'Transformers' Video Captures Moments on Set — and a New Marketing Scheme

Michael Bay throwing a fit, Mark Wahlberg throwing a football, and a helicopter that dive-bombs into a Chicago bridge: These are just a few of the moments captured by amateur videographers during the worldwide filming of next week’s Transformers: Age of Extinction. After seeing all this fan-made footage on YouTube, filmmaker Kevin B. Lee decided to compile the videos into one big supercut — with a twist. Transformers: The Premake, Lee’s “desktop documentary,” shows Lee clicking through his computer to play dozens of behind-the-scenes fan videos. By doing so, he assembles them into something more meaningful: a critique of how Hollywood uses fans’ cellphone footage as free marketing. “These videos are up there for a reason,” Lee told the New York Times today about the compilation. “It’s not just because fans put them there, but because they’re allowed to be there. They’re part of the promotion and the prerelease buildup.”

At a basic level, Lee’s film is a mesmerizing collection of minor Transformers spoilers. The videos capture fun set pieces such as a wall plastered with Autobots political propaganda (2:16) and the decimated city assembled in Detroit (6:14). At 19:54, a Chicago videographer captures Mark Wahlberg hanging out in a futuristic space ship; a few moments later, effects are set off to make the ship explode.

Then there are the human moments that tend to get left out of the DVD extras, like director Bay yelling at a crew member — “You go on one side, and Bumblebee’s on the other side!” — before slamming his radio on the ground (7:50). In another segment, a local carrying his dry cleaning defiantly crosses straight through the set to get to the other side of the street (20:03).

The highlights are enjoyable, but anyone who’s interested in the state of the film industry should watch Lee’s movie all the way through. In particular, take a look at the section beginning at 9:22, which covers the film’s shooting and promotion in mainland China. In one interview clip, Bay vehemently denies using Chinese actors and locations in order to pander to the rapidly growing Chinese box office. The footage that follows tells a different story.

What becomes most clear from watching Transformers: The Premake is that cellphone videos have been fully absorbed into the Hollywood marketing machine. Rather than trying to shut down leaks, Paramount clearly made the decision to allow fans to record their shoots — even encouraging them by setting up viewing areas.  From the studio’s perspective, this strategy might simply makes more sense than trying to shut down every leak that shows up on the Internet. Meanwhile, all those YouTube users are providing something more important than minuscule spoilers: some of the cheapest ads around.

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