If you haven’t used VR yet, trust me when I say it’s a revolution in the making. While the equipment is still in its infancy and the headsets, resolution, and wires will only get smaller, better, and easier to manage, what’s been released thus far shows VR is an application that will change the planet and allow people from all around the world to experience things they never thought possible. A while back I used a VR headset that allowed me to stand on stage at a sold out concert next to the performer while they played a song. I stood there gazing at the sold out crowd from the performer’s point of view. It was a crazy experience and immediately understood why Facebook would spend two billion dollars to get in the VR space. Trust me, once you use VR, you’ll understand why so many people are investing serious money and time to get in the space.

Which brings me to Michael Bay and Transformers.

While I was on the set of Transformers: The Last Knight outside Detroit, Bay revealed he’s developing an original Transformers VR experience. While he wouldn’t get into too many specifics of the story, he did reveal a few key things:

• The Transformers VR experience is being done with IMAX and ILM
• It’s an original story.
• Right now Bay is aiming for it to run nine minutes and it’s not “active” the entire time. But at some points, “you feel things coming right over you. You gotta duck.”
• They’ve done a test and used a character named Cogman. According to Bay, Cogan is “a psychopath". Bay explained, "He's a proper-like butler, he's a headmaster, so it goes back to the comics. They kind of rip off heads and they become that. So he's this proper, great looking sociopath. He's a psycho, but he's very polite. And he's like this big [uses his hands to show us the height], and it's cool just as a test. You see him riding in a car, and behind you, over here and you can just -- it's so much fun.”
• According to Bay, the only way you’ll be able to play the VR experience at first is in IMAX theaters. He said, “They're gonna build pods in theaters around the world. There are all these massive theaters, but they don't use every theater. So they'll build like 30 pods.” I’m not sure if this means it’ll travel from theater to theater or if it’s going to be released everywhere at once.

With the project still being put together, I’d imagine everything Bay said could be altered during the creation of this experience. But I’m very curious to see what Bay will come up with, because the language of VR experiences is still being written and the only way for VR to get to the next level is for filmmakers like Bay to create cool content.

Below is the full transcript of Bay talking about VR. It was done as a group interview on the set in between filming The Last Knight.

BAY: The one thing I'm getting to is AR and VR.

Question: For this one?

BAY: Well, yeah. Just coming up with my own -- doing it with IMAX, working with ILM. Really fun.

Are you gonna do an original story?

BAY: Yeah, there's no content. There are all these companies building all this crap and there's no content. And basically, when I put on the stuff, the vive, it puts a smile on your face. It's fun.

I just did the Star Wars one and they just announced a new Star Wars one.

BAY: Right. And we're doing it with Transformers. What's sort of fun about that is the size, you've got little ones and we got this great character called Cogman who's a psychopath. He's a proper like butler, he's a headmaster, so it goes back to the comics. They kind ofrip off heads and they become that. So he's this proper, great looking sociopath, he's a psycho, but he's very polite. And he's like this big [uses his hands to show us the height], and it's cool just as a test. You see him riding in a car, and behind you, over here and you can just -- it's so much fun.”.

When you're designing for VR, one of the things is the language hasn't been written yet for VR movies or VR experiences. When you're designing something for Transformers, are you envisioning a three-minute thing, a five-minute thing?

BAY: You know, they said, “three minutes.” And I go, “Where are the rules?” There are no rules. So I said, “Let's do something like nine minutes. And where it's active and you got a little story. It's fun.” It's not active the whole time. But you, the idea, you feel things coming right over you. You gotta duck.

Sure. Like Transformers: The Ride.

BAY: Well yeah, but that was the first of that 3D trying to really trying to make it, and that'll get better. But the VR just to me was a cool thing to try to strike up, and IMAX now wants to do it. They're gonna build pods in theaters around the world. There are all these massive theaters, but they don't use every theater. So they'll build like 30 pods.

When do you envision it being done? 

BAY: By next May.

And is it one of those things so is it just gonna be a theatrical experience or people who have--

BAY: No, it will eventually go to the home. But first it will be through theater experiences. You have all these companies like Facebook, who bought this for a billion dollars, but they don't wanna pay for content. That's not smart. Content helps drive…

And with your name attached to it--

BAY: We had HTC come by and the CEO came by and we put it on. I went, I had a birthday party for a friend of mine and I was hung-over that day, and I put it on. I'm looking at the ocean experience and it's like it was amazing. Have you seen it?

Yeah.

BAY: You know, just that puts a smile on your face. But then you have the zombies coming your way.  Right? It's very low res. But this'll be as high res as we can make it. But I wanna just make it more the experience.

Where are you drawing the story from?

BAY: We're creating our own.

I'm curious how IMAX is involved in this. Is it that are you gonna film this with IMAX cameras and then it's gonna be put into the thing?

BAY: No, it's all gotta be –I actually bought a VR special camera. And it's like the best camera right now 'cause there's no stitching involved.

Sure.

BAY: But this is gonna be completely CG.

So is just IMAX involved 'cause that's where the experience will be?

BAY: It's gonna be a little higher res than you get like on HTC thing or what do you call, the Vive?

Yeah, I think so.

BAY: I think the headset is bigger. Yeah, they're building a special headset. It's a little bigger. I mean, they’ve still gotta get the whole wire cable, that's a whole issue.

Yeah, when I did it. They had this guy behind you to make sure you don't trip over the wires.

BAY: Yeah, it's a little…

Once it goes wireless which will be at some point it'll change everything. So is this the thing with VR, do you envision this, are you doing anything besides that in conjunction for this film?

BAY: No, I'm just using assets from this film. We have so many assets.

Something that people have talked about--

BAY: Just like Star Wars doing this using their assets, you know.

Well, something that people have talked about is when ILM creates an environment and it's 3D digitally rendered and it's complete about releasing something like that that people at home, like as a promotion towards the movie.  So it's like, say you're creating the Daily Planet, you know, you can release that and walk around.

BAY: Right. Yeah, you can do it. I don't wanna do it as a promotion. I just wanna do it as a fun thing. Put a smile on your face.

Do you think that's sort of the next step?

BAY: Well to me, yeah. I think it can go really far 'cause it is just the interactivity.

There's a rollercoaster now at Six Flags where you wear VR during the rollercoaster.

BAY: Yeah, that seems silly.

Yeah, but it's a different--

BAY: I saw the billboards for that. That is just silly. That's like get out of your house. Join the free air.  You know what I'm saying? It looks so stupid. Let's watch TV while we're outside.

For more on Transformers: The Last Knight:

• There’s an R-Rated, “Very Quentin” Idea for the ‘Transformers’ Bumblebee Movie We’ll Never See
• ‘Transformers: The Last Knight’: 45 Things to Know about the Sequel
• Don’t Expect Michael Bay to Direct a Marvel Sequel
• Expect More Grimlock, Dinobots in ‘Transformers: The Last Knight’