Gary church, streets can be easily seen in new ‘Transformers’

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Ben Clement of the Gary Office of Film and Television (right) is shown with Michael Bay, director of "Transformers: Dark of the Moon." The pair posed on a Gary set, during 2010 filming of the movie in the city. | Provided photo~Sun-Times Media

Updated: October 30, 2011 12:49AM

When Ben Clement saw the new “Transformers” movie, he was able to easily recognize City Methodist Church in Gary.

The screen time afforded the grand structure at 6th Avenue and Washington Street came as a jolt of good news for the executive director of the Gary Office of Film and Television.

“I almost jumped out of my chair,” said Clement, describing his reaction at a Schererville theater.

According to Clement, Gary is nicely represented in “Transformers: Dark of the Moon,” the third installment of the special-effects drenched “Transformers” series that was partially shot in Gary last year.

The inclusion of Gary images in the tale of raging robots is a pleasant surprise, Gary’s film office reported.

The exposure is especially heartening after 2010’s “A Nightmare on Elm Street” — another major Hollywood production — failed to use much of what it filmed in Gary two years ago.

“I really had a sense of anticipation with ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’ because they did so much filming here, particularly on Tyler Street,” Clement recalled. “But when I saw the movie, and so little of our stuff remained in the footage, it was very disappointing.”

Production notes for the Freddy Krueger saga indicate that the interior of the shuttered City Methodist Church is seen in some capacity in the horror flick.

The interior of the gothic-looking church also is on view in “Transformers: Dark of the Moon,” according to Clement, who said scenes are likewise featured that were shot at a former Gary cement company on Majestic Star Casino property.

One of the early scenes is at the defunct cement plant near the casino.

“And it’s quite extensive,” Clement added. “There’s a lot of pyrotechnics in that scene. It’s not a quick scene.”

The city of Gary is acknowledged in credits at the end of the movie.

He noted that Cline Avenue, in the area of the BP Whiting refinery, also makes an appearance in the summer box-office powerhouse that opened nationwide this week.

“You can clearly see the storage tanks,” Clement said.

A Paramount Pictures release, the new “Transformers” resulted in a moviemakers’ payment of $2,100 in film-permit fees to the city of Gary.

Clement said Thursday that he was working on an overall “economic impact” figure in regard to what the filming meant to Gary. He thinks the economic impact was “quite significant.”

Paramount gave money to cover the cost of Gary public-safety personnel who put in time on the set. That money is separate from the $2,100 in permit fees that Gary received, Clement said.

Contact Bob Kostanczuk at 648-3144.