Winging It for 'Transformers'

In "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen," the introduction of Jetfire -- a massive, somewhat crotchety robot that previously assumed the form of an SR-71 Blackbird aircraft -- is a pretty major moment. But when the cast and crew of "Transformers," which opens in theaters Wednesday, came last summer to the National Air and Space Museum's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center to shoot that pivotal scene, they had to deal with one tiny problem: Jetfire wasn't on set.

While the actual Blackbird, a slick reconnaissance plane on display at the Chantilly museum, does appear in many shots, the transformed Jetfire is purely a digital creation, one that was inserted into the sequence during postproduction. So how does a film crew handle shooting a big reveal when the thing being revealed isn't even visible? We consulted Scott Farrar, 58, visual effects supervisor for "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" and a man with nearly 30 years of experience in the realm of cinematic trickery, to find out.

When you actually get to the location, everything has to adapt to the environment and the place that you're in. What that means is, we had a real plane sitting there. We know full well we're going to have to paint that plane out at a certain point when it comes alive and starts to transform into this new character that I've mentioned. So in my own mind -- and speaking back and forth with especially the camera operators and [director] Michael [Bay] -- when you're designing shots, there is a moment in time where you literally have to ignore the fact that that plane's there, and you have to imagine your character has taken the place.

One time I just suggested to [star Shia LaBeouf] that, you know, you don't always have to look at [the robot's] eyes. Just like when you're looking at somebody's face: You glance around. You look at their mouths, you look at their cheeks, you know, you look all over. And these are big faces. Jetfire is a face that's maybe 10 feet high. So [Shia] can look at eyes, yes, but he can look around. It's more interesting if he does that. And he does that very, very well. All those little things really sell the idea. The audience believes that character is there even though the actor only had air to look at.

[The Jetfire reveal] was one of the earliest shots we started and I think we finished that only about a month ago because we had sort of set it aside. Why? Well, because the edit wasn't quite complete. What you don't want to do in very expensive shots -- and these are, in a big, expensive picture -- you don't want to drive the cost up by working on shots, finishing shots, and then throwing the shots away because there are changes in the edit.

It's sort of a self-inflicted wound at times for us to have decisions late in the game. On the other hand, I support that because if they have to tinker with the story a little bit more and make it better, I'm all for it.

-- Interview conducted and condensed by Jen Chaney