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"The Way You Make Me Feel" Music Video / Short Film

Date Range of filming confirmed in Mike Smallcombe’s “Making Michael” (Visual Documentary?)

Joe Pytka, director, personal website (accessed April 9, 2020) (archived)

I was working on ideas for Michael Jackson’s MAN IN THE MIRROR when Frank DiLeo called and said to shift gears and work on THE WAY YOU MAKE ME FEEL.  He said that MAN was a slam dunk number one and that THE WAY…needed some help to get to number one.  

I listened to the song over and over and I didn’t get it.  I thought it was soft and felt like a Beach Boys song.  It also brought feelings of a warm day in Kansas with a bunch of guys hanging out in a drugstore.  All that after the excitement of MAN IN THE MIRROR.

I met with Frank and Quincy and just told them I didn’t understand what the song was about and Quincy just said it’s about Michael finally getting some pussy. Later we met with Michael and I asked him where the thing should take place and he said skid row.  How do you ‘get some pussy’ on skid row?  I tried to answer that question.  Of course, Michael wasn’t told of the ‘pussy’ idea.

This was the first video after Martin Scorsese’s BAD video.  At that time, Michael wanted to do short films rather than conventional videos.  That made the idea more complicated.  Scorsese had Richard Price write the BAD short film. He had written THE COLOR OF MONEY for Scorsese and I wondered who could write this ‘short film.’  I contacted August Wilson from my hometown of Pittsburgh but he turned me down.  Frank suggested his friend David Banks, a black comedian, and to accommodate Frank I tried to work with him, but he was just a joke writer, although a great character.

I decided to structure the thing myself and I had a documentary of ghetto guys (South Central and Compton) hitting on girls made. These were real guys and girls doing their thing. Some of the language was rough and I cut the ‘auditions’ together in a form and showed it to Michael warning him of the language.

Michael was fascinated and loved the roughness of the filming, asking if the video could have that quality.  He said it was ‘truthful cinema.’  I don’t think he knew the French term ‘cinéma vérité’ but I was taken by his response and perception, TRUTHFUL CINEMA.

Personal website (accessed April 9, 2020) (archived)

Quincy Jones was a force with Michael Jackson on the videos I did on Michael’s BAD album.  He was smooth, handsome, eloquent, and elegant.  Michael, Frank (DiLeo), and Quincy were a version of the Trinity.  Quincy was omniscient about the music and where it was to go.  I was to do the video for THE WAY YOU MAKE ME FEEL and I was confused about the song, where it was to take place, and what the purpose was.  The song seemed very sweet to me, especially compared to the video, BAD, that Martin Scorsese had done.  THE WAY … reminded me of a warm evening in Kansas by the corner store.  It was WHITE.  I met with Quincy and Frank to discuss this issue and Quincy set me straight.  “THE PURPOSE OF THIS VIDEO IS TO GET MICHAEL LAID.”  End of story.

Personal website (accessed July 6, 2017) (archived)

When I first heard the demo for THE WAY… I felt the song was soft.  It reminded me of a summer’s day in Kansas.  I hadn’t a clue of what to do.  Quincy Jones said simply, “The song has to get Michael some pussy.”  I asked Michael where he thought it should take place and he said Skid Row.  I got some gang members together, the Bloods and the Crips and did some crude documentaries of how they hung out and dealt with their women.  The video more or less represents that reality.  I showed the stuff to Michael, apologizing for the language, but he loved the stuff and asked if the video could have the same “truthful look.”  It was his instinctive way of saying cinéma vérité. Michael wanted a long prequel to the actual video so I asked playwright August Wilson to help and he turned me down flat.  Martin Scorsese had gotten Richard Price to write the material for BAD.  I decided to write the thing myself.  Most people haven’t seen the LONG FORM.  Epic felt that it wouldn’t get enough play at the longer length so we cut a much shorter version.  The purpose of videos, remember, is to sell records.  The critics and the public completely missed the fact that there is another song on the video, Roy Ayers, HOT, HOT, HOT.  It was used to set up the piece.  I had wanted to use Miles Davis but Michael’s manager, Frank Dileo said not to because Miles was a pain in the ass to deal with.  I had been experimenting (with the editor Larry Bridges) with filmic techniques, especially how little information a shot needs to get a point across.  The structure of the piece was a loose sonata form with the final movement being rather poetic.  Michael had said that he didn’t want to dance in a formal manner but during the prep and prelight days I heard the song playing in a distant room in the warehouse we were using as a sound stage.  I popped my head in and there was Michael and Vince Paterson rehearsing a formal piece.  I watched for a while and they then told me that Michael had decided to put in some dance after all.  My problem was that I had no place to put it.  I went back to the set and asked Geoffrey Kirkland, the production designer, to build a place for a fire hydrant at the end of the set.  I then took a sledge hammer to a beater car and we had a set piece.  The choreographed piece was provocative and wonderful, full of Michael and Vince’s genius.

Personal website (accessed April 9, 2020) (archived)

I met Vincent Paterson through Michael.  When I was doing THE WAY YOU MAKE ME FEEL, Michael had said that he didn’t want to dance in the video.  I accepted that.  I had nightmares.  During a prelight day I heard music coming from the rear of the set.  I found Michael, Vince, and some dancers working on a choreographed piece that was brilliant.  So much for ‘no dancing.’  The piece was loosely based on some moves that the gang members were doing on set and was overtly sexual.

I hired various gang members for authenticity.  The problem with this choreography was there was no place to put it.  I watched for a while, then went back to the set and discussed the problem with Geoffrey Kirkland, the production designer.  We rigged a fire hydrant and I smashed a prop car with a sledge hammer (great therapy) and we had our ‘place.’  The choreographed piece at the end of the video was ‘smashing’ and Michael used it in his BAD tour.  Vince’s interpretation of the street dancing was brilliant and was an extension of the natural stuff we did in the prequel to the song.  I think Vince should be a co-director of this piece since he was a heavy influence on Michael’s movements throughout.  Michael trusted him completely.

Personal website (accessed April 8, 2020) (archived)

I was having dinner with Andrée Putman in Santa Fe at the Coyote Cafe.  The maître d' came and said that Michael Jackson was on the phone.  It was about the only interruption that Andrée would have accepted.  Michael wanted to discuss some minor changes to the video (Michael preferred to call them short films) edit of THE WAY YOU MAKE ME FEEL.  He was on tour in Japan at the time.  I was on the phone for quite a while as he went through the video thoroughly, actually giving me code numbers from the dailies to replace certain choreography in the video.  I’ve never found out how he located me since no one knew where I was.  Quite an evening.

Personal website (accessed April 8, 2020) (archived)

Michael liked what I had done in the [Pepsi] commercials and Frank asked me to do the music video (Michael liked to call them ‘short films’) for MAN IN THE MIRROR, and I started to work on some ideas.  A while later Frank told me that they didn’t need a video for that song since it was a slam dunk number one without a video and he sent me the demo for THE WAY YOU MAKE ME FEEL.  The purpose was to have more Number Ones than any other albums and Frank’s (and Quincy Jones’) vision and perception were brilliant.  Frank’s notion was that I CAN’T STOP LOVING YOU would be the first release and would be an instant Number One since Michael hadn’t released an album for a number of years.  BAD would be an easy Number One with MAN IN THE MIRROR another.  The other songs would need some help to position them.  I was troubled and disappointed after he pulled MAN IN THE MIRROR since THE WAY… wasn’t as strong a piece of music and I had trouble understanding it. A similar thing happened to me years later when Yoko pulled WORKING CLASS HERO and replaced it with STARTING OVER but that’s another story. THE WAY YOU MAKE ME FEEL sounded soft to me and there was no thread in the piece to give a hint for a video treatment.  Frank and Quincy told me what the purpose was.  I can’t remember who said it but the phrase, “…the purpose of the video was to get Michael some pussy!”  The result — another Number One. I don’t know if Michael got laid.

Personal website (accessed April 9, 2020) (archived)

Michael Jackson told me that the necktie he used as a belt in “The Way You Make Me Feel” was an idea he got from his good friend, Fred Astaire.

Personal website (accessed April 8, 2020) (archived)

After we did THE WAY YOU MAKE ME FEEL, Michael and I discussed doing WEST SIDE STORY. I contacted the owners of the material and they weren’t interested saying that the property was continuously profitable and didn’t want the original Jerome Robbins choreography tampered with, and that was that. I felt that THE WAY… could easily extended into a original musical and Michael (and Frank DiLeo) agreed.

SONY and Michael, however, began to develop a similar script called MIDKNIGHT, and urban musical to be directed by Anton Furst who was the Production Designer on FULL METAL JACKET and BATMAN.  As far as I knew, it was a done deal with a finished script so my idea was toast. I loved the idea but since Michael was committed to MIDKNIGHT…

Tragedy.

Anton Furst committed suicide.  The story was that he was depressed ever since working with Kubrick on FULL METAL JACKET.  

You can’t make this up.

Personal website (accessed April 9, 2020) (archived)

After we had filmed and edited THE WAY YOU MAKE ME FEEL, the idea of doing a version of WEST SIDE STORY came up. I’m not sure whose idea it was, Michael’s, mine, or Frank’s, but…

It seemed like a slamdunk as the BAD album already had echoes of WEST SIDE STORY and ROMEO AND JULIET. When I first saw the epic video by Bob Giraldi, BEAT IT, I felt that it was a derivations of the Jets and the Sharks from the play. Michael had already visited these themes successfully, so a lot of legwork had already been done and the notion of Michael reworking the songs was thrilling.

Although the gangs I used in THE WAY YOU MAKE ME FEEL were from LA and Venice and were effective, we decided to have our version of WEST SIDE STORY to take place in the Bronx, in homage to the original work.

We never got to the point of discussing a new title, since our version would not be a period piece and the gang situation everywhere had changed. The ‘west side’ of the original didn’t exist anymore, having been redeveloped, so the Bronx made more sense and was an area in chaos as well.

One thing that excited me was the fact that we had created fifteen minutes of powerful film in three days. That indicated that we could do the entire piece in a few weeks and not tie Michael up for an extended period of time. Of course, that was only production and not the time needed in the studio to create and recreate the music.

But the slamdunk wasn’t a slamdunk after all.

We were turned down flat. The keepers of THE WEST SIDE STORY flame were not interested. They didn’t want the material tampered with in any way, especially the Jerome Robbins choreography. Word was that the musical was constantly being licensed and was profitable and they didn’t want to kill the golden goose.

Whenever I see BEAT IT or THE WAY YOU MAKE ME FEEL, I think of what could have been. Michael never did do a movie, even though we worked on THE THIEF OF BAGDAD for a while. It wasn’t meant to be (for strange reasons) and that’s sad.

I guess WEST SIDE STORY is being performed at a dinner theatre but it ain’t what it coulda been.