2. Background of artist
Background on Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson also known as the King of pop is recognized as the
most successful entertainer of all time. His contributions to music, dance
and fashion along with his over publicized personal life, made him a
global figure in the music industry for over four decades.
He is the eighth child of the Jackson family. He debuted on the
professional music scene along with his brothers as a member of The
Jackson 5 in 1964 and began his solo career in 1971.
Through stage and video performances, Michael popularized a number
of complicated dance techniques such as; the robot, and the moon
walk, to which he gave the name. His distinctive sound and style has
influenced numerous hip-hop, post-disco, contemporary R&B, pop and
rock artists.
3. Background of song
Thriller" is a song recorded by American recording artist
Michael Jackson, composed by Rod Temperton, and produced
by Quincy Jones. It was released on November 12, 1983 in
most countries and January 23, 1984 in the United States by
Epic Records.
"Thriller" had received positive reviews from critics, though the
song was outshone by its music video. "Thriller" became
Jackson's seventh top-ten single on the Billboard Hot 100
Chart from the album, while reaching the top of the charts in
France and Belgium and the top ten in other countries.
4. At fourteen minutes the video is substantially longer than the
song, which ties together a narrative featuring Jackson and actress Ola
Ray in a setting heavily inspired by horror films of the 1950s. It was
nominated for six MTV Video Music Awards and won three out of the
possible six.
In the song, sound effects such as a creaking door, thunder, feet
walking on wooden planks, winds and howling dogs can be heard, and
the lyrics contain frightening themes and elements.
According to The New Yorker Michael Jackson credited with selling a
hundred million copies of his most popular album, “Thriller”—and with
selling an “estimated” seven hundred and fifty million records worldwide
over his career.
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/culture/2013/01/did-michael-
jacksons-thriller-really-sell-a-hundred-million-copies.html
5. Background information about the
director
John Landis (born August 3, 1950) is an American film
director, screenwriter, actor, and producer. John is known for his comedy films, his
horror films, and his music videos with Michael Jackson.
John Landis began his career at the age of 18 when he dropped out of high school. He
went from job to job and slowly but gradually became more successful as he fulfilled
higher roles over time in his career to the point when he became a director.
Some of John Landis previous work is the very well-known horror film „An American
ware wolf in London‟. John directed several music videos and films but this film in
particular stood out from the rest as it is extremely similar to Michael Jackson „thriller‟
video.
The film and video share the same concept and theme and present a very dark / dull
visual. John Landis incorporated a lot of his camera work into Michael‟s song and
made it prosperous as he has had experience and the expertise in Horror films in which
it shows.
6. Genre characteristics
For any genre of any music videos there are always several characteristics
used to fulfil the theme and the idea of the genre.
In this music video „thriller‟ follows the genre of the pop song as it displays
many aspects of it that people can associate with a pop song. For
example, dance chorography is shown in this video which tells people it is a
type of song people can dance to. Many artists use this in their video as it is
more entertaining and enjoyable to watch. However in this video Michael has
created his own dance routine that has become so successful that it is
recognized worldwide and thought of when this song is played. This music
video definitely follows the main concept of a pop song as it uses many
different bright colours throughout the duration of the video which is seen as a
connotation of happiness and enjoyment just like other music videos.
7. Relationship between lyrics and
visuals
The song thriller cunningly combines with the title of the song, as
the tempo of the song consists of slow creepy mid-tempo (blended
with audio that can be found in most trilling horror films) that
suddenly transforms to a more upbeat fast-tempo, which climaxes
the thrill of the song and acts as an anticipated murder scene in a
horror film . Editing and camera work of this music video seems to
have captured this audio movement and edited the video to be
parallel with the beat.
8. This is shown by the way the camera movements and editing differs
throughout this video, because at the beginning of the video (refereeing
to when the music starts on the full length version) the camera
movements are quite slow and mellow (such as slow tracking shots
when Michael Jackson and Ola Ray are walking along the round) and
the editing is fairly basic (as the cuts between the shots are quite
minimal), this is of course to match almost slow/mid-tempo of the song.
As the song and dramatic state of the video narrative peaks, and tempo
get faster, the camera movements become faster and more stimulating
(such as the fast rotation movement in the part before Michael
transforms into a zombie and the drastic camera tilts during the famous
zombie dance routine) and the editing get more exciting (because the
duration between the cuts between each shot), this again is to match
the faster speed of the tempo within the track.
9. As this music video consists of a narrative, a majority of it
follows a story, leaving not a lot of solo instrumentals or
lyrics to be illustrated by Michael Jackson (this means
that the artist is facing the camera and miming the
lyrics), nevertheless there are some parts where Michael
is singing along to the music, but not to the audience.
Due to the fact that the track „Thriller‟ changes
tempo, the video pace follows this well. All the
elements of the video such as the camera
movement, editing (cuts), dance routines and even
lighting changes with the track (as the track gets
faster the cuts and shots move along faster and
consistently, the lighting get darker and creepy and
the camera moments begin to get complex and
superior).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4V90AmXn
guw
in this version of the video, all this is
evident from 0:35 to the end of the video
10. Relationship between music and
visuals (Also linked to
representation)
Thriller was the last single released by Michael Jackson‟s Thriller
album, and it‟s safe to say it is one of the most famous music videos of
all time; this may be because it was his first unmorally long length video
and unique and optimistic narrative, which caused a lot of buzz within
the industry and audience. Makers of this video had a clear concept to
sell the song and not the artist. Due to the fact that the music video
corresponds with the lyrics and theme of the song and doesn‟t focus
much on Michael Jackson himself (he seems to be playing a role within
the video), you therefore realise that the music video was an attempt to
entertain the audience and sell the song, which worked extremely well
in Michael Jacksons favour as the entertainment value (such as the
memorable dance routines, and uniquely cunning concept) the music
video contributed to Michael Jackson‟s Legendary status.
11. Although Michael Jackson is playing a characterless role in
the narrative of this music video, some element of it still
express all the features that make Michael Jackson so
unique, such as the zombie dance routine (as Michael has
always been well-known for his dance moves), and his
statement costume (during the time period of the „Thriller‟
album, Michael Jackson started a trend with a red jacket he
repeatedly wore in other videos like „Billie Jean‟ and live
performances). All these elements that were featured in this
video were there to promote a certain image that was being
sold to the audience, and relate it to the other music videos
released from the Thriller album.
12. Narrative
Concept: Michael and his unnamed date Ola Ray walk off into the forest, and Michael asks her if
she would be his "Girl"/ girlfriend. she accepts and he gives her a ring. He warns her, however, that
he is "different". A full moon appears, and Michael begins convulsing in agony, transforming into a
werewolf.
His date runs away in terror, but the werecat catches up to her, knocking her down and begins
lunging at her with his claws. The scene then cuts to a modern-day movie theatre where Michael
and his date, along with a repulsed audience, are actually watching the scene unfold in a movie
called Thriller. Michael's date leaves the theatre as Michael hands his popcorn to a stranger, catches
up to her, and assures her that "It's only a movie". Some debate follows as to whether or not she
was scared by the movie: she denies it, but Michael disagrees. They then walk down a foggy road
as Michael teases her by singing the verses of "Thriller".
They pass a nearby graveyard, in which zombies begin to rise out of their caskets as Vincent Price
performs his soliloquy. The zombies corner Michael and his date threateningly, and
suddenly, Michael becomes a zombie himself. The zombies then break into an elaborate song and
dance number, followed by the main chorus of "Thriller" (during which Michael was reverted to
human form), frightening his date to the point where she runs for cover. Michael (who was somehow
turned back into a zombie) and his fellow corpses back the frightened girl into the corner of a nearby
abandoned house. Michael then reaches for his date's throat as she lets out a bloodcurdling
scream, only to awake and realize it was all a dream. Michael then offers to take her home, and she
happily obliges. As they walk out of the house, Michael eerily looks at the camera, thus revealing his
yellow werecat eyes, as Price offers one last haunting laugh.
13. Video style iconography
During the length of this music video there are numerous
signs of iconography. One part in particular stood out than
most was at 04:18 when „Vincent Price‟ was written on the
top of the movie theatre list.
After seeing this I researched into Vincent Price and found
out that he had produced the voice over in the music video.
It is represented here:
14. Mise en scene
Is a French term meaning ‘what is put into a scene or frame’
and what is seen. Moreover it can also be defined as the
arrangement of scenery and properties to represent the place
where a film is enacted. The elements of Mise en scene are
pointers of what the genre would be and as an audience what
we would expect to see in that genre
15. 1) Lighting and colour - The lighting and colour used in the
music video makes it easy to identify what kind of video is
going to be hence the title of the song „Thriller‟. Low key
lighting is used as it creates a mysterious or suspense like
atmosphere. Colour is also a key convention for mise en
scene as we associate emotions and thoughts with different
colours, red can be associated with love, rage and blood.
16. 2) Costumes and Make-up/Hair - In „thriller‟ the use
of costume and make up make actors appear lifelike
to their character, how we present the character
reflects on how the audience perceive them.
Costume is a style of dress, including
garments, accessories and hairstyle. With make up
you can make actors appear glamorous, with the lack
of make up you can make them look like everyday
people. Make up in the earlier years of cinema was
used to highlight facial features as black and white
film could not register detail very well, so more make
up had to be used.
17. 3) Setting And Props - The setting can relate to
location, where the scene is being taken place or
where a scene is set. This can be an outside
location or inside. With the music video „thriller‟
the typical conventions of setting would be a
haunted house, dark ally and graveyard.
Props are object used by the actors performing in
a film; depending on the props used these objects
can help determine the narrative, identity of
character and genre.
18. As seen in the
music video at
approximately 1:41
4) Facial expressions and body language - By the
use of these elements, we are able to see the emotion
of the characters in the music video. This includes the
gestures, postures, and facial expressions by which a
person can make clear by various
physical, mental, or emotional actions. With the non
verbal communication the audience is able to assume
characteristics about the character and how they are
feeling by not being directly told. For example, if a
character is scared we can tell by para
language, proximity's ect.
19. 5) Position of characters and objectives in
a frame - The way characters are
positioned within a frame can tell the
audience a lot about the character, levels
of supremacy can be identified, how
characters are centred and angled. In
murder scenes the killer is usually the
dominate the victim is the minor
character, this can be displayed by staging
and levels of the characters.
In this particular shot
of this music video
we can see that
Michael and his
girlfriend are
surrounded by
Zombies. We can
tell just by looking at
this shot that they
are powerless and
alone in that
situation.
20. Intersexuality/Voyeurism
During this time Thriller came out, Michael Jackson was fairly
young and appealed a lot to a younger audience, because of
this, Michael kept most of his videos as accessible and
watchable to a large variety of people of all ages, this meant
keeping the video and his music free from explicit language
and imagery, which is why this music video doesn‟t consist of
any intersexuality or voyeurism.
