Gina RamonCinema 107: Understanding Motion PicturesSection 17997Spring 2019Professor WindrumMichael Benjamin Bay (Age 54) Michael Bay was born on February 17, 1965, and is an American film director, producer, camera operator, and an actor. Some of his most notable work is Armageddon, Pain & Gain, and the whole Transformers series. Michael Bay is the fifth highest grossing director of the worldwide box office making $6.4 billion. One major theme/repeating story element/idea that Michael Bay does in his films is action. Michael loves to make movies that include violence, fighting, physical stunts, battles, physical feats, and chases.
Michael Bay is widely known for blowing things up and being extremely over the top with every single one of his movies. When Michael was a boy he tied fireworks around one of his toy trains and filmed it on his mother’s camera. The train blew up and the fireman was called. He was grounded for a week. It seems that Michael Bay loved seeing things being blown up since he was a little boy.
When Michael comes out with a film it is known to make lots and lots of money. Every single one of his films are fast, loud, and about things being blown up. Cars, Buildings, and everything possible to please his aesthetic. There is always a pretty girl and a guy that somehow saves her from things normal people couldn’t survive from but by the end of the movie, there is not even one scratch on them and he gets the girl. Michaels movies are crazy and the characters have to face incredible yet unrealistic things. The whole movie is just pure action, lots of special effects, and visuals that never seems to calm down. Michael is extremely Innovative and has an eye for the kind of crazy style he wants in his movies. In Michaels films, he manages to keep the viewer’s eyes glued on the screen which makes you unable to take your eyes off of it. By the time you are done with the movie, you want and crave more. He always uses fast cutting in his movies. All of his action scenes are no longer than eight seconds and it is rare to see a shot in his movies that is longer than this. It is his style that makes him a true auteur. Hands down Michael has the best action scenes in all of Hollywood history, He is also known for his extreme high budget films. The Transformer series is a great example of his use of action. The whole movie never slows down and the characters are constantly fighting throughout the movie. Things are being damaged, blown up, and the world seems to be ending. The Transformers series is set in a world where there are two races of robots, the Autobots led by Optimus Prime (Good) and the Decepticons led by Megatron (Bad). Their home planet Cybertron was consumed by a civil war between the two races. The Autobots want to stop the war between them and the Decepticons and rebuild there home on their home planet Cybertron. By using the All-spark (created the robotic race) which was found on Earth. But, the Decepticons want to wage war with earth and make an army with the machines on Earth. Transformers was the 87th highest grossing film of all time. Transformers made $709 million worldwide with 46 million tickets sold in the United States. This movie was followed by four sequels: Revenge of the Fallen (2009), Dark of the Moon (2011), Age of Extinction (2014), and The Last Knight (2017). Armageddon was also one of Michael Bays most famous films. This movie is about a Texas-sized asteroid on its way to crash into Earth. Nasa contacts the best deep sea oil driller for advice on how to save Earth from an extinction level event. This film was the highest grossing film in 1998 worldwide. Lastly, the third best movie directed by Michael Bay is Pain & Gain. The movie takes place in the 1990s. Danny is the manager of the Sun Gym in Miami. He thinks the only way to achieve the American dream is Extortion. He thinks he deserves the money other people have so he enlists bodybuilders to kidnap and torture a businessman for a month to try and access his money. But little do they know the will be caught and convicted. This movie is a true story from the 1990s. It grossed over $86 million worldwide. All three of these movies have a serious amount of action and have grossed billions. You can say his style is unique and Michael Bay said that he gets his films done and gets them done under budget which is a huge plus. Michael tends to use a lot of low shots throughout his movies. It is known as the Bay Angle.Michael Bay loves to use tight shots and tight cuts in his movies. Michael also uses camera movements from his other films like Pearl Harbor, Pain & Gain, and Armageddon in all off the Transformer movies. Even in the movie 13 Hours: The secret soldiers of Benghazi is filled with action. It seems in every one of Michaels movies he seems to need nice cars, helicopters, pretty women, and military men for his weird aesthetic. This movie is a 2016 war film which to him is basically like a kid getting candy. He craves and needs it and can’t do without it.