DZ-18: Michael Bay - F*ing the Frame and P*ing the Page

Listen to understand how one of the world's highest-grossing directors structures story, makes great villians, controls information flow, and makes visual decisions on the page

Of course there are. How could there not be? After all, Michael Bay is the 3rd highest grossing director at the worldwide box office... of all time. Behind, y'know, Spielberg and stuff. How could a man of such credentials not know story? Or, so argues this week's guest: the author of MICHAEL F-ING BAY: THE UNHERALDED GENIUS IN MICHAEL BAY'S FILMS... [drumroll]... the Bitter Script Reader!

For those unfamiliar with the Bitter Script Reader and his puppet avatar, he is one of the internet's greatest free resources for emerging screenwriters. A man who shares his experiences of being a Hollywood gatekeeper for nothing because he's "sick of reading bad scripts".

Together, Stu, Chas and Bitter come through with their long-threatened episode to see what - if anything - screenwriters can learn from analysing the work of one of the most successful filmmakers all time, Michael Bay. We look at THE ROCK, THE ISLAND, and PAIN & GAIN, and cover writing great villains, controlling the flow of information to the audience (via car chases, of course) and creating visual decisions on the page.

So sit back and relax while Stu, Chas and the Bitter Script Reader learn how you can f@*k the page and not just the frame.

Oh, and if you have 7 seconds to spare, click here to go to our 2-question Draft Zero listener survey!

As always: SPOILERS ABOUND and all copyright material used under fair use for educational purposes.

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FILMS

• THE ROCK (1996) — (w) Douglas S Cook, David Weisberg, Mark Rosner, Jonathan Hensleigh (d) Michael Bay
• THE ISLAND (2005) — (w) Caspian Tredwell Owen, Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci, Caspian Tredwell Owen (d) Michael Bay
• PAIN & GAIN (2013) — (w) Christopher Markus, Stephen Mcfeely (d) Michael Bay

SCRIPTS

• Study the script: THE ROCK (1996) — Douglas S Cook, David Weisberg, Mark Rosner, Jonathan Hensleigh

LINKS

• Read: Michael F-ing Bay: The Unheralded Genius in Michael Bay's Films
• Watch: Every Frame A Painting: What is Bayhem?
• Watch: Michaelbay.com: Transformers 4: Bay on Action
• YouTube: Car chase sequence from THE ROCK
• YouTube: Best of Daniel Lugo from PAIN&GAIN
• Read: TRANSFORMERS: AGE OF EXTINCTION is the most brilliant and subversively political film you'll see all year

EPISODES IN THE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT SERIES

• DZ-18: Michael Bay - F*ing the Frame and P*ing the Page
• DZ-76: Spotlight on Sofia Coppola
• DZ-13: True That - Tips from Tarantino

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Full show notes at: https://draft-zero.com/2015/dz-18/