Transformers: HBO First Look

Just got done watching this... and getting away from the "is it good or not" discussion... MAN... The amount of stuff that is *NOT* CGI that you'd think would be in this film is amazing.

The shot that's been in most of the trailers with the bus on the freeway that gets split in half by Brawl (I think that's Brawl) is not CGI.  They showed it being filmed.  They had a stunt guy driving the bus and had set up two buttons for him to use in the scene.  The first button fires off the bomb that splits the bus in half, the other fires off a series of air cannons in the back that sends the back half spinning over.  All of the other cars that are on that side of the highway are also not CGI.  So those are the various stunt drivers reacting accordingly to what the bus did (as they had no idea what the bus was going to do).

The amount of stuff that they managed to blow up, throw around, etc, in downtown LA during those shots were crazy.  They were launching cars down multiple blocks.  Saw one scene where they launched a car and it looked like they didn't know where it'd go, and it ended up in side the 2nd story of one of the buildings they were shooting.

The scene with Scorponok in the desert when he pops out of the sand right behind the three Army Rangers running away from him... He was obviously CGI, but the sand wasn't.  They were using det-cord that they had buried to cause the sand to fire up like that.  Gave the actors something to really be scared about as they were running away from real explosives.

So I'm seriously loving how they didn't rely on CGI as much as it looks like they did.  That's a testament to both the guys who did the CGI (for blending it into the scene so well) and the people that did all the crazy stuff on scene.

I'm also seriously impressed on how much stuff the various actors did that would probably have normally been done by stunt people, etc.  Shia made a joke near the end of the show, "If I wasn't as fast as I am, I wouldn't still be around to have finished the film."

I believe it after seeing how frenetic it looked like the shooting was.  Simply amazing.

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.ungawa

-Spyke

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Large Tesla coil plays SMB theme

I'm sorry... But that's just bad ass.

Geeky... but bad ass. =)

.ungawa

-spyke

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FOOGFEST 2007 Aftermath

So even after the 14+ hours dealing with airports and flying (which was only supposed to be about 5 hours)... I must say that overall my total experience at FOOGFEST 2007 was great.

Got to meet some of the people that I've been playing various MMO's with face to face for the first time... and shoot some of them in paintball, ta boot. You seriously can't beat that.

I've even got a few bruises (plus this one on my left arm that's HUGE... I hate it when the paint doesn't break) to show for my efforts.

We also played a bunch of games... the Order of the Stick board game (which I picked up), Fury of Dracula (which I picked up), Munchkin, and even some dice game called "Farkle". Heck I even had a chance to pull out my "Pass the Pigs" game... that was well received, too.

So we'll see where we end up with next year... But I certainly can't wait. =)

.ungawa

-Spyke

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FOOGFEST 2007

So getting ready to head out in a little bit to drop my car off and then get myself dropped off at the airport. I should be in OK in plenty of time for dinner.

I know I can't wait to get there. It'll be nice to finally meet a bunch of the people that I've played various games with over the years. Heck nowadays with voice communication (TS or Ventrillo) being so prevalent you even end up knowing how people sound and whatnot.

But it is still nice to be able to actually meet them face to face from time to time.

Plus I can't wait to maybe shoot Temple with some paintballs tomorrow. All day paintballing... AWWW YEAHHH. =)

.ungawa

-Spyke

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something

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.ungawa

-Spyke

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