Michael Bay
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| Michael Bay | |
 Michael Bay on the set of Armaggedon |
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| Born | February 17, 1965 (age 42) Los Angeles, California, USA |
Michael Benjamin Bay (born February 17, 1965) is an American film director and producer. Bay has achieved massive financial success with such movies as Armageddon, The Rock, Pearl Harbor, Bad Boys, and Bad Boys II. Bay is also one of the members of the LA production company Propaganda Films.
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[edit] Biography
[edit] Early life
Bay was born and raised in Los Angeles by his adoptive parents. He was educated at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena and graduated from Wesleyan University.
[edit] Director
After graduating from school, Bay broke in to the music video industry and worked on videos for artists such as Meat Loaf, Richard Marx, Donny Osmond, Lionel Richie, and Tina Turner, among many others. He also began directing television commercials for many large companies, including Nike, Reebok, Budweiser, and Coca-Cola. His most successful advertising campaign creation was the series of Got Milk? commercials, which won him the Grand Prix Clio for Commercial of the Year and the Cannes' Silver Lion.
The first movie to be directed by Bay was Bad Boys in 1995, which was a box office success. He has since followed this with several more large-budget, action-oriented films. All these movies combined took in more than $1.5 billion dollars worldwide.
His most recent film, The Island, was released in 2005. It is the only Bay-directed movie to flop at the U.S. box office.
His films are known for both their fast paced action sequences and ultra-kinetic cinematography.
Bay and Wydncrest Holdings recently bought the special effects company Digital Domain from former owners James Cameron and Stan Winston.[1] He also runs his producing company Platinum Dunes that produces horror genre films (mostly commercially successful remakes of 1970s films).
[edit] Awards
In 1995, Bay was honored by the Directors Guild of America as Commercial Director of the Year.
Bay has won many MTV Music Video Awards.
[edit] Filmography
As of 2006 Bay has directed six feature films and is scheduled to direct a seventh.
[edit] Director
[edit] Feature Films
- Bad Boys (1995)
- The Rock (1996)
- Armageddon (1998)
- Pearl Harbor (2001)
- Bad Boys II (2003)
- The Island (2005)
- Transformers (2007; currently in post production)
- Bloodline (2007; currently in post production)
[edit] Music Videos
- There You'll Be, Faith Hill (2001)
- Falling in Love (Is Hard on the Knees), Aerosmith (1997)
- Objects In The Rear View Mirror May Appear Closer Than They Are, Meat Loaf (1994)
- Rock 'n' roll dreams come true, Meat Loaf (1994)
- I'd Do Anything for Love (but I Won't Do That), Meat Loaf (1993)
- You won't see me cry, Wilson Phillips (1992)
- Do it to me, Meat Loaf (1992)
- "Love Thing", Tina Turner (1992)
[edit] Producer
- The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003)
- The Amityville Horror (2005)
- The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (2006)
- The Hitcher (2007 film) (2007)
[edit] Criticism
- Critics have attacked Bay for a quick-cut directing style that many feel emphasizes superficial dramatization and pointless action. He has received two Golden Raspberry Awards nominations for his directorial work on Armageddon and Pearl Harbor. According to Rottentomatoes.com, the films which he both directs and produces are consistently panned.[1]
- Bay's films contain several common directorial and cinematographic trademarks. For example, there's often a 360-degree pan at some point in the movie, often with the character alone in some setting. There's also usually a high-octane car chase or some other vehicle chase in every movie with the exception of Armageddon.
- Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the creators of South Park frequently criticize the work of Bay. Bay is the focus of the song "The End of an Act" from the Team America: World Police soundtrack, which criticizes the film Pearl Harbor as one of the worst films ever produced. The song opens with "I miss you more than Michael Bay missed the mark when he made Pearl Harbor" and contains the line "Why does Michael Bay get to keep on making movies?". In the fifth-season South Park episode "Cartmanland," Kyle said, "Job has all his children killed, and Michael Bay gets to keep making movies. There isn't a God."
- Vincent Chase, the lead character of the HBO series Entourage, expresses dismay when his agent tells him that the sequel to his successful film adaptation of Aquaman is being directed by Michael Bay.
- Bay has recently drawn criticism from many online journals and blogs for the redesign of the robots from Transformers in the upcoming movie.
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- Official website, with FAQ and blog
- Michael Bay at the Internet Movie Database
- Michael Bay at All Movie Guide
- Michael Bay Videography, Michael Bay's music video filmography at The Music Video Database.
- Fast Cars, Hot Blondes, Big Budgets, Bigger Explosions, a June 2001 Rolling Stone article
- Criterion Collection essay on Armageddon, from a Wesleyan University professor under whom Bay studied
- What Has Our Society Come To When March Of The Penguins Is The Blockbuster Hit Of The Summer?, an August 2005 article from The Onion, "written by" Bay
- Article confirming relationship between Michael Bay and Jaime Bergman
- Bay's Touch music video tribute by LiningUpTV
| Films directed by Michael Bay |
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| Bad Boys • The Rock • Armageddon • Pearl Harbor • Bad Boys II • The Island • Transformers |
