Michael Bay... A really bad influence...

There are plenty of film directors, in the film industry, that are great examples of the preparation, timing and thought that should be put into films. Michael Bay, however, is a not one of them, no matter how successful he has been. Michael has become famous for his blockbuster hits like Pearl Harbour, Bad Boys and Transformers, but it is evident that the explosions and fast-pace action sequences are more important to him than the preparation of his films. Whilst doing my research, using articles, reviews and interviews, as well as audio commentary for Transformers i have identified that he doesn't like using storyboards, only pre-visualizations, because storyboard don't allow for fast-pace cutting. Improvisation is a word he loves to use, and that's how i'd describe his directorial approach, not much is planned, apart from what explosives and big military equipment he will use, and a lot of the filiming is done mainly on improvisation, ie. he relies on the crew and actors to get it right. Another problem i found with his directorial approach is his reasoning behind certain shots, often saying 'it's in there because i want it in there'. Originally, i wondered why critics were so harsh on Michael, after all he has had a lotof success. However, this quote pretty much sums it up for me, '[Bay says] I asked a well-known critic over lunch, why do i get so much shit?', he says [the critic], 'you made too much success too early. We build them up to tear them down. And, we got bored going after Jerry Bruckheimer.' And what did Micahel learn from this? 'Don't read the critics.' It's not to say that hs films have no purpose in the industry, because they wouldn't be so such big blockbuster hits if audiences didn't go and see them. To me, this shows that although we often deny the idea that audiences crave for bigger and better CG and visual effects, branded 'dumb' movies like Tranformers have the fun element that audiences seem to like. This film is evidently the polar oposite of such work as Hitchcock, comparing the two directoial approaches is a clear identification of how the industry has changed. Hitchcock's mastermind films are so detailed and prepared that he has become possibly the most famouse director, in comparison to Michael's improv style which is undeniably popular among modern audiences, which have gotten used to the fast-pace of the digital era. I've found quite a lot of information on Transformers and Michael Bay's crew, enough to start writing about in my essay. In particular, last night i watched the audio commentary and found out that the end fight scene is composed of 4 different locations, which shows how far editing has come, to give the impression that it was one city. Although,the pace it was moving at, people probably didn't know what was going on anyway...