I work in the General Motors Tech Center in Warren, Michigan, which is where a lot of the cooperation with the Bay Transformers movies comes from. We also have a weekly newsletter in the Tech Center. The cover story this week was about the work several of my co-workers did on the film, particularly on Bumblebee and the Stingray character. Also, several scenes for Age of Extinction were filmed on GM grounds here in Warren and in other parts of Michigan. Here are scans of the article, and a recording of it being read. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsB4h2Ny1s0 Also attaching a picture of the Tech Center design building lobby.
Personally, I think it's a big missed opportunity to have GM cars appear in the TF movies and NOT have them available in movie forms in the auto dealers. It would have as many cars as possible that appear in the movie to be available to buy. There should not only be a Bumblebee or Crosshairs package for the car, but it should come with Autobot symbols on the steering wheel and hubcaps as an option! Plus maybe throw in a background character based on one of the cheaper cars that normal people buy. Camaros and Stingrays are nice, but GM sells more Cruzes. Throw in a white Chevy Cruze named Tailgate or something! BTW - Ends up that wellburn, guy who is the head of design at GM, was trained by my father in law 20 years ago (who was a GM designer too). Now my father in law wants to go see the movie just to see his old office building and trainee appear in film!
Very cool article. Even though these are expensive cars I hope GM does release a production version of Crosshairs and Bumblebee. It also says the sonic is an autobot, which we know now isnt true, but at one point in the story it was meant to be one.
Like I have been saying, the intent of the Sonic was to be a TF from the start. "Bumblebee is an autobot and the Autobots are the good guys," Welburn said. Other Autobots include a corvette stingray and a Chevy sonic. "And because the transformers are global films, we got to use more of our global products like the sonic."
I guess I should be paying attention, since they filmed down the way from my desk, I just find it hard to care about Bay movies. Still, neat to know I can walk in the office where they filmed something.
Didn't they do a Skids/Chevy Beat paint package in China after ROTF came out? I know one of 'The Twins' vehicle molds was going to be offered over there.
I tried to keep the spoilers at a minimum while I described the scenes. Okay I just saw the movie, because my father-in-law, who worked at the Warren Tech Center design building, wanted to see his old office in the movie. The CIA head's office was the design lead's office at the Tech Center design building. Seen slightly later in the movie, the outside of the CIA Headquarters is also the design building, and you can see the design dome next door. When Kelsey Grammer gets back to his office, the lobby is the lobby of the design building. The command center for the CIA op is the Design Center virtual reality room, I believe. Later in the movie KSI in Chicago is also the Warren Tech Center. The entrance checkpoint they have to get past in the car is one of the entrances at my work. It's the entrance on Mound Road, just north of 12 Mile Road. The building with Stinger in it is the Design Dome, down the block from my building. It's where GM displays concept models for press and such. Yes, the outside of this dome was at the FBI headquarters, now the inside is in Chicago. At the end of that scene GM's designer Ed Wellburn yells "My office in 15 minutes!" to the daughter's boyfriend (not Mark Walburg, as the article says). The inside of the KSI in Chicago is the hallways of the Climatic Wind Tunnel. (I actually subbed for some people in the tunnel one weekend when they were short on staff.) The inside of the aerodynamic wind tunnel itself was doubled as an air duct in the space craft at the end, the one the humans escape from, with the giant fan blade inside So there you have it, my work was CIA headquarters in Washington, the KSI building in Chicago AND part of an alien spacecraft!
I found a little education video shot in the front lobby of the building that was used as CIA headquarters in AOE. It allows you to see the beautiful floating stairway that Kelsey Grammer walked up to his office in the film in detail. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23zAdVGhdvo
Also, here is a TV shot that went into the building, and interviewed Ed Welburn, who was in the AOE movie. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKHfpSYAqJk
Also a short about AOE being shot at my work here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LQdZitdxsw Ed Welburn has a movie Bumblebee toy on his desk!
