Finally,
Michael Bay has stepped down from Cheese Mountain to pontificate on the finer points of the
HD DVD vs. Blu-ray war. Speaking from the inner-sanctum of his lair -- located equidistant from the Church of Scientology and a gigantic cotton candy stand -- Mr. Bay reminds us that, "Blu-ray's better, and I told everyone," then goes on to further prop himself by adding, "I was very vocal about it. I knew HD [DVD] was not going to make it." We're glad that Bay can sleep at night, safe in the knowledge that the mere "quality" of the formats decided the winner of this battle, rather than massive business partnerships fueled by the desire for marketshare. He wrapped up his message (actually given at an awards ceremony held by the Visual Effects Society) by saying, "Am I thrilled? It really wasn't my fight, but remember what I said in the press? I was kind of saying HD [DVD]'s going to lose... No one believed me." He then slammed a trophy he was receiving to the floor, pointed to the packed room, and yelled, "In your face, HD DVD!"
[Via
Blu-ray, thanks Kiwi616]
posted Feb 14th 2008 11:04AM
Douchebag.
I mean, Douchebay.
Agreed. This guy needs to get off his high horse and realize that he makes crappy movies no matter what format they are on.
I'm sure he's made more money on his movies than you have on your far superior ones.
I'm just sayin'
This guy is insane.
@ Andir3.0
Just cause we can't all make movies doesn't mean we can't criticize the people who do and suck at it and are morons anyway.
And yes he is a moron... this entire war is about business deals and exclusivity, not quality. And frankly, I don't think this format's life cycle is going to be that long...
It is kind of telling that both Apple and Microsoft are mobilizing on the digital download front and not on the physical disc market. I think its entirely plausible that within 5-6 years this kind of media will being chewing apart Blu-Ray. I believe this is why Microsoft excluded an HD-DVD drive from the 360. In a few years it won't make any difference because you'll get everything via Live and a hi def disc player would just be dead weight for the console.
Unless Microsoft and Apple are investing heavily in ISP bandwidth... it's going to be a while.
@Andir3.0
I never claimed to be a film maker. I am, however, a film watcher which gives me every right to call his movies crap.
and on top of that, who is he to say "I TOLD YOU SO, Blu-Ray blah blah blah". Like he was the ONLY person in the world that was in the Blu-Ray camp or like he actually had any role in it winning.
Wow..some of you guys are really sore about the whole thing huh?
You guys were the same ones that were creaming your jeans when Transformers was announced on HD-DVD.
Now look at you now...a bunch of sore losers.
Well, at least you have your Transformers on HD-DVD. Then you can follow up with The Matrix Trilogy. Then back to Transformers...then The Matrix...so on and so forth.
I don't agree that Digital Downloads are the future. I personally like owning a physical copy of my media. The idea of VoD is a good one, but that is different from buying the content, that is just renting it. When I actually buy the content I want to own something with the content on it rather than a volatile HDD with an image of it.
Taking games as an example. I currently own ~30 360 games. That means I would need a HDD that is over 250gb built into my 360, and then when I want more games I would need more HDD. Also if the HDD died it would take ages to download the games again. Changing HDDs would be no different from changing discs, so having numerous smaller HDD is no alternative.
Plus the current ADSL network is so poor, that downloading HD movies would be very tedious.
@ByronGman
Call me old fogey-ish, but I'm not dropping physical media in exchange for digital downloads any time soon. Three reasons (which are really important to me): quality, storage, DRM.
I mean, if downloads became much cheaper than their physical counterparts AND DRM-free then I'd definitely buy SOME that way. Not the stuff that I really care about though.
@Lars - And you think your physical copy is DRM free? Hell Blu-Ray probably has more DRM per disc than the whole of the iTunes catalogue.
Anyway who pays to download films ;-)
I can see the points everyone in making, but I think that these are issues that will start to fade away...
The technology is only going to improve, which means people are going to demand more digital media that is not tied to a disc. I mean just look at that mobile chip/platform Nvidia has developed. Look at the iPhone. As this level of technology diffuses into handhelds, demand for digital content is going to skyrocket... and people will just expect that they can sync movies with their phone or pull them up on their Apple TV, 360, PS3...
Obviously there are problems and technical hurdles... but I'm sure you would have said the same thing 5 years before the iPod came out.
He may be a douche, but to actually visualize that happening is feckin hilarious?!
No hate for Mr Bay at all. I'm glad he's vocal about his preferences in media format. Other directors should be doing the same, regardless of their format of choice. A lot of directors, and actors, do the work just for the paycheck and then forget about the movie/project. Why? This will follow you beyond the grave. So, might as well be involved in the life of the projects you've been part of. I think the author went out of his way to ridicule Bay, but I still support Mr Bay's views.
Maybe he should spend less time worrying about a war that he admits is not his and spend more time trying to make movies that don't suck.
Haha, indeed. I was about to suggest the same thing!
that would imply that he actually can make good movies.
Someone throw a disc at him... Reminds me of those commercials where the sandwich hits a person in the head and they think to go to subway or something. I imagine the same thing happening to Bay.
So, when am I going to see your guys' movies on the big screen? I mean, we can all sit back and complain about the movies or go make our own.
I don't have to be an author to know a book sucks. I don't have to be a musician to know a song sucks. I don't have to be a computer programmer to know a piece of software sucks AND I don't have to be in the movie industry to know that Michael Bay's movies have about as much substance as a politicians promise.
I mean for god s sake four of his films are really shitty remakes. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Amityville Horror, The Hitcher and The Birds.
True, but you can sit back and cry about the movies or do something about it. Apparently, he's making money on them so someone likes them.
Yeah, and it's becoming quite apparent who...
@ Andir3.0
I'm not a director and I'm sure most of these other people aren't, so its not our job to make movies. Bay on the other had makes movies for a living and his movies all suck serious ass. So maybe he should stop sucking at his job and get that chip off his shoulder.
Actually, I've never bought any of his movies. I'm just pointing out the obvious. Look at Movie sales and stuff and you'll see it too.
Chris, and you would suck if your job was to decide what movies to release. It's so stupid to see all this criticism of his movies when almost every one of them are blockbusters. Stick to the issues, if you want to attack him for his support for BD, go ahead. To talk about his movies when they are obviously big hits is idiotic. Frankly, I'm glad BD won, because it's expensive for a laptop drive to support BD and HDDVD, if they even have it. Guess what media I want on my laptop? Yeah, the one with bigger capacity. Do I want different media for my movies and laptop drive? umm....no.
@Andir3.0
Last three posts by you on this Engadget article:
Feb 14th 2008 12:30PM True, but you can sit back and cry about the movies or do something about it. Apparently, he's making money on them so someone likes them.
Feb 14th 2008 11:58AM So, when am I going to see your guys' movies on the big screen? I mean, we can all sit back and complain about the movies or go make our own.
Feb 14th 2008 11:56AM I'm sure he's made more money on his movies than you have on your far superior ones.
I'm just sayin'
Are you really Michael Bay, or maybe his mom?
andir, you're a tool. i understand that i don't have any talent in film making. however, i also realize that neither does michael bay. just because something is popular does give it any artistic merit. nickelback go platinum and sell out huge concerts, but does that mean they make good music? hells no. mcdonalds makes all kinds of money but no one is saying they make stunning culinary works.
when will people realize that monetary success does not equate talent or even competency?
oh man... lol
I've never even new about Bay until Transformers to tell the truth. Yet somehow, due to this little format war and everyone getting all uppity and high on their opinions he's come to the forefront.
Now, I could point out that your continuing to try to discredit me for some reason... but sales don't lie. If you want to disagree with them and go against the opinions of society.... that's your own call. Why do you feel the need to be so vocal about it though? He's just a director, who happened to speak out about a format war that has drawn heated fans on both sides. What makes him any different than any of the directors from other craptastic movies of the past? Did he come out and fight against your favorite movie format? (Another popular question on the net) Did he kill your baby? What in the world would motivate you to voice your opinion on a director that makes movies that you don't like? Honest question here.
@Mattbates
"when will people realize that monetary success does not equate talent or even competency?"
Sorry, but this is USA in 2008 my friend--a place where money makes you relevent. You are judged by how much money you make, how many millions of people love your works, and how many copies you sell. Sheer numbers matter. Perceptions matter. Glamour matters. Some would argue that it takes talent to do what he's done. I don't condone the comments that M. Bay said here, but you have to give the man credit where credit is due.
Actually I wish you'd let us engineers sort out what is best for you.
At the end of the day it's the corporates that screw it all up - folk seem to think because they've got a bit of money behind them they know best. Sure you may have made lots of money making that film but honestly could you have done it all yourself? Did you make the camera you shot on? Or did you program that raytracer that all your effects are made with? Does he really understand it all - or is he just a blockbuster 'Porn-Style' Director.
Why a 'movie maker' is trying to get in on what format is best for people for the next ten years I have no idea. Blu-ray and HD-DVD are more than just a storage format - if any of you took the time (including Mr Bay) to read the full specs and see how it is linked in to online content, content addition, framing, sub selection and all other things like that then there is one clear winner. Technically blu-ray is better as a storage medium... utilising vlwl laser technology it can store more data per sq-inch than HD-DVD, but that also reads it's more sensitive to scratches and requires more accurate kit to read it.
This wasn't a war about which is best - they were actually going to do different things - but all the hot heads in the house wanted to take sides and they've made another situation where once again the consumer loses. I work for a broadcast firm - a very big one - if you have a Digital TV transmission (sat/ter/cable) then there is a 9.5 out 10 chance our software is in there. If we are the biggest and you don't know about us then how do you think that is possible? In my eyes those that preach and sell hard, have to, because their product is weak. However, engineers like me can't be bothered these days - we get a lawsuit if it goes wrong and a wooden trophy for doing well. I've got enough firewood to last me into retirement so screw that.
Anyway see you on the flip side. Thanks Mr Bay for being the complete tosser you are - may the sheep follow you :-)
It's not just some small minority that thinks his movies suck. To say they don't makes it sound like you've never even heard of Pearl Harbor.
Time for a little Valentine's song:
I miss you more than Michael Bay missed the mark,
When he made Pearl Harbor.
I miss you more than that movie missed the point,
And that’s an awful lot.
And now, now you've gone away,
And all I'm trying to say,
Is Pearl Harbor sucked and I miss you...
I am so taking advantage of the HD- DVDs 50% off Amazon sale. Just for that.
Mr. Bay is a huge supporter of special features and even reissued a 4-disc collection of Pearl Harbor full of special extras.
Ironically, many of the extras on the Transformers HD DVD (the HUD, the Web-enabled features, etc.) couldn't even have been implemented at the time on Blu-ray due to BD's stupid "profiles".
He's another misinformed BD kool-aid drinker caught up on stats and ignoring other important factors.
No, he's a filmmaker. Not a very good one in my estimation, but a filmmaker nonetheless. As such, his primary concern is going to be the visual quality of his films once they make it to disc. "Stats" matter in this case.
And douchebag or not, the guy was right. You can be a jerk and still get it right once or twice in your life.
Amen Brother!
My Amen was to TrentD for his comments, Jeff is incorrect in his assessment that BD specs are better... They both have the same codecs (audio and video) BD has more storage (which does not mean more content). If Michael Bay really cared about his films or the end result, he would not support a format which by design has alienated early adopters with the 1.1 spec and will do it all again when the 2.0 spec gets released.
Please feel free to educate yourself about topics before you comment!
I wonder of one of those special features is the oft-rumored, but never seen, "good" version of the film.
@ Jeff,
Jeff, the visual quality of the film, along with the audio certainly matters to Mr. Bay, but my point is that his past actions have proven that he cares very much about special features. HD DVD certainly continues to have the advantage in that area, and he proves his igorance by ignoring that fact.
It is absolutely true that the initial profile of HD DVD allowed more special features than Blu Ray. That was one of the reasons I went HD DVD, the other being a low price of entry. Now that Blu is winning I bought a PS3 so that I'm not likely to get screwed like some early Blu Ray adopters.
@DT: Yeah, but removing Ben Afleck from all the scenes would be quite a chore, so he will just leave that for "Pearl Harbor: The Shoretening" where he replaces Afleck with Pauly Shore and trims it to half the length.
what i want to know is who the hell bought a 4 disc pearl harbor collection? i understand that the movie would take up three dvds and theyd give a special bonus disc, but damn. maybe this is the reason he likes bluray; because it has a larger storage capacity for his seemingly 8 hour movies. hello directors cut.
this reminds me of one of the only funny things i've heard jay leno say: 'gigli just came out on dvd. its the only film in history where the directors cut was shorter than the original release.'
this could just as easily apply to bay.
I don't really care which format won as long as one of them did. My question for the estimable Mr. Bay, is, how do region codes and larger capacity equate to higher quality? Last time I checked both formats use the same encoding, however, I guess theoretically the larger capacity could allow for future, higher quality encoding formats... maybe.
You really thought it was about quality/disc capacity? Nope, it was all about Blu-Ray having BD+ as film studios don't trust their customers. The greatest irony is that BD+ has already been cracked..
I didn't think that...
The key is PS3!
BD+ hasn't been cracked in the way you think it has, sadly.
Hopefully the music and movie departments of the studios can communicate and remove the DRM protections compeltely, since we, their income source, don't want any part of it.
You and the BluRay Fascist Regime can kiss my ass.
I voted for HD-DVD with my dollars, and I am not going to use your format.
Oh, and btw, Michael Bay is a hack.
well hooray for you and your wasted dollars.
So what are you going to do when hd-dvd titles are no longer available? 'cos if you buy a blu ray player robocop's going to come into your house, rape your dog and kick you in the teeth.
A giant cotton candy stand? Wha???
an inconvenient truth...
http://www.michaelbay.com/blog/files/Michael-Bay-HD-DVD.html
HOLY CRAP That was funny, I remember that post on engadget! lol. what an AZZ! he sounds like he should go into politics with all the jumping around he is doing.
I could give 2 shits about Bay. His movies are entertaining and full of action, just not very deep. So, where does that leave the vocal proponent of Blu? Steven Spielberg has repeatedly refused ANY of his movies on HD_DEAD. Universal has tried several times to show that JP, ET, and his other BIG hits were coming to HD_DEAD in press conferences or keynote speeches, (the last attempt came in Tokyo and within a day Mr. Spielberg said "no soup for you Universal" on putting his movies on HD_DEAD.
I cannot understand why Universal did not take the hint that some of the BIGGEST movies they have could not be released on the format they support. Paramount quickly found themselves in the same boat when they switched over for $$$ to HD_DEAD.
All I have to say now to Universal and Paramount is....HA HAH!!
Withing months they will come crawling to BLU and we will have a unified medium and finally the big guns the studios have been holding back will be released.
HD_DEAD...I see what you did there. You may go stand behind Mr. Bay in the "douchebag" line.
Seriously though, that's not clever.
HD DVDEAD would be much more clever. If you're going to make jokes... why not at least make them somewhat clever?
Oh wait. I forgot who we're dealing with here. Nevermind.
Blu-Ray Rules!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!111111111
Fun fact: Releasing the "Shift" key when typing an underscore will actually "shift" that underscore up and produce a hyphen! The more you know!
HD_DEAD does not deserve a hyphen, I was using HD-DEAD for a few days but I decided that Toshiba is so low that they do not deserve one. Ha that joke, I makea funny see?
So you think Toshiba deserves an extra keystroke to make an underscore? Like, Holy Macarol, your hate for HD DVD is so great that you are willing to press extra buttons!!!
What a cock monkey.
Serisouly.
I wont even begin to explain why. Anyone with a brazil nut for a brain (see: Chimpanzee) will see exactly why he's a cock monkey.
who's Mister Bay?
because I really did not know who he was, never really followed movie directors names, I looked him up. I really did not like the movie Transformers, only because of the constant camera movement. If he is the "inventor" of this style of movie making, then I am no fan. I like the scene to be more than .75 seconds long. I'm not on meth, so I don't need the constant stimulation.
So, when is Transformers coming out on BluRay?
Interesting point...
i dont know if its actually out on bluray but ive seen the bluray (20gig 1080) rip of it and it 'is' amazing.
I suppose he "knew" Pearl Harbor was going to suck too. What a stupid douchebag.
Sell out
Sony is a dirty corporation.
Ironic, coming from a guy with an Apple avatar.
Ignorant Tool!
Wow, a lot of bitter HD-DVD fanboys in here!
No, a lot of people who recognize an egotistical, grandstanding douchebag is all.
Either that or a lot of people who realize the only loser in the format war was the consumer...
You should blame Toshiba for this mess. They should have joined the Bluray Alliance.
They didn't and they got squashed.
DVD was adopted quickly because their wasn't another competing format and it was substantially better than VHS.
Thanks to Toshiba, the progression was delayed. And for that, they lose.
@Frank 'I Suck Sony's Ballsack' the Crank - Takes two to tango. Sony could of just as easily pulled out and ended this war. The only reason Toshiba lost was not having as much money as Sony to throw at people to get them to support their format.
Make movies that don't suck? His films are multi-million sellers. If his goals were to make lots of money, I'd say the movies he produced/directed were highly successful.
I don't often agree with movie critics who criticize due to plot, themes, or other things on what is clearly an action movie. I actually thought Pearl Harbor and Transformers were good. Sure, the dialogue between the female (kate beckinsdale) and males were cheesy, but overall, the movie did a great job of bringing the viewer into the action, and retold pretty accurately what happened to Pearl Harbor. And, did you see the scenery and special effects?
Anyways, I think people criticized that movie too harshly. It is an action movie.
Hanna Montana
Backstreet Boys
N Sync
Britney
Ashlee Simpson
Jessica Simpson
Selling millions of dollars of entertainment content != quality. Is Titanic the best movie ever?
If you ask any teenage girl during the mid to late 90's what they think--Titanic was [is] the best movie ever.
homi, it wasn't made for you and certainly not me, but it is good for other people, that was the whole point. Instead, all of you douchebags do is criticize this man because he really loves BD. If he said he loved HDDVD, all of you guys talking about him would talk about how great his movies were. The point silverfrog made is this, the movies made millions because it was made exactly for the audience it was intended for. It doesn't care if few hundred hddvd fanboy love it or not. Quality is subjective, and if Britney Spears keep making money, it's probably because she keeps making songs that teens like. Anyways, reread silverfrog's comment if you don't understand.
The worst thing is that even though the format war is over, I still have to wait to buy a player until blue ray decides what profile they're going to stick with. Does anyone have any idea when that will be?
PS3 + upgradeable firmware = win. I doubt I'll ever have to worry about stuff like this.
Profile 2.0, around autumn this year (wild guess, but sometime this year).
Ah, if only HD-DVD had won, we wouldn't have this mess :|
plyx, It has nothing to do with being an HD DVD fanboy. When you win at anything most people with half a brain (of course this excludes "Michael Shit for brains Bay ")are not boastful and braggarts, it shows a total lack of class.
This Guy is classless and clueless.
Damn... that was the funniest post I've seen in a long time!
I wish that he would take that same focus and energy that he uses to push blu ray format over hd dvd and uses it to make a decent transformers sequel. I would rather him tell me "I told you so" about how great the sequel is and any other movie he makes for that matter.
What bothers me about Bay is that he based his opinion on things he just "heard" from friends he was talking to at dinner and didn't do any real research for himself.
ok cmon gimme Transformers on bluray now
Forget about him.
What I want to know is...what is Uwe Boll's format of choice?
He likes the shoulder-carrying-VHS-camcorder-running-in-circles-around-a-person-to-imitate-bullet-time format.
Sorry wrong place for the comment. The above was meant Andir 3.0
Bitching on the internets IS doing something about it.
Here's what I do. Don't ever see his movies in the theater, don't ever buy one of his crappy DVDs, HD DVDs or Blu Ray DVDs, and bitch about him on the internet so that less people with see/buy his movies. If he doesn't make as much money on his films he might go away, or go back to being a decent second unit director.
Sounds like someone is pissed off that BD won. I went with BD, and I am glad it won. Bringing up the same old thing again and again is not going to do anything. HD DVD is dead, and that's that. This guy said so openly. Now he's saying, "told you so". What's wrong with that? At least he has an opinion.
@ first poster- yeah- douchebag sums it up. This is guyis like that dumbass kid who's parents bought him a nice car in high school and he was proud of it like it was an accomplishment. If Spielberg hadn't been attatched to Transformers, he would have screwed it up.
And- can someone explain to this idiot that BLURAY and HDDVD have the EXACT SAME technical specs for picture and sound quality? Nothing looks sharper on one over the other.
After his comments, two fat kids chest bumped...
@ HC
I supported hddvd, but I now support blu ray because the damn format war needs to completely end now. I mean, it s already over and hddvd needs to just throw in the towel.
I was supporting hddvd because it had less copy protection, but then Kaliedescape announced future bluray support, so I was pretty excited by that. Had they just done that in the beginning...
In answer to the question posed in the picture.
I have to admit that some SMALL part of me wants to see Pearl Harbor in HD so that I can gaze upon Kate Beckinsale in all her glory.
One thing that Bay can do is make his leading ladies look good. Kate Beckinsale, Liv Tyler, Scarlett Johansson, Megan Fox,....
When Steven Spielberg, James Cameron, George Lucas, Alejandro Gonzalaz, Tim Burton and Francis Lawrence all say "no" to a project, Michael Bay will say yes.
Meaning that the movie will suck.
1) Michael Bay is NOT that "powerful" to be the deciding factor in what sandwich I purchase today, let alone what next gen DVD format everyone in the WORLD chooses.
2) He can't even be consistent! I mean he backed HD-DVD before, NOW that BluRay looks like it is winning, "In your face, HD DVD!".
3) Michael Bay needs a life.
.... And Al Gore invented the internet....
Wow, was that a reply?
I'm lost...
That was @ RIck BTW, not myself...
Engadget's comment software hits again...
You mean your HD isn't physical? Or you don't think you'd be able to rip and burn that digital file on your physical HD onto a disk? Or do you mean you prefer low rez DVDs which are shown to deteriorate over time, are prone to scratches and damage preventing them from playing and take up tons of space? You still own records I bet.