Michael Jackson- The Making Of Thriller (documentary about the music video)

This is a vintage documentary about the making of the Michael Jackson Thriller music video that I think is really great:



It was released on VHS and laserdisc but it's never been released on DVD for some reason (legal issues?). Anyway, if you're a Michael Jackson fan it's totally worth watching.

 

I remember when the video came out. It was pretty wild.

 

Yes, this was directed by my old pal Jerry Kramer, for whom I did nearly a hundred music videos throughout the 1980s. He was a very gracious and creative man, and this was undoubtedly the biggest show he ever did. A friend of mine had been working on a "30th Anniversary of Thriller" project some years ago and looked into getting the HD rights to remaster the Making of Thriller documentary, but it was completely tied up with MJJ (Jackson's company) and Epic Records. Basically, they didn't feel like doing anything with it, and weren't willing to negotiate to even temporarily sell the rights for a couple of years. Lotta red tape.

There are a lot of missed opportunities like this in the music business, where stuff sits on the shelf for years and years, all because it's almost impossible to get the copyright owners and lawyers in one room and get them to make a decision.

BTW, I think there was at least 10 hours of additional footage on the Making of Thriller doc that nobody ever saw. Whether it was carefully stored, or if it's dusty and melted in a warehouse, or whether it was tossed in the trash in 1984... I have no idea. Kramer told me years ago he shipped all the 16mm footage (approved + outtakes) to Michael's warehouses, and he only has the released version on VHS.

 

Wow! Needless to say, I would love to see more of this footage! I could watch this stuff for hours.

 

We said the same thing! At the worst, you could double the 45-minute runtime of the Making of Thriller special (which was designed to be shown on network TV) and make it a 90-minute show, easily. That plus all the Thriller music videos would be a fantastic home video package. But my friend the producer ran into nothing but roadblocks.

 

I met John Landis at science fiction convention some years back and despite his having directed Animal House and The Blues Brothers the first thing I asked him about...was Thriller.

This is THE music video. The rest...well, there's Thriller and the rest. It's the peak of the medium.

Thanks God for YouTube...because I showed this to my then-6 year old and he LOVED it. We still listen to and watch Thriller...and it's really something to see him love Michael Jackson without having to justify it or wander into an awkward conversation.

...we'll get there, I'm sure. Not today.

 

That's a shame. There are so many interesting elements to see- the makeup effects, the dancing and choreography, Michael and John interacting, the design of the sets and props...

 

No idea why it'd be awkward. Music is awesome, singing is terrific, dance moves are great, video is fantastic,... Nothing else matters.

Some people are incapable of divorcing the work form the artist. I can with an ease which is seemingly quite rare. No idea why that's so difficult for some. Music should never be about principle grandstanding, IMHO. It's art. Enjoy the art and ignore the rest. That's what I do when I listen to the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, or 9/10th of anybody I blast through the stereo.

 

A musician on Youtube who collects Synths and studio equipment from the 1980's shows how to recreate Thriller.

 

That's a great video series; it breaks down all the parts nicely.