Michael Bay is an American Director known for his fast-paced, high budget action films. His films frequently make use of fast, frenetic cutting and reliance on special effects and have grossed over 7.8 billion dollars worldwide. While highly successful his films have been consistently derided by critics. Despite this, Bay’s film have had a remarkable influence on modern day filmmaking.
Michael Bay was born in Los Angeles on February 17, 1965. When Bay was child he once blew up a toy train with firecrackers in his backyard.He filmed the whole the incident with an 8 millimeter camera and credits this with sparking his interest in action films. After seeing the film, Raiders of the Lost Ark in theatres Bay decided he wanted to become a filmmaker.
While Michael Bay’s Films have been critically panned throughout his career, many have noted that Bay has developed a tight and instantly recognisable style sometimes known as “Bayhem”. Even those who hold Great disdain for his films have admitted that Bay’s frenetic style of filmmaking has greatly influenced the modern filmmaking visual language. Scott Foundas editor of a highbrow film magazine said: “You know within a few seconds of watching his movie that it’s a Michael Bay movie and beyond that there’s no question that he’s influenced the visual language of the contemporary Hollywood blockbuster in a major way.” Bay’s style of filmmaking involves extremely fast cuts that often eschew classical composition rules. Senior Film Critic, Peter Debruge has said that “Michael Bay has recognized the energy of an action sequence can replace the logic of it.”. Rather than film shots for just a general continuation of ideas, Bay uses the cuts themselves to enhance the emotion and kinetic energy happening onscreen.
I think that Michael Bay is a big C creative. Looking at any modern superhero movie one can see the director’s influence all over. Movies like Man of Steel, are loaded with rapid cuts and a plethora of destructive, characteristics lifted right from the Bay school of filmmaking.
Sources:
http://variety.com/2011/film/features/michael-bay-seriously-1118039082
Interesting post. Throughout the semester we have talked about the different ways to identify big C creatives. One way to do so is to see if their work has been critically acclaimed - if the field has liked their work. However, I think that your post complicates this narrative. What happens when there is a creative who makes work that is not necessarily critically acclaimed, but is nonetheless loved by fans and makes its mark on pop culture?
ReplyDeleteI'd never considered the uniqueness of Bay's film making techniques, this was an interesting post
ReplyDeleteWow, Bay truly embodies the creative personality as he uses traditional concepts to redefine film making. He definitely uses combination in his process and these probably a part of why he is so successful.
ReplyDeleteI remember you mentioned this in one of our group discussions, and I'm glad I got the chance to read it! I've definitely made fun of Bay before--I'm not a huge fan of his works--but it's truly fascinating to see how influential he has been on the entire action genre. It is particularly striking that he uses essential components of filming--frenetic cutting and high-energy motions, for example--to complement the scripted storytelling of a movie. I'll definitely look at his works differently from now on.
ReplyDelete