday afternoon two transport planes arrived, the first carrying Shia Labeouf on the first and on the second were Michael Bay, Tyrese Gibson, Megan Fox and Josh Duhamel. They arrived in costume (at least Tyrese and Josh did) and began working almost immediately. From what I saw, all of the filming with the cast was done in “closed” sets. The rest of the filming on the flight deck seemed to be flight operations, of which I was there and will hopefully make the final cut. We were told to just act natural and continue our jobs as normal, which is easy to do when you’ve actually got work to do. I did however try really hard to get into one shot in which I just walked back and forth for about 20 minutes.

The whole experience was a lot of fun and everyone in the cast and crew were really cool. Shia Labeouf and Megan Fox were really hard to find on the ship, I think they were working just about their whole time there. I’m not sure which part of the movie was filmed there but it is probably somewhere toward the end, (Shia had “beat-up” make up on, and Duhamel and Tyrese were in dress uniforms). Overall it was an awesome time.

Sorry if I didn’t give you any good spoilers or anything like that, but I think the suspense is more fun anyway. By the way, the crew working on this movie have been busting their asses to make a good film, that much I can attest to.

This should put to rest any of the rumors that they’ve completed filming for now, although this may have been the last of the filming (I didn’t ask). […]

Forget the Middle East, he’s in France right now…

… in Paris, more specifically.

And this is what he was shooting: L’Arc de triomphe.

Now that was weird… I was walking home from work, and just happen to see a small group of people around a camera… When I got closer, I saw that Bay was riding it (literally). The last thing I would have expected is to see Bay shooting in my neighbor.

The scene was about a news anchor from CNN doing a report… It feels like main photography is getting closer to the end.

Producer Ian Bryce was here as well.

Set report from WaxWord:

A major milestone quietly passed last weekend: the first major Hollywood film in decades filmed in the heart of the Middle East. “Transformers II” turned its cameras at the Pyramids in Egypt, and again in the upper Egyptian town of Luxor, near the famed Valley of the Kings. This is significant for many reasons but mainly because it represents a rare move by two Hollywood studios, Paramount and DreamWorks, to connect to a country and culture that is perceived to be hostile the United States.

I say ‘perceived’ because my guess is you’d probably find no more avid fans elsewhere in the world than those clustered around Shia LeBeouf, the star of the film, in this part of the world. But after years of anti-American images in the Middle East, and years of entrenched mistrust, this is the kind of interaction – and publicity — that makes a difference. I hear from sources within the studio that DreamWorks was “petrified” when producers got clearance to shoot at the pyramids and in Luxor, and that LeBeouf was hesitant but decided to take the leap. (I agreed to hold this news until production had been safely completed.)

In the end, “Transformers II” shot for several days, bringing together a crew of 150 Americans and several dozen local Egyptians for an effort that producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura, who called from a cellphone while standing beside the pyramids, told me was “remarkably smooth.”

Dan’s report:

Hi there, I’m not a fan of Transformers but I can confirm after visiting the Pyramids section in Cairo last Friday (17th oct) that there was indeed a film crew filming on the third pyramid in the Giza area (can’t remember the name, but for those of you that know, its the Pyramid with half of one side that looks like it’s been dug out. They were filming some scene late in the afternoon before sunset (when the heat was less intense) and it was quite amazing because my girlfriend and I sat on some rocks 20 metres away from it all and managed not to get sussed out by the security crew (who were all wearing T2 badges…one of the crew was tying up his shoelace behind me and confirmed to me it was T2)about 40 people on site, the locals were trying to get their camels and donkeys in the scenes, which involved one of the cast climbing part of the pyramid.….

There are reports of the bumblebee being spotted, check out the pictures posted on Seibertron and Superherohype.

One report states:

” I did see Optimus Prime and that Hummer this afternoon around 12:15 pm going past White Sands Missile Range, NM heading towards Holloman AFB. I didnt get any pics I was driving in the opposite direction.”

Whilst these pictures were taken in Arizona:

News comes via TLAMB

“precision driving..with car stunts and EXPLOSIONS…”

There are also parking lots set up around Pacific and 4th streets downtown which could be the locations for keeping the vehicles.

Thanks Andy!

Flickr user bruxhina also reports that Chinese signs have gone up around the area:

Day 6 (8/26): Suddenly Long Beach has been transformed into little China, with street signs in Chinese. No worries, it’s all Hollywood.

I work in Princeton and just watched the TF2 crew crash a silver Saturn Astra into the installed lamppost on the corner of Washington Road and William Street around 2 p.m. today. Before the crash itself they ran a few “test crashes,” where the stunt driver screeched to a halt a foot or two before hitting the post, with the camera (on a boom) following the action from above. The actual crash knocked the ground-level cover off the post and ripped off the car’s front bumper. After the crash the driver backed up slightly, then drove forward again for a few feet with the bumper under the front wheels, then stopped, opened the driver’s side door, and fell to the ground. After the shot was over, the driver put the bumper in the car’s backseat and drove the car down Washington Road (headed south), and as it passed me I could see that the front windshield had a hole the size of a baseball in it (with the appropriate spider webbing pattern in the surrounding glass). I’m not sure if that was there before the crash or not (I was about two blocks away from the crash itself). According to one of the PA’s the next shot won’t happen until tonight, though she didn’t say where.

Shia Filming at Princeton:

A barrage of images have also been unloaded onto the internet by BP, JD, JFuller, Cheeseburger and Mike:

Scott’s images:

Contributing source: TLAMB

VDG was on hand to get images of the crew and automobiles turning up, even getting close enough to capture a shot of the rims on the Chevy Trax — showing a very nice Autobot logo in the center of the hub cap!

Faded Silver Screen were also on location to capture the vehicles coming and going on Fairmount Avenue:

I couldn’t get inside the prison, or get any decent pictures but I watched them unload trucks for a while. They were taking in lexan blast shields they put cameras behind when there is an explosion or sparks nearby. It seemed like an awful lot of support trucks. Tons of lighting and rigging. I would bet there will be some effect/pyrotechnics taking place, considering they’ve been prepping this for three days and the scope of the stuff they are taking in.

Lorenztom has also got a couple more shots of the Paris set at City Hall:

Whilst at Eastern State Penitentiary, Cheeseburger, via TLAMB, reports that Cell Block 7 is being prepared for filming on Friday.

Following the reports of Bumblebee being spotted at Richmond Power Station yesterday, Energonkid has provided a shot of two Bumblebees (Hero and Stunt), sitting side by site:

There have been reports, as expected, that filming is taking place at the Richmond Power Plant today, where there have been citings of Bumblebee. The crew have also been spotted filming at the Philadelphia City Hall.