Transform Me!

Filmmaker Dahveed Kolodny-Nagy, author of the Transformers 10-Year Retrospective (1994) and organizer of the Transformer Awards event (2004) continues to delve into the popular Transformer toy line and the fan phenomenon with the documentary film “Transform Me!” Kolodny-Nagy traces the popularity of the robots in disguise back to their origins while revealing personal and provocative stories from some of the franchise’s biggest fans.

The documentary demonstrates how the toy line is able to span generations and cross international boarders to touch the lives of its fans. In the vein of Trekkies and Ringers: Lord of the Fans, Transform Me provides a hilarious look at how ‘the most popular toy in history’ has transformed the lives of its fans.

View
YouTube Video NOW To Watch this Legendary Epic Unfold!

Then
Goto ebay and stake your claim to this amazing item! Truly the HOLY
GRAIL of banners…

Hurl at the epic tale now online for your viewing desire! Adventurer and Epic
Pedestrian Dahveed & Zygeist Steve Sievers transport a valuable and demanding
cargo!

Transformers Revenge of the Fallen One-of-a-kind Cloth
Banner!! From Hollywood, CA !!

For the month prior to the release of Transformers Revenge
of the Fallen, a gigantic banner held dominion over the intersection
of Santa Monica Blvd and Highland in Hollywood, CA. The banner measured
several city blocks and several stories high! After the June release the banner
was removed. Most of it was returned to the studio but one section was marked
for disposal- that section is none other than the great Optimus Prime! This
mighty titan watched over the city of Hollywood! In a great heroic effort two
men rose to the challenge to save this cloth from disposal!! And now their struggle
and sacrifice can be to your benefit! Own the HOLY GRAIL of banners today!

ALL PROCEEDS FROM THE SALE
OF THE BANNER GO TO THE PRODUCTION OF THE DOCUMENTARY ‘TRANSFORM ME.’

As usual Paramount created a mega event for the Hollywood red-carpet premiere of “Transformers Revenge of the Fallen.”  The red carpet that looped between the Village and Vista theaters in Westwood village in Los Angeles was jam packed with all the film’s stars from Megan Fox to Peter Cullen.  An elaborate after party was set up that included a Linkin Park concert and an elaborate spread.  All of this was set up to be part of the LA Film Festival, which is amusing because LA Film Fest generally supports “independent films” and Transformers is anything but.

Fellow Transformers fanatic, Steve, and I arrived around 4:30pm which I thought was far too early for a movie that started at 8pm but we didn’t want to take any chances.  After several failed attempts we finally found a ledge we could stand on to get a good view of the spectacle.  The press and fans were out in full force and unlike the 2007 Transformers premiere, there actually seemed to be a lot of Transformers fans!  There was even a fan decked out in a very nice Transformers movie Bumblebee costume.  The stands around the red carpet were filled by some extremely lucky contest winners, many of which seemed to be fans as well.  These lucky bastards got exclusive Transformers badges, popcorn buckets, cups, glossy photo tickets for the premiere, lithographs for the celebs to autograph, seats just in front of all the celebs in the theater and apparently access to the after party.  Yes, I was insanely jealous.  Transformers stars Megan Fox and Tyrece Gibson went out of their way to say hi to the fans and sign autographs.

Although I was not invited to shoot interviews on the red carpet, I did get some decent B-roll and did talk to a couple Transformers fans at the event.  When it came time to get seats for the premiere, I realized that our super expensive $36 tickets were not going to get us the best seats in the house. We actually had to leave Westwood village and travel to the AMC Avco across from Wilshire where the movie was shown in a much smaller theater without proper air conditioning and a print of the film that was constantly out of focus.  Unlike at the other theater where popcorn and drinks were on the house, we weren’t provided any refreshment…some premiere!?!  And no, nobody came to introduce the film.  A total rip! I will say that the manager of the Avco, Emma, was very gracious afterwards and provided complimentary tickets as an apology.  So no bad words against AMC from me.  The LA Film Fest, run by Film Independent is an organization I have been a part of for over five years and I generally support.  Although their events are usually outstanding, I do have to say that on this one occasion they definitely dropped the ball.

So getting past the technical difficulties, the film itself, it was amazing!  So densely packed with action, characters and details that it could have been expanded into two films.  It was also non-stop action, more big robot butt-kicking battles.

My ALL ACCESS PASS TO TRANSFORMERS!

I purposely did not read any reviews or comic adaptations beforehand so I could more accurately judge the merits of the film.  That said –DO NOT READ PAST THIS POINT IF YOU WANT TO AVOID SPOILERS- START READING THE NEXT PARAGRAPH DOWN– Any of the fans who read all the material around the film could easily name off all the Transformer characters in the film but any regular moviegoer would no doubt be overwhelmed by the shear number of robots.  If you count the little ‘spit’ robots that Ravage drooled then there were easily 100 or more Transformers characters.  That said, there were ten Transformers characters I would describe as memorable- who had enough screen time where I could remember their names so in order of importance they are- Optimus, Bumblebee, Jetfire, Megatron, Starscream, the Fallen (or Mr. Fallen or James Fallon?), Skids, Mudflap, Soundwave and Devastator.  See, I’m not mentioning Arcee, Ravage or a whole bunch others who spead across the screen with no real significance. For me Jetfire really stole the show. As a gigantic old backfiring relic he was definitely memorable.  I enjoyed ever moment he was on screen. When he ripped out his spark to merge with Optimus.  Optimus definitely had more screen time and more significance in this film, as they explored the legacy of the Primes.  As far as the twins, Skids and Mudflap, I’m not a huge fan.  They certainly got plenty of screen time where they served as the comic relief of the film.  The film felt long simply because it was- two hours fifteen minutes- and every moment jam packed.  I felt like I needed to leave the theater for a breath of air- partly because our theater was so hot but also because it was so intense.  Oh, as far as the humans…it was a nice story about a boy leaving home, going off to college and making out with some kinky femmebot, and becoming a man…or something like that.  I was more focused on Megan Fox and the very ample scenes of her running in slow motion.  Very nice!  The film is extremely dense- definitely enough material for a second, third, or twentieth viewing. Okay, I’ll end my review there.  A million more things I could say about the film both pro and con but you’re going to see the film so judge for yourself.

OKAY, START READING AGAIN HERE TO SKIP THE SPOILERS!!  So after the film, I went on a quest to find a way into the Transformers premiere party…and to find one of those cool Transformers popcorn buckets.  Did we ever!  It was a night full of adventure, horrific misfortune but a happy ending.  I was determined to have a good time after being stuck in the AMC sauna and the Paramount party seemed like the best bet for Transformers fun.  Unfortunately we had no way in.  The Linkin Park concert (which was only 25 minutes) was completely over and it seemed like we were out of luck.  The party was still going strong but we had no way in.  Fortunately Steve and I had passes to the indoor film festival party down the street so we went to drown our sorrows in free drinks and artsy activities.  There was a painting area where partygoers could paint on each other’s canvases, magnetic words that could be jumbled together to spell out deep thoughts or profanity on the wall and a projection screen that created shimmers around our shadows as we did kung-fu moves.  Really an artsy and very cool party. So way to go LA Film Fest. But I was not satisfied. After the party closed and we were kicked to the curb.  With ample liquid courage flowing in our veins we took to the Paramount Transformers party looking to score! And score we did! We went dumpster diving (but with great dignity and class).  First Steve found his Transformers wristband, then both of us got our ‘All Areas’ badges.  We strode into the party with ease.  Awesome! Got our pictures in front of Bumblebee, more drinks, Transformers M&M’s. And by then the party started winding down so we figured it would be alright to adorn ourselves in some of the Transformers Autobot and Decepticon wall insignias.  We left the party totally stylin’. But the story doesn’t end there as we passed the Westwood Village theater I noticed the Transformers popcorn buckets littering the floor.  One man’s garbage is another’s treasure. After much urgent tapping on the door, a theater employee gathered up all the buckets and presented them to us. Total score! Okay, but then the story goes a bit downhill.  We got back to the parking garage to discover that it closed at midnight! What was worse was that I didn’t even have my car keys- they were still at the movie theater which was now locked tight as well! We were stuck! 

Well, tomorrow Wednesday May 27th is the first official day of BotCon. I’ve got the customizing class in the morning and then package pickup at night. No matter how many BotCon’s I’ve done, it’s still exciting. Hoping to pick up a couple items, sell a lot of awesome toys , shoot some more footage for the documentary and meet some new Transformers fans. Better get to sleep or I’ll miss it! -Dahveed!