Bumblebee: Behind The Magic Video Reveals Visual Effects Process

Bumblebee was brought to visually impressive life in late 2018, earning praise from fans and critics alike. It was the most favored of the Transformers franchise in recent years, taking things back in time for an origin story starring Hailee Steinfeld and John Cena. As it turns out, some instances of the film were entirely computerized, which should come as no surprise. However, sometimes where there were set builts, there were also computerized versions of the location made, as well. This seems to have allowed the ILM Visual Effects team the proper canvas to make sure everything looked just the way they wanted.

In the video above, some of the grander visual effects are on display. However, some interesting details are in the finer efforts. For example, in one shot Steinfeld falls to the ground wearing wraps on her elbows. For some reason, those elbows were edited out of the shot and Steinfeld is seen in the film without those wraps and a couple of robots are approaching her in the distance.

“It wasn’t in any way addressing any feedback from the fans,” Bumblebee director Travis Knight said to CNET. “It was just a story I wanted to tell. That last one [Transformers: The Last Knight] is one of the biggest movies I’ve ever seen — and I couldn’t go bigger than that. So let’s go the other way, let’s focus in on a small corner of this canvas and really get to know one of these characters. Let’s balance the emotions with the explosions … The core relationship mattered to me more than anything else. And if that didn’t work, none of the other stuff matters. It’s just bombast. It’s just eye candy.”

Still, Knight was proud to work with the franchise builder Michael Bay. “From a director’s perspective [Michael Bay] was a dream producer,” Knight said. “We sat down early on and it was great for me, director to director, to pick his brain, to get a sense of his philosophy on the Transformers. He was really respectful and recognized this was someone else’s movie, my take on these characters, and the best thing that he could do was to support me and protect me. He let me do my thing, and I’m really appreciative of it.”

Bumblebee is available now on blu-ray and VHS.