Michael Bay

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About

Michael Bay is an American film director known for directing several blockbuster action films, including Bad Boys, The Rock and Transformers, and his signature style of filmmaking marked by liberal use of special effects and explosions.

History

Film Career

When Bay was 15-year-old, he began interning for filmmaker George Lucas during the production of the 1981 action-adventure film Raiders of the Lost Ark, which he credits as his inspiration for becoming a film director.^[10] In his early career, Bay directed commercials and music videos for Propaganda Films. In 1994, Bay began shooting his first feature-length film Bad Boys, which was a box office success grossing $141 million during the summer of 1995 (shown below, left). In 1996, Bay directed the action film The Rock starring Sean Connery and Nicolas Cage (shown below, right).

In 1998, Bay directed and co-produced the science fiction disaster film Armageddon, which was subsequently nominated for four Oscar awards (shown below, left). In 2003, Bay directed Bad Boys II, a commercial success grossing $273 million worldwide.

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In 2005, Bay directed the science-fiction film The Island as his first film directed without producer Jerry Bruckheimer (shown below, left). In 2007, the science fiction film Transformers was released (shown below, right), which was followed by two sequels released in 2009 and 2011, all of which were directed by Bay.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

In May 2011, the film production company Paramount announced that Bay had been chosen to produce a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film. In March 2012, Bay revealed that the new ninja turtles would actually be from an "alien race," departing from the franchise's original sewer mutation origins.

“When you see this movie, kids are going to believe, one day, that these turtles actually do exist when we are done with this movie. These turtles are from an alien race and they are going to be tough, edgy, funny and completely lovable.”

On March 18th, Redditor TeamOommiZoomi submitted a post titled "Michael Bay is going to totally ruin TMNT" to the /r/movies^[1] subreddit, which gained over 3,300 up votes and 1,000 comments prior to being archived. On the following day, The Huffington Post^[3] published an article reporting on the growing Internet backlash towards Bay. Also on March 19th, Bay responded to the criticism in the Shoot For the Edit^[2] Forums:

"Fans need to take a breath, and chill. They have not read the script. Our team is working closely with one of the original creators of Ninja Turtles to help expand and give a more complex back story. Relax, we are including everything that made you become fans in the first place. We are just building a richer world."

On March 20th, the SourceFed YouTube channel uploaded a video in which hosts Joe and Ron discuss the online criticism of Bay's choice to make the ninja turtles an alien race (shown below).

On March 27th, Redditor Cruelsader submitted an image macro of Bay standing in front of an explosion with the caption "Destroys childhood memories, / one movie at a time" to the /r/AdviceAnimals^[8] subreddit, where it garnered more than 3,600 up votes and 150 comments prior to being archived.

Samsung Press Conference

On January 6th, 2014, Michael Bay appeared as a guest speaker at Samsung's Consumer Electronic Show press event. After walking onstage, the teleprompter failed to display Bay's lines correctly, causing Bay to apologize and walk off stage (shown below). The same day, Redditor wormyrocks submitted a post about the incident to the /r/cringe^[9] subreddit, where it gained upwards of 8,200 up votes and 1,100 comments in the first month.

Reputation

Michael Bay is often mocked online for using explosive special effects and overly-dramatic sequences. On March 12th, 2006, YouTuber Decimus13 uploaded a video titled "Michael Bay is Epic," featuring a montage of car chases, explosions and destruction sequences from various Bay films (shown below).

On January 4th, 2009, YouTuber Chris Capel uploaded a video titled "Michael Bay Eating a Bowl of Cereal," in which a man is shown pouring and eating a bowl of cereal in slow-motion accompanied by dramatic background music and a concerned-looking woman (shown below, left). On August 11th, 2011, the Screen Junkies YouTube channel uploaded a supercut of spinning camera shots from Michael Bay films (shown below, right).

On April 1st, 2012, YouTuber CardGamesFTW uploaded a video titled "Michael Bay's YGO Abridged," featuring scenes from the anime series Yu-Gi-Oh! edited with a superimposed cut-out image of Shia Labouef and several explosions (shown below).

On March 20th, Redditor Jurstin submitted several scanned images of a parody script for the 2008 Batman film The Dark Knight to the /r/movies^[7] subreddit. Prior to being archived, the post received over 4,600 up votes and 440 comments.

"Directed By Michael Bay"

“Directed By Michael Bay” is an expression often paired with animated GIFs that have been edited with gratuitous explosions. On April 17th, 2013, Redditor wildman50 submitted an animated GIF of a skateboarder landing a trick with a giant explosion titled "Skateboarding: directed by Michael Bay" to the /r/funny^[4] subreddit, gathering upwards of 3,400 up votes and 120 comments prior to being archived (shown below, left). On October 4th, Redditor ArcherJF posted an animated GIF featuring scenes from the 1997 period drama film Titanic edited with explosions titled "Titanic, as directed by Michael Bay" to /r/gifs,^[5] accumulating over 5,400 up votes and 75 comments in four months (shown below, middle). On February 15th, 2014, Redditor HowIChrgeLazer submitted a GIF of two bees colliding into a giant explosion titled "So I heard Michael Bay is getting into nature documentaries" to /r/gifs,^[6] garnering more than 2,400 up votes and 25 comments in the next 10 days (shown below, right).

What If Michael Bay Directed…

What If Michael Bay Directed… is a series of movie trailer remixes in which a variety of well-known films across different genres are re-imagined as heavily CG animated and visually spectacular Hollywood action-adventure movies associated with the director. On February 8th, 2010, YouTuber Sindri Johannsson^[12] uploaded a video titled “If Michael Bay Directed the Super Bowl which featured clips from the Super Bowl edited to include large-scale explosions, slow motion photography and other styles of cinematic techniques frequently used by Bay. On July 23rd, 2011, YouTuber MrStratman7^[11] uploaded a video titled "What if Michael Bay Directed 'The Shawshank Redemption?'" featuring clips of the movie edited in the style of a high-octane Hollywood sci-fi action blockbuster.

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On September 13th, 2013, Cracked^[13] uploaded a video titled “If Michael Bay Directed Heartwarming Documentaries – Action Movie Parody” which featured a documentary parody about a man trying to kill the mountain where his father died. On August 15th, 2014, YouTuber MrStratman7 uploaded a video titled "What if Michael Bay Directed “UP”?" The video was featured on several websites including UpRoxx^[14] and MTV.^[15]