about michael bay "the director"

Michael Benjamin Bay (born February 17, 1965) is an American film director and producer. He is known for directing high-budget action films characterized by their fast edits, stylistic visuals and substantial practical special effects. His films, which include The Rock, Armageddon, Pearl Harbor and the Bad Boys and Transformers series, have grossed over three billion dollars world-wide. He is co-founder of commercial production house The Institute, a.k.a. The Institute for the Development of Enhanced Perceptual Awareness. He is co-chair and part-owner of the digital effects house Digital Domain. He co-owns Platinum Dunes, a production house which has remade horror movies including Friday the 13th, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and A Nightmare on Elm Street.

Bay has received five MTV Movie Awards: Best Movie and Best Summer Movie You Haven't Seen Yet for Transformers, Best Action Scene for Pearl Harbor, Best Action Scene for Bad Boys II, and Best Action Scene for The Rock.[citation needed] In 1994, Bay was honored by the Directors Guild of America with an award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Commercials.
Michael Bay received the ShoWest 2009 Vanguard Award for excellence in filmmaking at the confab of theater owners.

Bay lives in Los Angeles and Miami with his two bullmastiffs, Bonecrusher and Grace, named for characters in Transformers and Armageddon, respectively. As a boy, he donated his Bar Mitzvah money to an animal shelter and often includes his bullmastiff dogs in his films. He had another dog, Mason. Mason the dog's last appearance in a film was as Miles' dog in Transformers. He died during production of that film in March 2007.