25 years ago, a music video transformed the face of pop. The video is of course Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’ and its director John Landis recently talked about it celebrating its anniversary. He gives an interesting insight on what it was like shooting on of the best videos ever.

Although Jackson was only 24 when he released his fourth solo album ‘Thriller’ in 1982. It sold more than 50 million copies and spent 37 weeks at number one in the American charts, where it remained for more than two years. 7 of its 9 tracks were hit singles. But it was the 14-minute mini-film for the song `Thriller` which rewrote the rules for the music video. It became the bestselling music video ever, and still today it is a hit on the iTunes video chart.

At the time the video was shot young film-maker John Landis was at the peak of his career in Hollywood. He had directed excellent movies such as ‘The Blues Brothers’ and ‘An American Werewolf in London’. And it was after seeing the latter that Michael Jackson called him:

“I want to turn into a monster. Can I do that?”

John Landis recounts:

“It (Thriller) created MTV really. And it created the whole making-of business. It had a huge impact on the business. And all of it was accidental. All that happened was that Michael called me up after watching American Werewolf.

So I went to see him with Rick Baker, who had done the special effects make-up on that film, and we took along a big book of monsters for him to look at. He hadn’t seen many horror films: he was scared of that stuff.

After The Blues Brothers, I wanted to do a good musical number with real dancers and shoot it correctly. And I tried to exploit Michael’s celebrity to reinvent the theatrical short. That’s why it’s 14 minutes: it’s a two-reeler, the same length as a Laurel and Hardy short or a Bugs Bunny cartoon.”

However, his script wasn’t liked that much by CBS, Michael Jackson’s record label at that time. They refused to pay for it. So Landis did a deal with the new cable network Showtime, who handed over $300,000 for the video and the making-of. The rest of the budget came from MTV. The 45-minute `Making of Thriller` established the genre, anticipating the “extras” that now accompany almost every DVD release.

However, at the time, says Landis,

“…we used to call it ‘The Making of Filler’. It turned out very well, but the truth is that it’s filled with scenes from American Werewolf because I owned them, and anything else we could find to fill up the time.

When we found we were still six minutes short, we decided to put in pieces of the video itself. In fact, it’s very effective, but at the time I thought, ‘This is shameless.’ ”

Landis also recounts how great it was working with Michael:

“Michael was terrific to work with. He was in his mid-twenties, but he was like a gifted 10-year-old. He was emotionally damaged but so sweet and so talented.”

In Landis’ mind, the purpose of `Thriller`was…

“to give Michael some balls..(…)… so I said I want to get a pretty girl, and I want you to relate to each other sexually. And he went, ‘OK.’

He was agreeable to everything, even when I wrote that line where he says to the girl, ‘I’m not like other guys.’ I warned him, ‘Mike, this is a laugh line.’ He said, ‘Why?’ And I said, ‘Because, Michael, you are… unusual, and people will laugh and interpret it any way they want to.’”

The next potential problem arose with Ola Ray, the actress Landis wanted to play his girlfriend:

“We found out she had been a Playboy playmate. Oh, Jesus Christ! I went to Michael and told him and said, ‘Can I hire her?’ He said, ‘Sure’, though I don’t think he even knew what I was talking about.”

The premiere of the video was a big event and attended by lots of big stars of that time:

“Marlon Brando was there, Elizabeth Taylor, Diana Ross, Cher - I’d never seen anything like it.”

But a big difficulty occurred when members of the Jehovah’s Witnesses church, of which Jackson was a member, started to kick up a fuss:

“Michael was told, ‘This is evil. It endorses Satanism. You can’t release it.’ So I had to negotiate this bullshit statement and put it on the beginning of the video. It was such a bizarre opening, but it actually had a positive influence because it created so much talk, so much controversy. And, by the way, Michael didn’t write it; I did.”

When the video was released, the album went straight back to #1 on the US charts and tripled its sales, while MTV increased its viewer-ship a thousand-fold.

Landis still has the highest regard for Michael Jackson and they remain friends - although, acoording to Landis, he owes him a lot of money.

“Listen,” he says smiling, “Michael probably owes me $10 million because he’s in hock to Sony so deeply. All the monies from the Thriller video, which I own 50 per cent, are collected by Sony. My deal is with Michael’s company, and he owes Sony so much that they keep the money. So I will never get the money, and if I want to sue Michael, it’s like, ‘Get in line.’ ”

But Landis bears no resentment towards Michael. He last spoke to him a few months ago:

“When I talk to him, he’s very friendly and funny. I’m upset at what he’s done to himself physically; it’s quite creepy. But he’s still a gigantic talent, and I really believe he’ll make a comeback. There’s talk of him doing one of those big shows in Las Vegas, like Elton John or Celine Dion. Why not - he still has millions of fans.”

Source: Telegraph

Category: General News