Watch Michael Bay Explain How He Shot 'Transformers: Age Of Extinction'

We can accept that Transformers: Age of Extinction is no good and at the same time take pleasure in watching Michael Bay direct his cast and crew as they perform elaborately choreographed antics for his camera. In a new ten-minute video, Bay explains how he shot a number of different sequences in the latest Transformers film, and the techniques are all over the map. But this Michael Bay behind the scenes video makes one thing clear: its often small stuff that really sells a scene.

For example: One sequence uses a car suspended on cables and a soft foam tire that hits an actor in the face, but the important details are glasses flying off the stunt man's face, and him spitting out a mouthful of goop to sell the force of the blow. Check out the video below.

Transformers 4: Bay On Action from Michael Bay Dot Com on Vimeo.

I also enjoy seeing a little bit of talk about shooting plates for the dinobot sequences with no human actors in the frame — it's easy to forget that some sequences in a film like this effectively involve photographing nothing more than scenery. And it's still fun to hear Bay get a little defensive about his filmmaking practices, even when he's obviously got the leeway to do just about whatever he wants.