Michael Bay - What is Bayhem?

There are filmmakers we love and then there's Michael Bay. Even if you dislike him (as I do), Bay has something valuable to teach us about visual perception. This is an exploration of "Bayhem" — his style of camera movement, composition and editing that creates something overblown, dynamic and distinct.

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For further reading/viewing, I recommend

Music:
The Sound Defects - Take Out
Leonard Bernstein - West Side Story Overture
Radiohead - I Might Be Wrong

Help us caption & translate this video!

[JVarley]

So Michael Bay's style is like cinematic caps lock; it takes something meant to be used for a purpose or for dramatic effect and just uses it for everything.

[christians]

"Every shot is designed for maximum visual impact, regardless of whether it fits."
This is a very interesting point, and I think there are a lot of parallels to music here. An equivalent of "bayhem" is the loudness war, where music is compressed more and more to seem louder and more impactful. While increasing impact of every part of the song, the dynamic range is reduced, actually making it seem less impactful. That means that the big hits don't hit as hard, and the small hits are brought up to where they shouldn't be. In a long form format like movies, I think dynamic range is even more important.

[HandsOfCinderblock]

"I make movies for teenage boys. Oh dear, what a crime." - Michael Bay

Great quote, in my opinion.

[williamcharron]

Its funny that critics loath Bay with fury, yet his fellow Hollywood directors, Spielberg, Cameron, Nolan and others hold him with respect.

[captainspirou]

I always detested his movies but this video makes me realize why. it's because he could be so much better. he obviously knows his way around a camera and how to compose shots. But he only cares about the technical aspects and discards story, dialogue and acting. he'd be better off as a cinematographer.

[MagicSwordKing]

Michael Bay has always struck me as a rather talented technical director with nothing to actually say, nor any motivation to find something to say. His skill at assembling these sorts of shots and action sequences is undeniable, he just doesn't care much about doing anything other than the technical, be that directing actors, writing a coherent story, or recognizing the limits of his style's applications.

If he has a choice between a scene that will serve the story or a scene that will serve his aesthetic, he will choose aesthetic every time. I'm vaguely glad his movies do well at the box office because there is a lot that can be learned from his hyperkinetic cinematography by other directors who are more well rounded and skilled at the aspects of storytelling that Bay simply doesn't care about.

[Redem]

I sorta want to dare Michael Bay to do a movie with no orange or blue in it

[theFLICKpick]

This is probably the most fascinating thing I've ever watched concerning director Michael Bay. Though I still think the movie The Rock is 90's action perfection...

[delrey]

To be honest, I don't think Michael Bay is such a bad director. He's pretty good when it comes to popcorn movies. I think it's good to have a director like him and not every movie has to be art.

[Kraigon]

I just played The Beginner's Guide. To hear both the phrase "if you want to understand Michael Bay" and the focus on lampposts was rather surreal.

[LandonBalk]

'We are really visually sophisticated and totally visually illiterate." Fucking spot on man.

[SeanMcInnis]

So Michael Bay is ruffly the equivalent to Chinese food, good filling and a half hour later your hungry again.

This makes sense cause every Bay movie I've seen, you leave with the feeling you saw something epic. but not quite sure what you saw.

[madmartigan]

Michael Bay has perfect penmanship but is illiterate. He writes beautiful calligraphy that spells out gibberish.

[IoEstasCedonta]

Wow... this makes me feel like Bay could be James Cameron if he could learn restraint.

[Alastertheevilclown]

0:06 you can see the harness ropes for a split second.

[DrCornelius]

I think Bay is a better cinematographer than director

[austin]

He does have a good eye for creating cinematic action sequences. I just wish he wasn't obsessed with the close ups during the fight scenes. His camera work for Bonecrusher transforming on the highway is neat, but it is just to close.

[alexarias]

as the nostalgia critic put it "I'm gonna shoot everything like it's porn!"

[Knickerson]

You made Bay’s work more interesting just by laying down the “Westside Story” soundtrack to it.

[CrystalJupiter]

PLEASE do an episode on the Coens. They're some of my favorite filmmakers, and I'd love to see what you have to say about them.