| Fun Facts About Michael Bay | Owns mastiff hounds named Mason and Grace, after characters in The Rock (1996) and Armageddon (1998/I).
Shot over 1 million feet of film for Pearl Harbor (2001). Used only about 20,000 feet for the final, 9-reel cut.
Was rejected by USC's film school.
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.
Member of Propaganda Films.
Actors have often noted that he places more importance on the visuals than on his characters and actors. He is also known to do very few takes of intimate character- driven scenes, as he prefers to spend more time on action sequences and visually- interesting moments.
Directed the music video for Richard Marx' hit "Angelia" in 1989.
All his films up to and including _Armageddon (1998)_ made him the youngest director to reach the billion dollar mark world wide.
Since the age of 26, Bay has won every major commercial directing award, including the Gold and Silver Lions at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival.
He won the Grand Prix Clio for Commercial of the Year for his "Got Milk/Aaron Burr" commercial, which also won him the Museum of Modern Art Award for Best Campaign of the Year.
Has worked with producer Jerry Bruckheimer on all of his films, except The Island (2005).
Filmed the movie _Armageddon (1998)_ with an eye towards Middle America. Has a love for Americana.
Is known for his high grossing action-packed movies.
All of his movies after Bad Boys (1995) have grossed more than $100 million, except The Island (2005), which flopped.
Studied under film historian Jeanine Basinger at Wesleyan University; Basinger later provided audio commentary, along with Bay, for the Pearl Harbor (2001) DVD.
As a teenager, he worked at ILM in the storyboard department for films like Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981).
He is a very good friend to Don Michael Paul and even lent him some aerial shots from The Rock (1996) to Paul's movie Half Past Dead (2002).
Ranked #47 on Premiere's 2005 Power 50 List. Had ranked #54 in 2004.
He shot the dynamic shots of the thrown dice in the gambling scenes for Adrian Lyne's Indecent Proposal (1993). He later "repossessed" the shots for a montage in Armageddon (1998/I).
President of The Institute for the Development of Enhanced Perceptual Awareness, a commercial and music video production company.
The Rock (1996) is his favorite of the films he has directed.
Sean Connery is his favorite actor that he's ever worked with.
Two films, _Armageddon (1998)_ and The Rock (1996), are in the Criterion Collection.
Uses a Mark V director's viewfinder while shooting a film. The viewfinder is often prominently featured in photographs of him, hung around his neck. It is engraved with his name and the names of every film he has directed.
Was offered the chance to direct Red Dragon (2002) but turned it down. Job went to Brett Ratner.
Has a mastiff hound named "Bonecrusher" after the character in Transformers.
Turned down the offer to direct Van Helsing (2004) , opting to do The Island (2005) instead.
He occasionally makes cameo appearances in his films: in Bad Boys II (2003) he plays a guy driving a small beat-up old car which Martin Lawrence attempts to borrow, a NASA scientist in Armageddon (1998/I), and in Transformers (2007) he is the "disgusting" human that gets flicked away by Megatron.
Was offered the chance to direct Man on Fire (2004).
Was offer the opportunity to direct Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003) but pulled out of the project due to scheduling conflicts.
Good friends with Ben Affleck.
Was considered to direct Superman Returns (2006).
Cousin of Leonard Nimoy.
Was adopted by his parents Jim and Harriet when he was two weeks old
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