Hi everyone! So I was in London this weekend and caught a bunch of filming of the new movie, got lots of photos and footage so thought I'd share a few here! Still in a hotel right now and wifi is spotty so I won't post many right now, but I will share a few bits of info about the filming!

Some perhaps vague spoilers, rumours, speculation below based on what I've seen and I'll try and answer any questions about anything I know to anyone who asks here, so if you just want to see general photos of the main cars free of that, please go to my IG/Twitter (blacksmoke1033) - I'll also post a link to the YouTube video and the full FB album with pretty much every photo I took whenever I'm home and I've made them.

So some info about filming:-

Saturday morning: from 7-9am, scenes were filmed on Westminster Bridge. They featured many black TRF vehicles, Bumblebee, and the red McLaren (I've seen rumours that it's called Lady but I cannot confirm that's their name so won't use it). They were filmed at quite a high speed going over the bridge.

Saturday 9am-5pm: filming moved to the stretch of road by St James Park. They did about 30 takes of the McLaren speeding down the road, manoeuvring through traffic with some TRF vehicles. The Anthony Hopkins stunt double was in it for some of the shots. Later Hot Rod (the Lamborghini) and Bumblebee were filmed racing along it. Cogman(is that official?) the silver Aston Martin was also there. Later a TRF vehicle was driven down the road, smashed and there was a mini explosion. This was the only thing I didn't get close to but I have photos of the car before and after it got destroyed  

Sunday 5:30-7:30am: filming at Piccadilly Circus. Bumblebee took off first, and several seconds later was followed at high speed by Barricade and some British police land rovers, and some TRF vehicles. Filming went pretty badly for a LOT of reasons, was severely delayed, MB seemed very annoyed (and rightly so) and they only managed to shoot about 4 takes. A pedestrian wandered into the road right during filming one of them, stood in front of the camera I think, surprised he wasn't seriously injured.

They later filmed some scenes with Hot Rod and Bee at Buckingham Palace but I didn't go because after waking up at 4am on two days and walking over 20 miles on foot to catch the filming as I was absolutely shattered.

Some general info / assumptions / thoughts:

- TRF stands for Transformers Reaction Force, they are the new Nest/Cemetery Wind. It's unsure if they're good or bad in this movie but they were in the background of pretty much every scene. Chasing or accompanying, who knows? They were behind Barricade when he was chasing Bee though. Makes me wonder if he's playing a role similar to Lockdown.
- I will assume the McLaren is an autobot or at least a friend of Hopkins' character, as they are always together and is placed with the other Autobot vehicles.
- There were 2 identical McLarens although they only used one. Not sure why that one needed a backup when the others didn't.
- It may be nothing, but a red and blue Vauxhall accompanied literally every scene that was filmed. They were always next to each other. They're identical models and in British colours so it makes me wonder if they're background cars or something else? The other 'extra' cars were like Taxi cabs, Jaguars, a Harrods van, but none of them were constantly in each scene. You'll see them in some of my photos later. Let me know if you think they play a bigger role too.
- (Will share photo later) there was a really large military vehicle which I never saw in use, was under a blanket too. Don't know what role it plays, could be a large Decepticon or Hound?
- I did not see the little girl in mocap gear anywhere although she was seen in London filming earlier this month and in the castle scenes.

I've probably forgotten SOMETHING here but it'll come to me later probably. I had the best 2 days of my life, got to see Barricade my absolute FAV boy up close, had a selfie with Bumblebee, got a photo right next to the McLaren and got some really up close video of Hot Rod while he was being put away for storage as well as plenty of scene footage. The crew was absolutely lovely and so friendly to me, so, I will admit I am holding back some information and some photos from certain positions as I don't think it's fair they let me see so much and get so close to blow everything on the Internet. Some things will remain a secret  

Anyway here's a couple of photos I've got of the main TF squad you can look at while I'm editing and sorting through all the photos. Will reply a lot faster and post a lot faster when I'm back home with stable internet. Phew!

 

Great post and info! Thanks so much for the wonderful report!

 

Thank you for your report! Looking forward to more from you, Blacksmoke1033!

 

Thank you! Sounds like an awesome experience.  

 

I'm glad you had a great time. Still wanna know what you hide though lol

 

Wooow! Glad to see that you managed to see the filming! I was worried about you, because of filming in Oxford  My friend from the set also said me that they finished work London, but he was wrong!  I'm really happy for you! Great catch waiting for new photos!
Wonder how Michael Bay was in both places 

 

Great to hear you had an awesome time, dude.

So, the TRF maybe/sort of like Cemetary Wind, eh? Eh. I can accept if turns out to be the case. Any other stuff you wish to share? More Bayhem?!  

 

Nice pic   The more I see of the filming the more I wish I was more organised enough to go to one of the filming locations.

I'm guessing the two Vauxhalls are GM product placement now that they're not selling new Chevrolets over here anymore, though they might turn out to be Decepticon soldiers or something.

 

If it wasn't for you I would never have done the trip so I feel like I owe you so much! They didn't do any filming by Gresham St at the end of the day but I didn't mind, the locations were so much better!

On Saturday MB wasn't there for most of the McLaren chase filming, but I THINK he was in London for the explosion scene around 5pm. He was at the Barricade chase this morning but they were done by 7:30 then I think 9am at the palace, so he must have hopped in a car and gone back to Oxford. It's only a 50 min train. Poor guy was so busy and he was so annoyed this morning so I hope he felt better later!

In terms of SOME of the stuff I'm hiding, I have some footage of the Barricade / Bumblebee chase very close because well, I ended up in the cafe with a bunch of crew when I showed up and I think they thought I was just one of them. I guess I don't feel comfortable posting that because I super wasn't meant to be there. Same with some photos of the interiors of the cars. I have plenty of other photos to share anyway!

Oh and while I'm editing have a couple of fun photos of my tiny Bumblebee who had a massive adventure  

 

I originally thought they were good guys (they still might be, especially seeing as Lennox and Epps are back?) however after seeing them accompany Barricade who was very angrily zooming after Bumblebee I think they may have been with him. They followed Bee/McLaren over Westminster Bridge very quickly so it may have been a chase scene. The scene with the McLaren was also at high speed and it was weaving through cars so it may have also been trying to get away from them.

There are plenty of extra Vauxhalls hanging about, so clearly a sponsor deal. No Minis though! What makes me think they're different was they were in EVERY scene, very close to the main cars, and well, they were bright red and bright blue; the background cars all tended to have a very muted colour palette (silver, dark green) to not distract the eye from the mains. They were also extremely well polished and I dunno, I kinda got a vibe that they might be similar to the twins from TF2. Which I sincerely hope not. Perhaps they just carry additional main characters.

 

Instagram video by Emma Lambert • Sep 25, 2016 at 6:15pm UTC Here's a quick link to some footage on my IG of the McLaren scene. They must have done this about 30 times.

Instagram video by Emma Lambert • Sep 25, 2016 at 6:13pm UTC Here's the video I took of Hot Rod as he was being driven into storage just because he was awesome  

I MAY upload some footage of some bridge scenes, and one or two of the Barricade set up where you can hear the directors and such getting really angry over the radio next to me. They only had 45 seconds to do the last take and even though it was clearly stated where all the cars were and that everyone e]needed to be in position and ready to go ASAP, nobody seemed to be listening and for some reason thought Bee was around another corner. If I post any stuff like that it'll only be up temporarily so I'll mention that in the links when I do so!  

 

You're very lucky! I also tried to crawl into restaurant where they was dinning but failed security stopped me maybe because I'm not look like local  My friend from crew also ask me not to publish photos with them

 

I went into the cafe just because I needed a drink because I felt so sick, not to be sneaky but turned out to be with half the crew. I also didn't have to pay for anything in the cafe because it all went on the massive £200 coffee tab!

Should mention this on my Twitter will probably be temporary as this was outside the cafe Emma Lambert on Twitter - the camera was about 10 feet on the left and the cars drove towards it and then down a right hand curve. The pedestrian that ruined the take came through because the guard had wandered off, had no idea they were filming, crossed the road in front of the camera and very nearly got ran over by the 2 cars. Mayhem. They're stills from my video.

 

One of him must have been a pretender!

 

Michael Bay stunt double to go with the Anthony Hopkins stunt double hahahahaha!

Oh yes, this car was also right by the Westminster Bridge filming - not sure if it was part of the movie BUT the second they packed up a truck came and cleaned it away so maybe?

Also forgot to mention, this morning, I was so tired and quite upset because I felt so unwell and actually decided I wanted to skip the filming because I didn't think Barricade was even in London. I got out the cafe and the second I did he drove past me at a super high speed and almost cacked myself in shock! My heart was beating so so fast and then I realised it was barricade with all the lights flashing and at that moment I was so glad that I woke up at 4am and took a scary bus to be there <3

 

Are you willing to PM the info you're holding back? I don't care about spoilers so if you want you can share it!

 

Cool stuff   Maybe it'll be ok for you both to post additional stuff once the press embargo is lifted (which might be once they've completely wrapped up filming). It's been great seeing and reading about your experiences of watching it be filmed, definitely a unique experience.

 

People can say what they like about the film makers 'not caring', but little details like this that you'll probably miss n the movie itself show how much effort really does go into it.

 

Not currently, but I will have to see how I feel about it once things have settled down. Don't worry, I'm not holding on to any major movie spoilers, and some of the photos and videos I won't share right now are just in places the public were definitely not allowed, or feature crew members or interiors of the stunt vehicles which are admittedly interesting but a bit sensitive. I'm also trying to keep in touch with a couple of people and that may help make sense of some of the conversations I was uhhhhh definitely not listening into.

But yeah nobody expect I know the entire plot of the movie, virtually nobody working there actually knows that, most of them don't even know what cars are going to be used on the day  

 

Oh my yes, there are so many tiny details, even with some of the extras and additional cars. I love seeing the autobot symbol on the side of Bee, the amount of design work on Barricade's vehicle in general is absolutely stunning. The cars also have TRF on the side nice and big.

There's also an incredible amount of work you don't see - the cameras, the rigs, the huge amount of crew and cables and 30 takes of the same 5 second scene. Even if if its a movie most people will dislike and is likely to get terrible reviews it is truly amazing to get to see all the equipment and the scale that it's produced on!