CAREER: American film director, producer and actor

Spike Lee, originally known as Shelton Jackson was born to Jacqueline Carroll, a teacher of arts and black literature, and William James Edward Lee, a jazz musician and composer on March 20, 1957. His popular name “Spike Lee” comes from his nickname given by his mother.

He had developed interest in the field of media quite early in life. Staying true to his interests and passion, Lee was making amateur films by age 20. His first student film, Last Hustle in Brooklyn, was completed when he was an undergraduate at Morehouse College in United States. He went to pursue his career from New York University Film School in 1982. His thesis film, Joe’s Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads, won a Student Academy Award.

Lee’s movies had influential themes of power black community and race. Lee has a long history of struggling to get funding for his projects. Lee has suggested that his inability to secure financing is due to the fact that the majority of his films deal with black characters and tell stories from a black perspective—the kind of subject matter Hollywood has often brushed off as “unmarketable.”

Even though the cause and his subject matter were quite extravagant and deep, considering the political scenario, he was unable to procure funds since markets were comparatively new.

 BUSINESS VALUE

Spike’s main residence is a 9000 square foot town home located in Manhattan’s most expensive Upper East Side zip code. This townhouse is actually made up of two separate three-story buildings that surround a private courtyard. The mansion has 9000 square feet of living space and was designated a New York City landmark. Spike purchased the house in 1998 for $4.75 million and today it is worth an estimated $30 – $40 million! The luxurious property wraps around an internal courtyard, which is home to a magnificent fountain as its centerpiece.

 Bagging his grand property which is set off in one of the most prime locations, just off the 18th hole of Farm Neck Golf Club, Spike had purchased it in 1989 for $400,000. He then built a four bedroom mansion which is worth an estimated $3-4 million today!

The $40 million value that Lee adorns is a result of his diligence during his mid twenties. In 1985, Lee began work on his first feature film, She’s Gotta Have It. With a budget of $175,000, he shot the film in two weeks. When the film was released in 1986, its turnover rounded to over $7,000,000 at the U.S. box office. Today Spike owns a film production company ’Forty Acres and a Mule” is located in a three-story building in Brooklyn that was purchased in 1991 for $820,000.

 SPIKE’S CAREER TAKES SHAPE

In mid-1990, Levi’s began producing a series of TV commercials directed by Lee for their 501 button fly jeans. Marketing executives from Nike offered Lee a job directing commercials for the company… Through the marketing wing of 40 Acres and a Mule, Lee has directed commercials for Converse, Jaguar, Taco Bell and Ben & Jerry’s.

The previous year, in July 2013, Spike Lee became the latest celebrity to launch a Kickstarter in order to fund a personal project. Spike was aiming to raise $1.25 million to fund his very own bloody psychological vampire thriller. It’s astonishing to know that, within a week, nearly 2000 people around the world have donated $400,000 to his project. Clearly his fans have conviction that Spike has a long way to go!

Spike has been a successful director and a producer with movies like “Do the right thing and “four little girls”.

CAUGHT UP IN CONTROVERSIES..

 Spike has been a victim of some controversial remarks he made. In 1999, at Cannes festival, he made an inappropriate comment about the President of National Rifle Association, in 2005 again, he was insensitive to the Black Americans during the Katrina Hurricane Catastrophe. Some people even expressed their disapproval about him raising funds for his upcoming films through kickstarts.

LEE’S LIFESTYLE

Lee is married to attorney Tonya Lewis and has two children, a daughter and a son. Spike Lee is a fan of the American baseball team the New York Yankees, basketball team the New York Knicks, and the English football team Arsenal

 While Lee continues to maintain an office in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, he and his wife live on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.

Being an American who is settled in Manhattan, he finds American cars stinky. He isn’t in a hurry to buy himself an exclusive car and he takes a walk from his apartment to the production office of his film company, Forty Acres and a Mule. He finds it a challenge only in harsh winter time when cabs don’t go from his office till his house. When he will invest his money in the same, he would not go for ant fancy car, contrary to what the public expects from him. He says he would buy one that would give good mileage and will be safe!

 Lee is quoted as saying that people have faults and that they are more interesting than people who are perfect. As for lee too, has seen success quite early in life but he insists on working on his faults

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Introduction

Michael Bay was born on 17^th February 1965. His complete name is Michael Benjamin Bay. He is an American film director and producer. He is not just a very popular film producer but is also a well known actor and a camera operator. He has started his career in year 1986. His generally produces a high budget film. His films are characterised with a lot of special effects and editing. His most notable work is in Armageddon which was released in year 1998. Then in year 2001 he produced Pearl Harbour which is also counted in the list of his notable work. In year 2007 his film Transformers released. The film was highly popularised and it made a market of around $3 Billion worldwide. The production house named as The Institute for the development of Enhanced Perceptual Awareness is founded by Michael only.  He is also the owner of Digital domain which is the house of digital effects.

Early life

Los Angeles, California is the birth place of Michael Bay. He was an adopted child and was raised by Harriet and Jim. Harriet was shopkeeper and a child psychiatrist. And Jim was the CPA. He completed his schooling from Crossroads school which is located in California. He completed his graduation from Wesleyan University in year 1986.

Career

Before starting his career he did an internship under George Lucas. He did this internship at the age of 15. He was very impressed by his experiences in the film industry internship. This raised his interest in film industry and so he decided to become a film director. He started his career by working at Propaganda Films. He directed music videos and commercials. One of his coca-cola advertisements was highly popularised. It was a 90 second advertisement. His commercial even won an award named Clio in year 1992. The Goodby Silverstein & partners got milk advertisement was also directed by him. Jerry Bruckheimer and Don Simpson were highly impressed by the music videos which were directed by Michael. And so they hired Michael for the direction of feature film named Bad Boys. This film was shot in year 1994 in Miami. The actors were Martin Lawrence and Will Smith. This was an action film and the role of Smith was highly appreciated. Smith got a big break with the help of his role in this film. Before this film Smith was struggling with television series. In year 1996 Michael again collaborated with Jerry Bruckheimer to produce The Rock which was again an action movie. The cast in this movie was Sean San, Ed Harris, and Nicolas Cage. The movie was shot on an island named Alcatraz Island. He founded Platinum Dunes which was named after one of the students of Bay.

Richness

His net worth is estimated to $400 million. It is said that most of his films earn more than $1 billion.  He is a co-owner of Platinum Dunes. He has a house in Miami. The estimated worth of the house is said to be $13.5 Million. The house is around 17,000 square feet in area. The presence of beach in front of the house further enhances the beauty of the house. The interiors of the house are outstanding. Elegant bedrooms add upon the beauty of the house.

Personal Life

He lives in Miami as well as Los Angeles. His companions are his two bullmastiffs. The names of the two dogs are Grace and Bonecrusher. Both his pets were also present in his movies like Armageddon and Transformers. He is very keen to his pets. He is a philanthropist as well. Because of his love for animals he donated money for animal shelter. Most of the time he includes his bullmastiff dogs in the movie he is directing. Apart from the two bullmastiffs he also had another dog. His dog Mason died in year 2007 during the production of one of his film.

Awards and honours

Bay was awarded with MTV movie award. He received this award five times. The first time he received this award for Best Movie Director. Then he received this award for his well known movie named Transformers. His movie Pearl Harbor, The Rock and Bad Boys II received the MTV Movie Award for best action. In year 1994 he was awarded for the Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Commercial. The directors Guild of America honoured Bay with this award. In year 2009 he received Vanguard Award for brilliant Film making. In 2011 he received Alliance of Women Film Journal Awards for the sequel of Transformers. He also received many other awards like Evening Standard British Award, People’s choice award and Teen Choice award. His 3-D films were also highly appreciated and he got a Scream Award for best 3-D movie. Because of his criticism he was also nominated for negative labels like Oklahoma Film Critics Circle Award for worst film and Golden Raspberry Award for worst Director.

His collaboration

He collaborated with many people for his films like Ben Affleck, Steve Buscemi, Peter Cullen, Michael Clarke Duncan, Ed Harris, Martin Lawrence, Joe Pantoliano, Will Smith, Peter Stormare, Tony Todd and John Voight.

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