Mar 29, 2022

Michael Bay Criticizes His VFX Staff, Says Their Work is Crap

From James Cameron to Ang Lee to Andy Serkis, insulting and belittling the hard work of visual effects artists is a blood sport for anyone involved in live action.

Michael Bay took it to the next level with out of pocket comments that no filmmaker has ever made to a visual effects crew.

While working on a junket for the action thriller Ambulance, Bay criticized the VFX shots in his film. He told Les Cinémas Pathé Gaumont: "It's a real ratchet. It's a real ratchet . . . There are very few blue screen shots in this film, not a lot of CG. There were a few shots that I wasn't happy with.

It's odd for any director to criticize his own film before it's released, but it's especially bizarre for a director to attack a lowly film crew for cutting corners on their work. Since filmmakers get all the glory, it is only natural that they take responsibility for the parts of their films that did not live up to their own standards. Bey's attempt to shift the blame is classless behavior.

Incidentally, Dan Levitan was the primary VFX supervisor on "Ambulance"; L.A.-based Opsis FX was the main VFX company.

UPDATE: According to information from a person familiar with the production, the visual effects that Bay was unhappy with were produced by a third-party vendor and were not supervised by Levitan.