Production

As a preemptive measure, Michael Lucchi and Paramount announced a July 1, 2011 release date in IMAX 3-D for another Transformers film before completion of Revenge of the Fallen. Director Michael Bay responded, "I said I was taking off a year from Transformers. Paramount made a mistake in dating Transformers 3—they asked me on the phone—I said yes to July 1—but for 2012—whoops! Not 2011! That would mean I would have to start prep in September. No way. My brain needs a break from fighting robots."^[12]

On October 1, 2009, Bay revealed that Transformers: Dark of the Moon had already gone into pre-production, and its planned release was back to its originally intended date of July 1, 2011 rather than 2012.^[13] Filming started in May 2010, with shooting locations including Chicago, Florida, and Moscow.^[14][15] Due to the revived interest in 3-D technology brought in by the success of Avatar,^[16] talks between Paramount, Industrial Light & Magic and Bay had considered the possibility of the next Transformers film to be filmed in 3-D. Testing has been performed in bringing the technology into Bay's work.^[17] Michael Bay was reluctant to film with 3-D cameras since in test he'd found them to be too cumbersome for his filming style, but he didn't want to implement the technology in post production either since he was not pleased with the results.^[18]

In a hidden extra for the Blu-ray version of Revenge of the Fallen, Bay expressed his intention to make Transformers 3 not necessarily larger than Revenge of the Fallen, but instead go deeper into the mythos, give it more character development, and make it darker and more emotional.^[19] Shortly after the release of Revenge of the Fallen, Orci said he would like to introduce Unicron "for scale's sake",^[20] and Unicron is briefly shown in a secret Transformers 3 preview feature in the Revenge of the Fallen Blu-ray disc, although no comment is made on the subject.^[19]

Having been called Transformers 3 up to that point, the film's final title was revealed to be Dark of the Moon in October 2010.^[21]

Actors on a Transformers: Dark of the Moon set in July 2010

As of March 19, 2010, the script was said to be finished,^[22] and pre-shoots began on April 7, 2010 in Northwest Indiana, specifically around Gary, which will portray Ukraine and Los Angeles.^[23][24] Filming began on May 18. The first six weeks took place in Los Angeles, locations included Sherman Oaks, Fourth Avenue and 5. Main. The next four weeks were spent in Chicago. Locations filmed in Chicago included LaSalle Street, Michigan Avenue, Bacino's of Lincoln Park at 2204 North Lincoln Avenue and around the "Sears Tower".^[25] The scenes set in Michigan Ave featured a substantial amount of pyrotechnics and stunt work.^[26] Filming in Detroitwas planned to take place August but the Chicago shoot was extended until 1 September.^[27] In late September the production moved to Florida, just before the launch of Space Shuttle mission STS-133.^[28]

While filming in Washington the crew shot on the National Mall, Michael Bay stated that there would be a car race on the location. Two further locations announced were the Milwaukee Art Museum and an old factory location of Tower Automotive, currently under redevelopment for mixed use as well as the City of Milwaukee equipment yard. Filming was scheduled to take place there after work was done in Chicago.^[29] On September 23, filming was done at the former city hall in Detroit, MI. On October 16, work was done at the Johnson Space Center in Texas with intent to shoot a scene set in the late 1960s utilizing extras with period fashion and hairstyles.^[30] One day of shooting was also done at the Angkor Wat temple complex in Cambodia.^[31] Other planned filming locations included Africa, Moscow, and China.^[32] About 70%^[33] of the film was shot in 3-D, usingArri Alexa and Sony F35 cameras,^[34] while other footage was shot in the anamorphic format on 35mm film and converted into 3D in post production.^[33] 35mm film was used for scenes filmed in slow motion, and scenes which required higher image quality than the HD digital 3D cameras could provide, such as closeups of faces or shots of the sky.^[33] 35mm cameras were also used for scenes where the 3D cameras proved to be too heavy, or were subject to strobing or electrical damage from dust.^[33] Filming was officially completed on November 9, 2010.^[35] On November 26, it was announced the film had entered post-production.

Initially scheduled to be released on July 1, on May 20, 2011 it was announced that the film would be released on June 29 instead.^[36]