Michael Bay: you either love him or hate him — there is no in-between. Even if the director’s work isn’t your cup o’ tea, there’s no denying that the director has taken the action genre up a few notches — or a quadrillion.
Whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing is not really the point of this article (though you’re totally free to talk about it in the comments). Instead, let’s hear what Bay has to say about his brand of action (also known as “chaos cinema”, a term coined by film scholar and filmmaker Matthias Stork), as well as the hows and the whys behind every explosion, car chase, and mechanical, fire-breathing T-Rex.
I’ll admit, I’m not a fan of Michael Bay’s work for a number of reasons, but I do respect it for what it is: fast, exciting, high-octane fun. First of all, I commend him for the fact that despite the incredible advancements in CGI, he still opts for practical effects and stunts as much as he can. I mean — suspending a car 10 feet in the air and having a stuntman smack his head against one of the tires is, dare I say, awesome? For filmmakers looking to make action films, that’s one important component of selling the illusion: if at all possible, go practical, because real things look more real on-screen.
I also admire that he continues to push himself creatively; that’s a lesson we should all learn as filmmakers. For him it’s by creating bigger, more elaborate action sequences, for you it might be by creating more complex, multi-dimensional characters.
Source: NoFilmSchool
