Valuable Lessons Learned from Michael Bay's "Bayhem"

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Love him or hate him, director Michael Bay is here to stay. A lot of his movies may suck, but they make an ass-load of money, and he does have a certain style that you can't deny. Even James Cameron has said that he “studied [Bay's] films and reverse-engineered his shooting style.” 

Bay has made some really cool films in his career, one of my favorites being The Rock, but his Transformers movies have been very disappointing.  Tony Zhou put together an interesting video essay called Michael Bay - What is Bayhem? In it, he breaks down the director's craft.

"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."

Do you think Bay has some strengths as a filmmaker? 

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. For educational purposes only. For further reading/viewing, I recommend Letterboxd user sydney’s review of Bad Boys 2: http://bit.ly/1iZe7SX Michael Bay watches West Side Story: http://nyti.ms/Vg7ErY Werner Herzog Talks About Wrestlemania & Anna Nicole Smith: http://bit.ly/VfQ9Iu Music: The Sound Defects - Take Out Leonard Bernstein - West Side Story Overture Radiohead - I Might Be Wrong