What's Michael Bay Doing in My Michel Gondry Shoot?

Something Weird Going on in Crispin, Microsoft Spot

Posted by Ken Wheaton on 07.11.08 @ 01:37 PM

It's no secret that stodgy old Microsoft, perhaps a little tired of being played by a business-class dork in those "Mac vs. PC" ads, hired Crispin Porter & Bogusky to spruce up its image. And while both marketer and shop have been tight-lipped about the execution of that plan, we knew that upcoming spots would involve director Michel Gondry, the man behind out-there movies such as "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," "The Science of Sleep" and "Be Kind Rewind." So when Brooklyn blog Gowanus Lounge sent out the alert that a street in Brooklyn had been shut down for a Microsoft shoot, we sent a camera-armed intern to get a shot of Gondry, some of the Crispin team and, perhaps, of Jerry Seinfeld, who was rumored to be in the spot.

Since the intern wasn't exactly clear what Gondry looked like, she was instructed to look for a haughty-looking director type, someone obviously in charge, maybe shouting directions to other people.

Imagine our surprise when she returned with photos of what appeared to be Michael Bay, the director of loud summer smashups such as "Bad Boys," "Armageddon," "Pearl Harbor" and, most recently, "Transformers." (We also spotted a couple of Crispin regulars, David Rolfe and Rob Reilly.)

So now we're more than a little confused. Gondry was on the set (we can see the back of his head in one photo!) and was confirmed as the director by one of the crewmembers. So what the heck was Bay doing there? Casting Bay in a spot does strike us as the surreal sort of meta business Gondry usually engages in. Then again, Bay is just coming off of a starring role in those "Awesome" spots for Verizon's FiOS.

Crispin Porter & Bogusky declined to tell us what was going on. Guess we'll just have to wait and see.