Transformers, one of the biggest action franchises has a wide fandom. The original movie of the franchise which was directed by Michael Bay pioneered the great length of the franchise and its essence among the audience.
The most recent movie Transformers: Rise of the Beasts directed by Steven Caple Jr. somewhat moved away from the Bay-esque style of storytelling with loads of explosions and bangs. Now, Bay has some advice for the new director.
Michael Bay’s Special Advice to Steven Caple Jr.
Michael Bay has lived The Transformers directing five movies in the $5.286 billion franchise. The new director Steven Caple Jr. followed the footsteps of Bay but brought his own vision to the table. While filming his movie in Peru, Bay visited Caple Jr. as a producer of the latest installment.
Visiting the world heritage sites has been one of the primary significance of the Transformer movies. “Part of the reason we can get into these spectacular places, is the people in charge of them love Transformers,” producer Vahradian said (via Slash Film). Caple Jr. was expected to follow that as well. While speaking with Bay in Peru, he said:
“Everyone wants to be part of the family. I mean, they kind of already are if they’re fans of the franchise, but you know, for us trying to get locations, cities and countries open up to us. It’s the love.”
But that was not all, Bay made sure to guide Caple Jr. throughout the making of the movie. Bay revealed that he had conversations with the new director over Zoom as he passed on “a lot of tips because it’s a war doing these movies.” But Caple Jr. had a different approach than bombarding the screen with explosions and war-like chaos.
Steven Caple Jr. Revealed Why He Asked For Michael Bay’s Guidance
The Transformers are not easy films to make. Caple Jr. has previously directed the Creed franchise but The Transformers required a whole lot of different perspectives. He took things slow for sure taking more than three years to make Rise of the Beasts but he never hesitated to ask for Bay’s expert advice.
Speaking with Quintessential Gentleman, the director said that it is important to look for resources. “In this particular project Michael Bay who was talking to Spielberg at the time when he did the first Transformers,” Caple Jr. said. “You know so we all have the mentors if you will or our peers that sort of have been in a boat before and have like gone down a certain path,” he added.
“I think you’ll be foolish not to ask the question especially if the source the resource is right there because you don’t know everything you know and it doesn’t mean that you’re you’re not copying or trying to mimic a style. It could be as simple as how to manage multiple things, you know what I mean? Like how to manage working with different vendors, you know? That’s something I would talk to Bay about like when you’re working with a visual effects house who’s creating a robot and then the other visual effects I’ll screen that same robot and I’m like do you guys know how do you manage make sure they’re both giving me the same quality, you know what? I mean and that kind of stuff.”
Also, is there something “I want to miss because I never did this working with two vendors” he explained further. “That’s great advice from somebody who can be like I can teach you how to manage it or make sure you go speak to the artist and not just your supervisor” and stuff like that.
Bay’s overall advice taught the director a lot of things in production, especially the management part which included talking to the artists and crew directly which provided the vital insight he needed.
