Michael Bay Comments on His Epic Meltdown at the Samsung Pre-CES Event

[dgstorm]

Sometimes, stuff happens in life at an inopportune moment and we are simply not prepared to deal with it at that time. Such is the case with the first big drama of CES. The most talked about happenstance at the Consumer Electronics Show in 2014 so far was not some amazing tech gadget or technological break-through, it was watching Michael Bay, the famous movie director, have a very public live meltdown at a Samsung event on Monday. Bay's teleprompter glitched out and he was unable to transform into "ad-lib" mode, so rather than continue stumbling he decided to "exit stage left."

In this instance, Bay felt it important to comment on his "moment of crisis" to set the record straight by offering his own internal perspective. Here's what he said on his personal blog,

Wow! I just embarrassed myself at CES – I was about to speak for Samsung for this awesome Curved 105-inch UHD TV. I rarely lend my name to any products, but this one is just stellar. I got so excited to talk, that I skipped over the Exec VP’s intro line and then the teleprompter got lost. Then the prompter went up and down – then I walked off. I guess live shows aren’t my thing.

But I’m doing a special curved screen experience with Samsung and Transformers 4 footage that will be traveling around the world.

Michael

At first it was easy to poke fun at his experience, but sometimes we need to consider all the factors and put ourselves in the other guy's shoes. It seems easy to say what we would have done if we were in his place, yet most people would find that level of public speaking to be a mortifying event even without the teleprompter glitch! We should give him Kudos for commenting on it and owning up to it instead of trying to duck it. Regardless, it was funny and makes for a great story for the future.

Source: MichaelBay

 

[xsylus]

From what I've seen most teleprompters are just blue text that scrolls upward. I really think they should be a bit more like a karaoke prompt where the line you should be reading is a different color that way if you lose your place you can easily pick it back up. I can't imagine the amount of pressure Mr. Bay was under. Being a director he's used to being behind the camera not in the spotlight. Imagine doing something you're already nervous about and then having your "safety net" (teleprompter) fail.