Video: 'Transformers One' | Anatomy of a Scene

Hi, my name is Josh Cooley. I'm the director of Transformers One. “We gotta hurry.” “I still think we've got a better chance fighting them than outrunning them.” “Wait, we've got gears! We can transform now.” “That's right.” This scene is about halfway through the movie, where we see our four characters who couldn't transform before get these transformation gears. And so this is our first chance to transform in their entire lives. I think about the actual Transformers toys. I had all the toys growing up. Most of the time they were just kind of lying on the floor half-transformed because they were actually kind of hard to do. And so I thought it would be fun to see our characters struggle with the same way that I struggled with the toys, which was not quite knowing how to do it. It's actually a moment of relief, a bit of comic relief here. But there's still danger. They're still being chased. They're still being attacked. So one of the things that was important was to remember that. And so you can hear the sound and the blasters of the guns being fired at them. Everything tells us that this is a very serious scene. But what's happening to them is actually funny. And I think part of the comedy that plays well is because we're not making fun of it or trying to wink at the audience. This is a real danger that they're in.