Michael Bay has become a household name thanks to his work on hit Hollywood titles such as Armageddon, Pearl Harbor, and the first five live-action Transformers movies. As a director, Bay embraces maximalist filmmaking on a scale few of his contemporaries do. His love of blowing things up and bringing massive CGI sets to life even resulted in the creation of “Bayhem,” a term coined as shorthand to describe the mind-numbing, overwhelming action film that Bay specializes in.
But what Bay’s modern fans may not know is that the director first rose to fame directing dozens of high-profile music videos during the late 1980s and early ’90s. During this time, Bay shot music videos for everyone from Tina Turner, Wilson Phillips and Lionel Richie to Meat Loaf. Despite his experience in form, Bay more or less left music videos behind him after the release of his first feature film, Bad boysin 1995.
However, as is the case with many directors who have come up in the industry in a similar way, Bay’s music video work is fascinating to watch knowing the films he has directed throughout his career. So, in honor of the upcoming release of his latest film, directed by Jake Gyllenhaal Emergencynow seems like a good time to look back at Michael Bay’s music video work and see how much his style has – and hasn’t – changed over the past 30 years.
Early days
According to IMDb, Michael Bay directed his first four music videos in 1989, starting with Call it love from Poco. All of the videos are predictably less polished and pared down than the movies Bay made his name for. Still, their lower budgets didn’t stop Bay from using many of the same tricks in them that he continued to pull off throughout his career.
For example, several videos feature the kind of fast, low-angle Steadicam shots that Bay used in almost all of his films. This is especially true for Call it love a video with Bay filming the members of Poco using a combination of crane shots and Steadicams. The low-angle shots in the video even allow Bay to include plenty of lens flare, which comes courtesy of an overexposed window in the background and makes certain moments seem like they were pulled straight from one of Bay’s Transformers films.
All of these early videos also show Bay’s penchant for, for lack of a better term, ogling beautiful people with his camera. The Call it love the video includes several moments of very beautiful — and very sweaty — men and women leaning against cars smoking in the sunset. If you squint at these scenes, you’ll easily think they’re from one of Bay’s Transformers movies.
Honing your vision
Winger – Can’t Get Enough (Official Music Video)
From 1990 to 1994, Michael Bay continued to primarily shoot music videos, and like all music video directors, his work during these years varied greatly depending on the artist he was working with and the type of song he was working on. However, throughout this period, Bay’s growth as a visual stylist and filmmaker is undeniably clear.
The lens flares and panning camera movements from his early music videos are still present in his work, but in music videos for the likes of Colin James Keep loving me, baby, Bay is seen experimenting more with editing, camera movement and composition. The more he worked, the more comfortable he became with using Dutch angles, and many of the rock videos he directed from 1990 to 1992 were edited in a much more frenetic, impressionistic manner than his earlier work.
For anyone who has seen one of Bay’s action movies, the way he constructs music videos for songs like Keep loving me, baby and Tina Turner A thing of love will feel very reminiscent of how he still shoots and edits action pieces. His video for Winger’s I can’t get Enuff, meanwhile, seems particularly indicative of what Bay’s films will end up looking like. Not only does it feature the same slick, fast camera movements and choppy editing choices seen in his previous music videos, it’s also filled with shots of half-naked models outlined in the director’s orange light.
Bay’s development during this period of his career is important, but his work as a music video director ultimately culminates in 1993 when he helms a project that feels like a mission statement for him as both a director and an artist.
Milestone
Meat Loaf – I’d Do Anything For Love (But I Don’t Do That) (Official Music Video)
In 1993, Michael Bay directed the iconic music video for Meat Loaf’s I’d do anything for love (but I won’t do it). The video opens with a police chase through Los Angeles that not only involves police cars, motorcycles and a helicopter, but also takes place at sunset, meaning the entire sequence is covered in a giant orange haze. The big-budget scope of the opening, combined with its aesthetic and fast-paced editing style, make it look like a sequence from one of Bay’s future action films.
Overall, the video marked a step forward for Bay from his previous work. Aside from the fact that it boasts a significantly larger budget than many of the music videos he’s directed in years past, it also features Bay using all of his favorite visual and editorial tricks while still telling a complete story. Notably, the video also sees Bay experimenting more with visual effects, an area of blockbuster filmmaking he’s become quite familiar with during the latter half of his career.
Tracking I’d do anything for love Bay directed music videos for two more Meat Loaf songs: Rock and Roll dreams come true and Objects in the rearview mirror may appear closer than they are. Both videos boast the same frenetic editing style that Bay has since relied heavily on throughout his career, and even feature a few Bayhem-esque explosions. Several major movie stars, including Angelina Jolie and Robert Patrick, also appear in the videos.
A clear bow
Emergency service – official announcement 2 [HD]
His collaboration with Meat Loaf was the final steps Michael Bay needed to take in order to be ready to direct his first film. He did just that in 1995 with Bad boysand 27 years later, he proved with Emergency that he is as skilled and idiosyncratic a visual master as he was back in 1993.
All that re-watching his music videos proves is that, for a director who loves on-screen chaos and non-linear action sequences as much as he does, Michael Bay’s actual career is pretty straightforward. This may be somewhat ironic, but it also explains why he is such a famous and unique director. In other words: Michael Bay has always had his own style — and his early music videos prove it.
Michael Bay’s latest film, Emergency, opens in theaters on Friday, April 8.
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Categories: GAMING
Source: newstars.edu.vn