- Born
- Birth nameMichael Benjamin Bay
- Height6′ 1″ (1.85 m)
- A graduate of Wesleyan University, Michael Bay spent his 20s working on
advertisements and music videos. His first projects after film school
were in the music video business. He created music videos for
Tina Turner,
Meat Loaf,
Lionel Richie,
Wilson Phillips,
Donny Osmond and
Divinyls. His work won him recognition
and a number of MTV award nominations. He also filmed advertisements
for Nike, Reebok, Coca-Cola, Budweiser and Miller Lite. He won the
Grand Prix Clio for Commercial of the Year for his "Got Milk/Aaron
Burr" commercial. At Cannes, he has won the Gold Lion for The Best Beer
campaign for Miller Lite, as well as the Silver for "Got Milk". In
1995, Bay was honored by the Directors Guild of America as Commercial
Director of the Year. That same year, he also directed his first
feature film, Bad Boys (1995), starring
Will Smith and
Martin Lawrence, which grossed
more than $160 million, worldwide. His follow-up film,
The Rock (1996), starring
Sean Connery and
Nicolas Cage, was also hugely successful,
making Bay the director du jour.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Tony Fontana <tony.fontana@spacebbs.com>
- ParentsHarriet Bay (Markowitz)Sheldon James Bay
- RelativesLisa Bay(Sibling)Susan Bay Nimoy(Cousin)
- Intense slow motion shots of characters
- Films often feature a US President giving a major speech before a major action is to
be committed. - Has the camera moving during most scenes Very rarely uses static shots
- (2001) His last 3 films all share: a) two male leads at odds with another; b) a
cataclysmic event as the narrative's fulcrumic point; c) the film's lead female
character has i) been a long-haired brunette, and ii) watched the film's climax from
a control room - Actors/characters in his films are almost uniformly shot in tight, emphatic close ups,
framed under the hairline and above the chin.
- The Rock (1996) is his favorite of the films he has directed and Sean Connery is his favorite actor that he's ever worked with.
- All his films up to and including Armageddon (1998) made him the
youngest director to reach the billion dollar mark world wide. - He is a very close friend of writer/director George Lucas from
whom he often seeks advice. As a teenager, he worked at ILM in the storyboard department for films like Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981). - In Bad Boys (1995), Bay paid $25,000 (one quarter of his fee) for the climax
explosion scene. The initial shot was made impossible by a rainstorm,
and the production company refused to pay for another try. - Has a great respect for and is good friends with filmmaker Zack Snyder as they went to the same school and worked at Propaganda Films.
- A lot of directors don't want the pressure of a movie the size of
'Pearl Harbor (2001)'. But I love it. I thrive on it. - I love it when people get really mean and call you a 'hack'. It's like,
don't they see how well these movies are doing? They make an impression
around the world. I met this guy in Bali who lives in a hut with a TV,
and he loved The Rock (1996). That means something, doesn't it? - Directing is not a job. It's more like a career. Which is
great! - I make movies for teenage boys. Oh, dear, what a crime.
- I know [critics] have [been tough on my movies]. And that's why I've
taken Jerry Bruckheimer's advice: I don't read them, I really don't.
- Pearl Harbor (2001) - $25,000,000 (Director's Gross Earnings)
- Bad Boys (1995) - $100,000 (directing fee)
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