Michael Bay, the American movie director and producer, is worth millions of dollars. In fact, Forbes has Bay making $66 million in 2014 – and that’s just through the first six months of this year.
How’s he do it? Well, Tony Zhou has created a mashup of Bay’s movies for us to study. Let the Bayhem begin.
Plenty of people criticize Bay for his over-the-top blockbusters. We’ve all seen his movies. There’s camera shake. Explosions, followed by more camera shake from more explosions. Loud music. Then a horrible line from the lead character and the most EPIC hero shot you’ve ever seen. See also: dirt, dust, flames, and “acting.”
Zhou discusses this and more throughout the video. It’s a good watch if you are getting into motion production, and useful if you are photographing stills. The compositional devices and techniques apply to both disciplines, as does the discussion about Bay’s reliance on telephoto lenses to compress the environment.
If you have an upcoming assignment that needs a hero angle, make sure you pause the playback and take notes around 2:04 for the Bay version.
So when is too much, well, too much? If you are Michael Bay, the answer is never. Zhou does a great job of sequencing various movies to show how Bay relies on the same camera moves in nearly every movie he makes. Trivial scene or not, he’s going to hit you over the head with his signature imagery.