Some cool stuff. Oh, the questions are from several people, so each Q will actually stand for the member of the official board that asked it.  

Q: First off, I'd like to thank Bob for being coming to Botcon. What were your impressions of the Botcon convention and would you and Alex be willing to return to another one? And what are Paramounts plans, specifically, for the footage they shot there of the first panel and such?

A: First, we were grateful not to be beat up.

The folks at Hasbro are truly cool, and they truly care about what they're doing.

I have no idea what they are doing with any of the footage from panels.

Hanging out with Cullen was awesome.

Listening on true fan reactions was priceless.

We would absolutely come back.

Q: Was the Brawl/Devestator mixup on purpose, or was it indeed an editing oversight?

A: It's an Easter Egg for movie 2.

Q: 1) How come the Allspark created TFs were all Decepticons?

2) WAS there a scene that introduced all the Decepticons, similar to the one that showed all the Autobots?

3) Why did you guys make Megatron stronger than Prime? Is it simply that they are are of the same power, but Megatron is simply a little BIGGER or is Megatron just better than Prime is period? Or was Prime just having a bad fight this time?

4) Was there more Megatron/Starscream insults that didn't make it?

5) Can they do a George Lucas and digitally add more Transformers stuff to the movie on DVD post-movie? This IS ILM we are talking here. I'm talking adding Transformer scenes, dialogue, fights. Making a more gripping Jazz death scene. The human stuff is fine where it is.

6) What happened to Barricade? In the novel Prime clobbered him along with Bonecrusher (which was why he was late). Did he truly escape? Scorponok too? And where exactly is Starscream going?

A: 1.) Prime intended to use the Allspark to repower Cybertron as it was intended. Megatron wants to abuse it by creating Transformers directly, which makes souless, primal Transformers.

2.) No. We wanted to keep them more mysterious, and they didn't have a human to introduce themselves to.

3.) I think a little of both. I agree that Prime should've gotten in a few good hits.

4.) A couple. Yes.

5.) Interesting.

6.) You'll find out, I'm sure!

Q: What were some of your favorites scenes that did not make it in the final cut?

A: Sam and Mikaela breaking into their own high school after hours with the Autobots.

Q: Now that it's in theaters and seems to be doing very well - what do you think of this fan interaction process we had here? Do you think it's something that you would do again for other movies?

A: We both feel the process was invaluable. I don't think this movie could've been made or promoted correctly if fans had not been part of the equation.
Yes. Anything with an established fan base belongs to all of us, so we see it as our responsibility to continue to find out what others think.

Q: 1. How will Sam explain to his parents that his car is now a 2009 Camaro?

2. What are the Autobots & Decepticons going to fight over now that the Allspark has been destroyed?

Now my questions

3. What happened to Barricade & why wasn't it shown?

4. How did Bumblebee regain his voice and why wasn't it explained?

A: 1.) By the end of the movie, they know the truth.

2.) If I knew that, we'd be writing the sequel.

3.) Threads for movie 2.

4.) When they Autobots land and introduce themselves to Sam and Mikaela, Ratchet explains that he's been working on BB voice and actually treats him with a regenerative plasma laser. By the end of the movie, it's worked its magic, but I agree it could've been clearer.

Q: -What does Jazz say when he jumps on Brawl?

-Was Sector 7 meant to be taken lightly? They came off a little slapstickish. I'm guessing it was just John Tututro's character.

-When Prime kills off Boncrusher he turns and looks at something... Barricade?

-How come it would turn dark so quickly? (Blackout scene and BB/Barricade scene.) Both of those scene were in full daylight one minute and pitch dark the next.

A: 1.) Can't remember. Have to go back and check. We wrote multiple lines for battle.

2.) Yes. Turturro was written that way. We didn't want to lose the fun of the cartoon, and we were already playing the military totally straight so we gambled that it would give us some freedom to go a little nuts.

3.) Don't know...

4.) Long chase

Q: There seemed to be an entire sub plot that was very un-necessary. This is where the Dept. of Defence recruits a bunch of High Schoolers and College students to crack the code... or virus... or whatever. Basically, it intruduced us to the obligatory hot brainy chick with that aussie accent to make her sound smarter and more sophisticated, then the takes a 2GB SD card to her bud so that he can quit playing PS2 long enough to get busted by the Feds, eat a bunch of donuts to show how calm he is- and then cracks just like you knew he would. This continues to Hoover Dam and we eventually leave them behind.

So far as I can tell, these two did nothing to advance the story or plot, but only existed to provide a few laughs.

Were these 2 brought in because someone higher up requested them? Did I miss their purpose to the story? What in fact did they contribute?

A: For non fans, you are probably right. For newbies, we wanted to make sure we had a story mechanism to explain certain things in a deliberately paced manner.

Maybe it wasn't necessary, but laughs are worth their weight in gold.

Q: 1.what happened to Barricade?
2.Why wasn't the death of Jazz given more weight?
3.Did you have Prime pull that piece of the all spark out of Megatrons chest for the possibility of furture use? (or plot divice?)
4.Are there any questions you thought we'd have that we haven't asked?

A: 1.) Robot in disguise.

2.) Good point. We debated Bay about that, but the realities of production and movie length made it difficult to deal with.

3.) Could be.

4.) let me think about that. I'm sure there are.

Q: Was it really Starscream that fired that first missle at Megatron?

A: Very interesting rumor.

Q: You said you disagreed about Jazz's death scene with Bay. There have been rumors that he is a difficult director to work with, is this why you aren't working on the sequels, or did you already have other projects to work on?

A: We have a great relationship with Bay, and it was actually a breeze to work with him THIS time.

We agreed that someone should die, but we wanted to also to make sure we
really felt the death by being more connected with Jazz to make it more meaningful.

Q: Roberto, one of my favorite things about the movie was Shia. I thought he was pure gold and has a bright acting career ahead of him. He could easily be the next Harrison Ford or Tom Hanks. When you were writing Sam's part, did you ever envision him being played as well and as... funny! I could not stop laughing at his every line.

A: We wrote him as the 2007 version of "Marty Mcfly." So yes, we lucked out with Shia in that he played it perfectly.

Q: If Bonecrushers hates everything, does that mean that he hates hating things?

A: always wondered that about Grumpy Smurf, too.

Q: 1) why did the Autobots tell Sam to climb that building to get to a chopper for an airlift, while Megatron and Starscream are jets and can take him out even more easily that way? Seemed rather illogical to me..

2) how sure can you be that certain eastereggs like Brawl/Devastator and Barricade vanishing will be picked up by the next script writers? What if they don't get it?

3) after seeing Weaving doing Megatron, are you 100% happy with it or do you think Welker could have done an even better job then Weaving did?

4) same question about the face plate on Prime, I know you were in favour of keeping it on permanently.

A: 1.) Autobots are suppose to be covering him.
2.) So many people from movie 1 are coming back that I'm sure they'll know.
3.) Honestly, I think either would've worked, but I was happy.
4.) I think we would've kept it on the whole time.

Q: How did the Decepticons get on Earth and how long have they been here? It seems like they've been around for a while just waiting to strike.

A: Got there a while before Bumblebee, trying to stay in disguise while they search for Megatron. I think one of the prequel novels covers it.

Q: i really liked the movie and the idea of Bumblebee not talking worked for me. i don't really have a question, but more of a request. if you can, please tell the people in the DVD department we need the trademark "transforming" sound added on anytime a bot transforms, thanks.

A: Will do.

Q: Marry me?  

A: What about poor Alex?  

Q: You've suggested via comments that lines that you and Alex wrote for the Autobots/Decepticons and scenes with them were cut.

Were these lines recorded by the voice actors?

And if so, would that increase the chances of an "extended edition" of the film? I want to see Jazz given the character development that he needed and some more Decepticon dialog. Plus clarification of the whole Bumblebee voice thing with an added line or two.

A: Many lines were recorded for the movie that did not make it, sadly.

We agree that Jazz' death could've meant more and BB voice thing could've been clearer, but there was an explanation for the voice thing.

Q: Were the lines that got cut the final Transformers lines you added??
Out of curiosity, how many lines for each Transformer got cut and who were they??

A: Once we had all the voice actors hired, we wrote a few new lines for each to record that weren't in the script.
A handful of lines didn't make it to the final cut for each Transformer.

Q: erm so that is 5 lines times 10 robots (I can count woohoo!), thats quite a lot Roberto!!!!!

A: exactly -- it adds up quicker than you think.

Q: Whose idea were Prime and MEgs personalities(in the clips I saw, wuite interesting) Was Prime based at all of Optimus Primal. Why did you have Megatron so much more anti-organic?

A: It's a harmonic blend of ideas. Partly the words, partly his use in the story, but in his case, also mainly how he moves.
His physical characterization, in my opinion, is his most defining trait. A mix of ILM, artists, Bay, etc....

Q: In any case, I'M NO GI JOE FAN, but was wondering if Hasbro has considered using one of the TF sequels as a method to start a GI Joe movie series? With the Department of Defense playing such an intricate role in this movie, Along with the fact that human weaponry can damage and kill Transformers in this timeline(unlike the TV series), it would be an interesting spin off. GI JOE was a Special Ops force, and you have the nucleus for GI Joe in Tyrese(Epps), Josh(Lennox) and the other soldiers who help the Transformers in the movie.

Tyrese would make a great ROADBLOCK

A: Great area of inquiry. Simon Furman's guide was a great cheat sheet for us, and there are a couple of great chapters between the Transformers and G.I. Joe that we were inspired by, as was John Rogers, I believe.
It would be a great crossover at some point.

Q: 1) Out of all the Autobots, why did you choose Jazz to die?

2) Does Ironhide belong to Lennox now or did Ironhide just drop him off to his family?

3) If Megatron rips out sparks, what does he do with them? Jazz's death seemed survivable by TF standards. Now showing Megatron ripping out Jazz's spark close up and showing the reactions of the Autobots would have worked even better...

4) Do all the Autobots stay with Sam taking up valuable parking spaces or is just Bumblebee staying with him while the others are off doing...something.

5) Did you write something like Megatron's eyes glowing while sinking to the bottom of the ocean after the credits? I was so hoping that was going to happen...what were you aiming for showing after the credits had rolled? Cutting room floor? Didn't make it past discussion?

A: 1.) Interestingly enough, we 3 chose him because we thought he would be the one you would least want to die after Bumblebee and Prime, whom we surely did not want to kill.

2.) I wonder that, too.

3.) I don't disagree. Money's tight!

4.) LOL

5.) of course we did. We always say, "shoot it both ways, and choose in editing!"

Q: 1.) When Frenzy escapes Air Force One, was it written to have Barricade project holograms of people to try and hide the scurried little Decepticon? It seemed that way on screen, but not quite, and I wasn't sure if Frenzy mocked a bunch of FBI Agents right in front of them or what! Additionally, if that were the case, wouldn't it be interesting to see Decepticons in later films projecting entire populations to hide as say, the Pentagon, or some other military establishment.

2.) You've already been bombarded by questions about Barricade disappearing. In my eyes, he certainly wanted the glasses- though I couldn't shake the feeling of Double Agent in Disguise. In your opinion as a viewer, would you be entertained by the thought of Barricade revealing himself to the audience as Prowl in Movie 2? That perhaps only Prime knew about Prowl's secret mission to infiltrate the Decepticreeps?

3.) Were you responsible for suggesting Uhura's like of 'Hailing Frequencies Open..'? It was a good touch amongst the rest of BB's music.

A: 1.) No, we never thought to use holograms in that scene, but I know what you mean. You are right that holograms could be used to great dramatic effect, like the masks in Mission Impossible.

2.) Another great idea.

3.) We always stay away from referencing ourselves. Mark V realized early on that we could use any lines from movies out of any of the movies in the Paramount libraries, like Star Trek. Don't know who in the sound design process came up with that, but I loved it. If we had suggested that, it would've seemed like shameless self promotion, which Bay obviously did not have a problem with as evidenced by his last minute "Armageddon" line!

Q: Is it true you guys had trouble keeping Lindsey Lohan out of Jazz's trailer?(Yea, I'm a bit sauced tonight)

A: No, we let her in.  

Q: One quick question: Where is Starscream headed in the movie's final scene?

A: No comment.

Q: Sorry just had to pop my opinion in here. I actully would have prefered it if Bumblebee died. The simple reason being that I'd actully care about them. Jazz I never got a chance to know so his death ment nothing to me. and Actully Ironhide, and Ratchet ment nothing to me either. I felt like none of the Transformers had any good screen time. Bumblebee was the only one I really cared about and sadly that allso means he's the only one who could of died and actully had some meaning to his death.

A: I don't disagree. But to put it bluntly, we just didn't want to kill BB or Prime, and Jazz was next in line in terms of caring.

EDIT: He answered more questions!  

Q:
-what are some of the insults that got cut between Megatron and Starscream?

-as a fan, what Transformers do you want to see in the sequel?

-will you be doing commentary on the DVD?

-i'll pay you 50 million dollars to drop Star Trek and write the Transformers sequels. do you take payments?

A:
LOL
Look, the good thing about the fact that DreamWorks is talking to every writer in town about the sequel is that, hoprefully, the best idea will win out.
Thanks for the nice words, though.


Q:
1. In the film we see that the "All Spark, Matrix" or whatever is really called turned whatever machine it touched into a killing bot! Why is this?
Is it because the device was originally intended as a weapon and so are it's creations? If so it would not surprise me since in Science fiction most machine races start out just that way anyhow...

2. Where was Starcream heading off when he left Earth and ventured into space and more importantly how does he get there without any kind of FTL to speak off?

A:
1.) It is meant to power Cybertron, not adapt human technology. Also, since all earth's tech is reverse engineered from Megatron, maybe that affects the outcome, too.
2.) I wonder.  


Q:
1. How come barricade wasn't in the final battle scene? Where did he go?
2. I assume Starscream was heading back to cybertron during the credit scene, maybe to get soundwave and astrotrain? PLEASE!! lol
3. Did you write Jazz's death with the intent of him eventually being repaired by Ratchet to make it into a sequel?
4. How much involvement(if any) will you and alex have on the next TF movie? Consultants?

A:
1,2,3, and 4: who knows?


Q:
What I didn't understand was the comment made by the secretary of defense in which he says dumping the decepticon remains into the ocean will get rid of all evidence? Who was the US government trying to hide this evidence from? Over a thousand witnesses must have seen the autobots and decepticons fighting. There's no way the government could silence this many witnesses. On the other hand the autobots can either change color or take completely different forms to hide their identities from humans but, the humans should as least be able to come to the realization that aliens are living among them.

A:
Thousands supposedly saw the UFO battle over Los Angeles in 1947, too.


Q:
1) Is Ironhide's face damaged from battle? It looked like it was but I wasn't 100% sure if it was just the way it looks. But the right side of his face seems damaged the first time we see him.

2) When the Transformers are changing from their proto form into their Earth disguise, is the rubber for their tires created right then and there? How does that work exactly?

3) Is there any size shifting? We see the Cube transform and shrink in size -- does Frenzy do something similar when he transforms into Mikaela's phone?

4) How did you feel after seeing the finished product with an audience?
1.) I thought it looked like that, too, but it wasn't written that way.
2.) Maybe it's not even rubber.
3.) We didn't want Mass shifting for the TF's -- only for the Allspark. His head seems bigger than it is because of the shape, but it folds nicely into a phone size.


Q:
One question that came to mind: When Bumblebee is holding the Allspark after getting his legs blown off, why wasnt he healed the way Frenzy was upon his contact with it?

A:
It might've corrupted him.


Q:
Here's a question: If you and Alex had been the ones to write the movie from the start, meaning no John Rogers draft to work from, starting from scratch, how would you have done it? Not criticizing John's work on this, just curious.

A:
We did start from scratch and ended up coming to a few similar ideas as Rogers. We were not bound by previous drafts, so what you saw is what we would've done either way.


Q:
Señor Orci, how has working with Michael Bay changed since The Island?

What's the one thing you're most happy with, within Transformers?

A:
The Island was a process of getting to know each other, sometimes through heated fights. On Transformers, it was smooth sailing because we were already friends. Also, unlike the Island where Bay was on board for a year before we ever came on as script doctors, on Transformers we wrote the movie before he came on board.


Q:
7. Energon and the allspark. Two different things? The prequel novel talks of Megatron's energon energy reserves getting low as he decends into earth (while he's attempting to retrieve the allspark). Before the movie came out and fans learned of the allspark, people seemed to think that the name "energon" was simply changed to "allspark" for some unknown reason. My take on it is that the allspark is what creates and maintains life on Cybertron and is the heart of the planet, while energon is the "day-to-day" energy needs for the robots.

8. What life events (childhood interests, school classes, etc...) of yours got you interested in a movie-making career?

A:
7. Sounds good to me.

8. moving around a lot as a kid was difficult, but movies were a common denominator no matter where I went that made me feel at home.


Q:
I asked if Starscream did, indeed, shoot Megatron at the end. I saw the movie again yesterday with two friends, and we all watched for it. The consensus was unanimous that there was nothing shown that one could point to as evidence for that. It really appears to be a case of people filling in the blanks for themselves. It's as if to say, "You didn't see him not doing it, so he must have done it."

Bob, would you care to lay this issue to rest once and for all?

A:
No. Too juicy. And like quantum mechanics, future decisions can affect the "reality" of the past.


Q:
I have seen it suggested that Figueroa was speaking Cajun French, not Spanish as his teammates thought. Can you clarify this for us Mr. Orci? Thanks in advance, and thank you for all the time you've taken to interact with the fans these past months.

A:
spanish


Q:
1) Were the holograms that the Decepticons used of the same guy? The Deceps must love those mustaches...

2) Why didn't the Autobots have holograms?

A:
Yes. Had them for the Autobots, too, in one draft, but we thought it would add confusion.


Q:
Would it be possible, in the DVD release, during a commentary, for whoever is doing the commentary(hopefully you would be one of them) to let it be known when/where fan interaction changed something that we see?

Also, will there be an extended(director's cut) edition of the movie that would include all, not just some, of the deleted scenes?

How much time was cut from the finished(per say) movie to the final cut down edited version?

A:
Yes.
Yes.
the first cut we saw was about 2 hours and 40 minutes. We sat with Michael in the editing room for days -- losing time and rewriting to accommodate cuts and make things funnier and smoother.

Q:
1. When Starscream first meets Megatron, everyone knows what Megs says to him, but what is it that Starscream says first to megs. All my friends and I were preparing for Megatron so much that we kinda missed it and I couldn't quite make it out the second time I saw it.
2. How tempting was it too have at the end on the Bottom of the Sea, megs sending one last message to help them, and to only hear Frank Welker come on as Soundwave saying: "As you command Megatron!" That would have worked on so many levels.
3. Also, more of a note then a question, I like the Idea of Barricade being Prowl in disguise, it wouldn't be foreign to the Transformers universe to disguise themselves as enemies.
4. Bay wants an Aircraft carrier Transformer, Autobot or Decepticon, and who the hell would it be?

A:
1.) That's what DVD is for!  
2.Tempting indeed -- but it would have been arrogant and reckless of Alex and I to lock future stories into any kind of corner before we know all the angles.
3.) Totally.
4.) When he told us that, we were like, "Good luck getting the money for that!" We knew it would never make it, but we did write it into one of the intermediate drafts.


Q:
I'm curious why Bumblebee did not finish off Barricade at the end of their 1 on 1 fight. Barricade is seen struggling to move after Bumblebee apparently gave him a good whipping. We also see Bumblebee approach Sam and Mikaela with his cannon still armed. However, Barricade lived, so apparently Bumblebee opted not to kill him, which seems like a bad decision on his part. Any thoughts?

Oh, as a side note, that hip-toss we did see Bumblebee employ against Barricade was pretty awesome.

I am also curious about the format (for lack of a better term) if the climactic battle scene. It seems to me that the scenes overlap. What I mean by that is that after we see Jazz get torn apart there is a shift to the street level battle with Devastator. Next is the scene showing the arrival of Prime and his transformation, which is followed by his brief conversation with Megatron where we see Megatron drop the two halves of Jazz and transform. After re-watching the movie (again) I think that some of what we are seeing happens at the same time. It looks to me like Megatron kills Jazz at the same time Prime arrives and transforms, drops him immediately (instead of standing on that roof holding the two halves of Jazz for a few minutes) and engages prime. All of this, it seems, is happening at the same time as the street-level fight with Devastator, but the scenes are shown sequentially in order for the viewer to keep up with the various different parts of the over all battle. If I am correct in my thinking it would also mean that Prime was not quite as late in arriving as it appeared since his arrival was delayed in the movie by scenes showing other things happening at the same time.

A:
Perhaps the robot was not acting entirely logically. Perhaps ythe sentient robot has.... EMOTIONS!

A mix. We had a fight moment structured into the script for every Autobot and Decepticon -- and that whole things was intercut with Sam's Cube Run.

Michael changed the order of some of the elements around and did his best in little time and with little money.

http://boards.transformersmovie.com/showthread.php?t=12054

 

i love you Ra88, you've made my night

 

Interesting Q&A. Again, I wonder if people asking some of these questions actually saw the film - but then again, there were other things that really were revealing and could be potentially interesting in the future.  

Thanks for posting that.

 

awesome read. good to know the gears are already turning for a sequel.

 

Why Is This Not Yet On The Frontpage??????

 

You know what's odd? In there he says the Devastator thing was a easter egg for the fans, but later in a thread on Donmurphy.Net he said it was because Bay preferred that name and did a last moment change to get his way...

 

We don't know if they're just being glib, which convention Q & A's tend to be. They know it was a goof so were humourously covering themselves maybe.

 

I still doubt that's the case...

 

Awesome Q&A! I love the idea of Barricade turning out to be Prowl. That would be cool. But, I doubt it would work. Remember, Barricade hit Sam with his arm, sending him flying onto a car hood. I doubt Prowl, even undercover, would do something like that which could seriously hurt a human. I'm actually a little surprised that Sam wasn't injured. That hit looked pretty brutal.

 

this to me only answers the BUmblebee voice question! LOL the rest of the stuff confused me more!

 

That was an awesome read. Now im looking forward to the DVD so much more to see if they add in all the scenes that they supposedly left out.

 

Awww man. I missed the "Megatron's eyes glowing" in the credits cause My sister didn't want to wait. I only saw up to SS flying away.

 

yeah the Brawl thing sounds like theyre trying to cover up what really happened.... though if its an easteregg for 2, then maybe brawl ends up being PART of the Constructicon Devastator!

 

Still not a very good answer for why the Allspark only creates evil robots when it's on Earth. I guess there just isn't going to be a good answer.

 

I hope Barricade is back in part II and as evil as ever - he was my favorite Decepticon in the movie and it would suck if he was turned into an Autobot.

 

I agree with this 100%

 

Plus it looked like Bumblebee was playing for keeps. Being an undercover spy himself and so close to Optimus, I think BB would have known about Prowl and not tried to KILL him.


I really think people are taking the "head crest and cop car" theory a little too far, but I would be kind of neat.

 

-How come it would turn dark so quickly? (Blackout scene and BB/Barricade scene.) Both of those scene were in full daylight one minute and pitch dark the next.

"Long Chase"

Maybe, but in the beginning of the scene, Sam is at home telling Mojo not to bark because it's so early? He's in bed right before that, undressed. It feels like it switches from morning to night in maybe 15 minutes of time.

 

You didn't miss anything. I stayed for the whole credits and it doesn't happen. Alternate ending maybe?

Cool read though, thanks.

 

This really helped explain alot for us Jazz fans. I hope they do Jazz justice and give him a better death scene in the DVD.

At least somthing like Prime saying "We will rember you Jazz" and all the Autobots together saying "We Will Remember" with headsbowed.