12- Transformers 3!!!

Now here is some cool stuff to talk about. Yknow, its good looking back on all these things now and finishing to write about them, because it helps to remember that even though I was looking for a job for nine fricking months, I guess it was actually a better year than sometimes I remember- it often just feels like the year of no job and no money.

So during the summer, Transformers 3 was filming in Chicago. COOL. My cousin got a job from a friend of his at college, to work on the movie. COOLER. I got to visit multiple times and get on set and see what they were doing. COOLEST!!

The best day was when they had Wacker Drive blocked off, totally a mess with fake rubble and overturned cars and buses, and they were driving Hummers and sports cars covered with machine guns down the street and firing them off. I got to watch. And I got to see Jason Statham, who is a badass British action movie star, cause he was visiting his Russian model girlfriend who's apparently in the movie. So he was just sitting right there. Awesome. I wanted to go punch him just so I could say I got my ass kicked by Jason Statham.

They also flew a helicopter down the river, over the Michigan Ave. bridge that they closed off for the stunt. They were trying to get a camera shot of Wacker.

Here's Shia LeBeouf's stunt double, who I got to watch teach Shia how to do some stunts jumping and climbing over smoked-out cars. Pretty cool. Would have filmed it if it wouldn't have gotten me kicked off set :) My friend Rachael came to visit too and came on set with us. She was excited. Cause it was exciting :)

Here's two of the "Transformers"- Bumblebee, a Camaro, and a chop-top Corvette who's name I forget. These guys got to haul ass down the street. Behind the Camero is a giant blue thing that is a piece of a Transformer that will get computer graphics overlaid onto it.

Also got pictures with some of the Marine-types. They were real Marines (or real whatever military) and were pretty star-struck themselves, thinking it was awesome to be on set.

After they were done shooting, they started cleaning up the street, we hung out and watched- there were fake pieces of street made out of foam, and like I said lots of overturned cars and mess. It was awesome. And they cleaned it up in one night. You can see the Trump tower in the background and the IBM building- two places they filmed lots of The Dark Knight.

And Marina City in the background too. My home someday ;)

Down this side street was a whole overturned Chicago bus. SWEET.

That giant piece of Transformer. Couldn't tell what it'll be , but I'll keep my eyes out for two giant round things on the street in the movie. All the red spots are tracking points for overlaying the computer graphics onto it.

Same blue thing, Chicago in the background, street a mess.

A couple days later I also found a park near the lake they had trashed up with fake pieces of sod and dirt, and apparently guys were parachuting down to the ground here from on buildings.

The cool stuff I didn't see, but have already noticed in the trailer- a guy base-jumping off the Sears Tower, who my cousin was standing next to when he jumped, and them racing those cars (and a Ferrari) down a blocked-off street near McCormick convention center, which my cousin got to ride in. Those shots were in the trailer they showed during the Super Bowl. Badass. I can't wait to see it simply because it was filmed in Chicago and I got to see it. Supposedly they're starting to film the next Batman this month...OH MAN.

I tried and tried to get a job working on Transformers but didn't happen. Would have been like 14-16 hours a day at like $10 a day, but what the heck! Chance of a lifetime. My cousin (Anthony) got to hang out with a few movie stars and see lots of cool stuff. Later they went to Detroit and he saw the original Dodge mansion, which was huge. Then he was working on some movie with Kate Winslet and Matt Damon and a bunch of other stars- apparently Kate Winslet took him to breakfast one morning. Man.