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"Black or White" Music Video / Short Film
Date range assessed from the facts that one of the clapperboards says “September 16, 1991”, and Kevin Stea said they shot “for a month or more”, so principal shooting most likely ended before November, since the premiere was November 14.
John Landis, director, Rolling Stone (June 24, 2014)
Lions, Bart Simpson, Michael turning into a black panther, and Macaulay Culkin battling Norm from Cheers – "Black or White" was an explosive hodgepodge. Jackson's requests for production equipment were excessive. "Michael, why do you want all this?" said John Landis, who returned to the video director's chair for the first time since "Thriller." Jackson responded, "Well, maybe we'll get an idea." Jackson's crotch-grabbing, car-smashing dance moves caused a scandal, and the famous "morphing" sequence cost $100,000 and took a month. Landis says, "Now, of course, you can buy the software at Best Buy and do it on your laptop."
Vincent Paterson, choreographer, “Man Behind the Throne” documentary (2013)
When I did “Black or White” I pulled in dances from all over the world and then Michael learned little snippets of pieces that were international folk dances basically so Michael has never shied away from any form of dance at all, whether from street dance to Russian .. whatever the hell that’ called (VP crosses his arms) you know! (laughs).
...I got a call one day from Michael asking him if I would come and meet him in the recording studio (smiles) and he played a song for me that he didn’t have a title to yet and said, “I have an idea for this song and I think it should be myself and maybe ten guys in tuxedos” and I didn’t know what he wanted from me because we never talked about choreography and he said, “why don’t you take this music home and listen to it and let the music talk to you and see what it tells you what it wants to be because I want you to create the idea and choreograph this piece for me”. So I did and it became “Smooth Criminal” and it was like for me, being a little boy in Santa’s workshop. Michael gave me a sound stage, he gave me 15 dancers, he gave me a set designer, a $40,000 dollar sound system and a video camera and said “Just create and just shoot and come to my house and show me at night and lets discuss it”. He loved it and he kept saying, “I think you need maybe 15 more dancers.” Cool, you know I can do that, take it to him and he said “Could you use 20 more dancers?” I was like, “Yeah man” so I got it and I worked with the set designers and I created the situation and it became “Smooth Criminal” and that became my sort of choreographic and directing relationship with Michael
The MJCast, Episode 064, “Vincent Paterson Special” (August 28, 2017)
Q (The MJCast): We are just so excited to talk to you that we're gonna probably jump forward and backwards in time, fast forward and rewind a little bit. I became a true mega fan from the song and the short film "Black or White", and this was the lead single off a new album. It was a huge video, and a concept of a short film that evolved as the film was being shot. Tell us about the dancing featured in the video, and how it's fairly unique compared to a lot of other MJ dancing, and maybe some of the deeper meaning behind some of the moves, because there's so much in this short film and in the choreography.
Paterson: Well, this is what happened. And--now, everybody remembers a story a certain way, so I have to preface it with that, but I'm 99 and 99/100 percent sure this is what went down. I came in to the first day that Michael was going to be shot by John, and I'm gonna start this off by saying John Landis is a tremendous guy. He's a great director, he's funny, he's talented. So, this is not in any way derogatory towards John Landis. And he shot "Thriller", so he's brilliant. But he--Michael called me in, and I came into his trailer, and he was freaking out, like--not angry, he never did that, he was freaking out nervously. And he said, "Oh my God! Vince, you gotta help me! We can't do this!", and I said, "What?", and he said, "This is what John wants to do. He wants to shoot in honor of this photographer who shot portraits of people only in gray corners, and he said he wants to shoot the entire video of 'Black or White' with me in a corner with just gray walls, and that's it! And I appreciate that he thinks I'm interesting enough to do that, but I can't give that to my fans. I can't do that! I can't do that! I don't know what to do. I'm so upset", so I said, "Well, let's talk about this, let's talk about this". So, we talked about it, and I said, "Okay, look, the song is called 'Black or White', and you're talking about all kinds of nationalities and all people in the worlds," and I said, "what if we took every little section, and we put it somewhere else? We do something here, we do something over here, and we do something over here." It was supposed to start the way it started, in Africa with African dancers, and then it was Michael's off the African set, and he's on a gray set, and that was it, that was the rest of the video. So, I just started throwing out ideas. Mike started throwing out ideas. I said, "What if we have some Thai dancers come in? I don't know". He goes, "Yeah, that's cool, that's cool" "What if we have American Indians?" "Oh yeah, great great, great". "Oh, what if we have a Russian cowboy?" I mean, we just went crazy, the two of us sitting there together, we didn't know where the heck we were going to shoot these things, but we just knew that it was going to make a much more exciting piece. So, John had two other very interesting images in there. He had already had the image of Michael walking against the fire and the Statue of Liberty, so that was how it was all going to end, but the middle whole part was just going to be this gray section. So, MJ and I just kind of went to work and started putting all these--"Okay, on this section, this can happen. On this section, this can happen. On this section, this can happen." So, we called John in and we talked to him, and Michael was real honest, and just said, "I love--" This was Michael. I mean, I've worked with so many people, and so many people would've either just been too embarrassed or thought they were too hot to even talk to John Landis, and had called somebody to fire him or something. I mean, that's how rude it is in Hollywood, can be in Hollywood. But this is Michael's--how sweet he is. He calls him in, he just goes, "John, I love everything that you came up with but, the truth is, my fans expect so much more, and I want to give them so much more, because without the fans, I'm nothing. And I love them all, and they love me. And I just can't do this whole part in front of this gray. I just can't do it". And he said, "Vince and I have been sitting here working--", and I knew John already, so I felt comfortable with him, and Michael said, "Vince and I have been sitting here and coming up with these different ideas, and we wanted to just run them by you", and John looked at them, and he said, "Yeah, that's fine. They look fine." That's the way John is. "Okay, alright. Let's get some location people in here and find some places to shoot 'em. Okay, see you guys later", and he walked out. And Michael just hugged me, he was like, "Oh thank you, thank you!" I said, "No, listen man, I'm with you a thousand percent. I think he was just--you have to look at it, Michael, this way. He believes in your talent, and, for him, you could dance in a void, and you'd be spectacular. And the truth is for any of your fans, you can stand and dance and sing in a void, and we wouldn't care. But I get it, you'd like to do something huge. You always tell me you want to do something the world has never seen before. This is what you've always said to me, so let's do it." So then that's how it began. We started breaking things down, we called casting directors, and got dancers, and got different things, and then John jumped in, and said, "Oh, with that Russian dance, maybe we could put it in a crystal ball, and then go to kids shaking the ball" and stuff. So, it was so sweet. He just jumped into it, into our world, and the three of us put that thing together. And then, for the second half, we knew that the second half was going to be very loose, and we wanted to shoot it loose. We didn't want it controlled. Michael and I had gone into a studio, and we had created a little dance library of moves, a lot of the moves that Michael liked to do, after I kind of got him into the crotch grab thing. He liked to do that move, and then he liked to do it from starting from his breastbone and moving his hand down... Anyway, and a lot of things we did in "The Bad Tour". He loved the wind on him, Michael was one of those guys. Once he fell in love with something, he was just, like, addicted to it. Like the light shining from below, and the wind blowing from below, he loved that so much. So, we put that in there, and he and I walked around the set and with the production people, and we said, "Let's put a car there, let's put some trash cans there, let's put a pile of water over there", and then he and I just walked through it before we shot it, and said, "Ok, when you come to this part, do this. When you come to this part, do something like this. When you come to this part, just do whatever you want to do. When you come to the car, jump up on top of the car and dance on the top of the car for a while, and do what you want to do. You're gonna wind up coming over to this water, and do whatever you want to do, until you fall down on your knees in front of the water. And eventually, you're gonna get up and move, and morph into a black panther." And that's how it worked. I mean, we did it. It was amazing, it was one of the few times Michael has ever tried to do improv, except for that little crazy one moment in the middle of "Smooth Criminal"... I think that he trusted John certainly, and he really trusted me. When Mike selected someone to work with, he pretty much put his trust in you, and he listened to you, and I just always tried to act as a mirror and say, "This is what I see, and I just want to throw it back to you, and it's your choice, whichever way you want to go, but I'm just gonna throw this back to you". So, anyway, very long story. I'm sorry if I was too long. That was "Black or White".
Jamon: No, beautiful.
Q: No such thing as being too long.
Jamon: Thank you, and that was great hearing that story as well, because we've had Kevin Stea on the show before, who I think you're--
Paterson: Oh yeah, Kevin was in it.
Jamon: Yeah, he was in it, and his version of the story is basically the same as yours, so [laughs]
Paterson: Oh, good [laughs]
Jamon: That was some great depth. Thank you, thank you.
Q: I just want to dig a tiny bit deeper with--and ask, like, did Michael sort of discuss putting into the choreography any dance moves with sort of meaning--I don't want to say political meaning--but sort of--or racial things--but obviously, the video has such a strong message. How did he sort of put the message into some of the moves or some of the choreography?
Paterson: Well, I mean, we didn't put the message into the choreography. We put the message into the casting. I mean, we started with all blacks in Africa. We went to Asians in Thailand. I can't remember, honestly, the sequence we went to. We went to the the girl from Bollywood in that section, so we were incorporating Asia in that aspect. We went to the American Indians, and we wanted to incorporate them. And then we went to Russia, and then we went to all the kids on the sidewalk, American kids on the sidewalk. We did it that way. We thought that black or white meant every race possible, and rather than do it in the movement, and then I created the movement to be suitable to each of those ethnicities that we came up with. And the way Michael and I worked choreographically is pretty much like--I would choreograph everything, and leave pockets for Michael to do his own thing, and then--so he would do my work with everybody, and then he would do his own little thing, and then my work, and then his own little thing. That was the best way that we found to work, and he loved to try new choreography. He didn't want to just do his own stuff all the time. So, that was great. And every once in a while, he would change like a beat or an accent in something that I had created, because he always said if he didn't feel it exactly on the beat that he wanted to feel it on, he'd say, "Let's move it over to this beat, because you have to feeeel it, you have to feeeel it." I said, "Okay, Michael, let's feeeel it" [laughs] So we danced and we did it, and we put it on all these beats until we both feeelt it [laughs] He was great, he was so much fun to work with.
[Music Break]
Jamon: "Black or White" was a song that went number one, and is certainly one of Michael's biggest hits of his career. What is it like, as a collaborator, sitting back and watching that video and that song hit number one that you were a big part of? What does that feel like?
Paterson: You know, honestly, and I don't mean this humbly, I just mean this kind of honestly, it's part of my own insecurity, I guess. I love the process more than the result. I like going back after a while, and looking at something that I've created and being appreciative for having had the opportunity to be as creative as I was allowed to be, having that much voice. But I don't really think about the result of things. I only have to trust my instinct as an artist, and believe that what's happening at the moment in the pre-creation process, the actual physical creation process, and then the part where it's going to be extended to the audience, whether that be through film, or through a tour. or through theater, or whatever. Those are the things that I love. Those are the things that feed me as an artist. What happens after that? It's political, it's personal, it has nothing to do with me anymore. It's left my voice, it's gone now, it belongs to the performers. It belongs to the universe, and it belongs to the people that are receiving it, and it's however they perceive it. So, I'm just always grateful that I seem to have opportunities that afford me the chance for a lot of people to see my work, and I'm just really grateful about that. I never think if they're gonna like it or hate it. I can't let that sort of guide my artistry I have to trust my instincts.
Jamon: Well, on that note, with the "Black or White" release, obviously the fan community and and music lovers just absolutely love that song and that film.
Paterson: No, they didn't. No, that's not true. What happened with that was--just the opposite in fact. That was the first time, because of that last section that Michael--that was the first time that the fans and people, and the press had backlashed him. And I came into the trailer one morning and he was crying, because all of this bad press and all of these people who wanted to consider Michael this Peter Pan who never was gonna grow up, and all of a sudden, they saw him as this guy who had a political voice, and was throwing a trash can through a Nazi swastika, and they didn't want to accept that Michael. And he was really, actually heartbroken and crying, and saying to me, "How can people think this about me? I mean, I didn't say anything mean. I said what I thought was true and what I think other people should believe. I believe there should be peace in the world. I believe that people shouldn't be racist like that. I think this is an important message." So, I'm just disagreeing with you. I mean, yes, it was successful, but if you remember what happened is they had to take that last part off.
Q: I didn't realize that some fans had backlash as well. We were gonna ask about the media backlash and just me personally, as I don't know if I was the target audience, like a young teenage boy, like one of those kids on the sidewalk in the video. I loved it, even the ending--I'd maybe didn't understand it, but, damn, I loved it. And that blew me away, so I definitely didn't have a problem with it. Yeah, I just remember him--and I don't know, I mean, I can't, like, write a term paper on it, but I just remember him telling me that the press and his fans, so many of his fans, had written him and told him, "Why would you do something like that" and "How could you do that?" and he was very, very--he was such a sensitive man, he was very disturbed about this, and truly he was animated by his love for the fans. That--every time we did something, he would always preface it with, "I want us to create something that the world has never seen before, and I want us to know that we're doing it for the fans". So, that was just his philosophy.
“The Patriot-News” (March 30, 2010) (archived)
“I lived with Michael through all of those years with the press,” Paterson said. “I would sit in the trailer and he would cry. He would say ‘I don’t understand why they want to tear me apart.’”
Kevin Stea, Associate Choreographer, Cossack dancer, MJCast Episode 34 (June 25, 2016)
Kevin Stea: When Vincent [Patterson (choreographer)] called me to work with Michael, I was blown away, it was completely out of the blue. It was probably one of the only gigs in my life that I didn't have to audition for. [laughs] Literally, I was just called in, and it was just shock. I tried not to be overwhelmed.
The MJCast: Was that to work on the "Black or White" project?
Stea: Yeah, that was to work on "Black or White", to be the associate choreographer on that. Also, he knew my repertoire of, sort of, my training, African work, and I'd even done [Bolognese/Polynesian?] spiritual stuff for him, and I was showing him some Thai stuff I had done before, so he knew that I was sort of the right person for the gig on that level with [my vocabulary?] and then he brought me in as a Cossack as well...
The MJCast: So, would you mind telling us a little bit about your time and experience on working on the "Black or White" short film?
Stea: Oh, sure. The first moment I met Michael, I think what impressed me most, was that he's so present, it's not like he was distracted by a million things in his life, that he easily could be, right?... And he was so present. So observant. And we met one-on-one with Vince and the first thing he does, shakes my hand, instantly goes, "Oh my God, your teeth are so white! How do you get your teeth so white? [unintelligible] perfect, what do you do? Look at your kneepads, oh my god, I love your kneepads, look at your kneepads!" It was this overwhelming sense of appreciation, and of observation, that every little thing, he was taking me in as a person, and not distracted by all these other things going on in the world, in his life, in his schedule. He was just really right there with me. And, actually, the kneepads that I had on were the kneepads from the Blond Ambition Tour [1990, Madonna] from "Keep it Together", and he was obsessed with them, and literally for years after, he was wearing kneepads and all sorts of weird little guards. [laughs] They were from that! He literally got obsessed with [the kneepads]. Literally, the next day, he was wearing them! [Laughs] ...Well, in Black [or] White, it was such a wonderful, crazy process, we got to audition so many people, 'cause there was a large cast in that. We got to bring in all sorts of people, got to really explore what these movements would be, and originally, the movements for Black [or] White were to have these various ethnic groups then start dancing like Michael, and Vincent was very clear that, although that sounds lovely, it'd be very fun, in terms of being responsible to these beautiful ethnic styles, it would be more beautiful to have Michael then learn theirs, rather than they'll come to me and be on my side, but rather acknowledge the importance and wealth of beautiful movement within these other ethnic styles. So Michael agreed, and that's why he was doing his own little take on these different styles. We shot for a month or more, it was quite a lot, we shot the whole video once, and all the way through, with everything, with this gray backdrop, I think it was supposed to look like Irving Penn video with the sort of Thai girls. We shot the entire video like that, every single ethnic group, and then they went back and looked at it and said "It's not big enough, it's not a Michael Jackson video, it looks like a soundstage with a gray backdrop or [we] had no money", which was not the intention, the intention was to look like these beautiful ethnic groups placed in front of a gray backdrop just like Irving Penn had way, way back in the day where he was traveling around with a backdrop all over the world, photographing these unusual ethnic groups. But just like Michael Jackson would always do, let's make it bigger. Let's make it bigger. What haven't we seen? What haven't we done? No one had ever computer-morphed a face into another, that was a brand new technology, I mean it took so much to do that, and it was something no one had ever seen. Now it's seems so, sort of innocuous and simple, but it was brand-brand-brand new. When I remember first seeing that, off on the sidestage, I was like, "What am I looking at?!" [laughs] "What am I looking at right now, what's going on? They're turning into each other." It was unheard of. Once we shot the whole thing on the gray backdrop, that took maybe a week or so until they realized they wanted to amp up the volume. We stayed there for like a month, I think it was over at Rally Studios... it was interesting to see how calm Michael was about everything. Sometimes he wouldn't show up, I mean, not in a bad way, he had other things to do, but he was like, "Sorry, I couldn't make it in" We're still paid, we're still on set, but then he's "Oh, we'll just shoot tomorrow". It was sort of an ongoing thing, you're like on hold for that entire period, and then it happens when it happens. And there was no stress about it, there was no, "We're letting you go, go home, come back, go home, come back". There wasn't like- It wasn't like stressful, it was just like, we have the money we need. So there's no reason to rush what we're doing.
The MJCast: Did John [Landis (director)] ever give you the sense that the video was going to be as big in scale as it was, in terms of the second half, with Michael doing his whole panther dance in the street and all of that? Did you know that was a part of it as well?
Stea: I mean, we shot it at the same time. It didn't make much sense to me at the time [laughs] I was like, "I don't know what's going on". Literally, I was on the set watching [him] doing all this beautiful stuff on the ground, and slamming into the ground with the water. It was powerful, but I couldn't understand where it was- why it was there, what we were doing. Even now, it's a little confusing. But I get his expression of it. I remember, at the time, going, "I don't know what I'm looking at" [laughs] In terms of direction, it was powerful, it was amazing, the explosions and sparks, it was beautiful to watch... I didn't know where it fit into that world. But, of course, that whole video is- part of the beauty of Michael is his fantastic voyage that he always participated in. That idea, that his wildest fantasies, and his craziest, wildest images, imaginations, could be made real. And were made real.
The MJCast: Do you think he had a grand plan for that video from the beginning? Or was it because it kept evolving, he kept coming up with new ideas over a period of time, that it has that feel where you've got one thing and then a different idea...
Stea: It was definitely an evolution. Definitely. Because, again, the original idea was this simple Irving Penn gray backdrop, and once they realized that it looks like just nobody had money to pay for more than the soundstage, then I think they sort of scrambled a bit. 'Cause they had us already. They had us in place, and they loved the idea of these ethnic groups, they just needed to turn up the volume to 20, which is maybe why that beginning section with the speaker [unintelligible] [laughs] came into play. But, I remember they were brainstorming about what each group could be, and what that moment could be and how that could be made more exciting. So I think it came bit by bit, piece by piece. There's a rare amalgamation of things in one place because of that process.
The MJCast: [Mentions this leaked "Black or White" footage] How much sort of personal interaction did you get to have with Michael on the set of "Black or White", or "Blood on the Dance Floor", or the MTV performance?
Stea: Oh, all of it. All the time. I was the one who taught him his steps, so I got to just work with him, all the time... Vince would be off doing his thing and prepping for stuff, and it was my responsibility to teach him what he needed to do. So I had alot of interaction with him. And that's why he's pointing to me, coming to me, talking to me, because I know where he's supposed to be, and I'm the one telling him where to go. So there was no wall there, there was no real separation by that. By the time you saw that video, we had been working together all month.
The MJCast: Do you find that there are any moments that stand out, through working with Michael, that you just think, "Wow, when I look back, that's the moment that was just so special, or so eye-opening, or so magical in some way", out of everything that you ever did with him?
Stea: This is going to sound very weird as a magical moment, but it's what always stands out for me. It's not what you'd expect as a magical moment. It gave me insight into being human and finding normality within the excess in craziness, and it's something that you don't hear often about Michael. His sense of humor was extraordinary and hysterical... So we're on the set of "Black [or] White", and John Landis had brought his kids to the set, and they're, I don't know, maybe like nine, eleven. And they're over by the monitor in Video Village, it was about 30 feet away, 25 feet away... So we're all there for the Cossack part, and Michael's like wired up, 'cause he's gonna rise up into the air. We are kind of all around, and we're just chatting. And he looks over, and he goes, "Oh my God!" And he gets this crazy look on his face, almost like excited, nervous, giddy, like, he cannot believe it. And, he turns to us, and he goes, "Look, look over there, right now. Look, right now, right now, look-look-look-look-look, right now" So we look over, and John Landis' daughter is digging up in her nose, like really hard, really picking up in her nose, just going for it, [unintelligible] rolling around, you can see her motor nose moving way over here 25 feet away, right? And Michael is just giggling away, and he can't believe it, he's like "Oh my God! Look-look-look-look-look" So, we look over, and then we start making bets over whether she's going to eat it or flick it. [Everybody laughing] I know. So, we're looking, we're watching, we're watching, our hands over our mouths, like "What's she gonna do? What's she gonna do?" and we look over, and suddenly, she eats it! We all screamed and screamed and Michael was laughing hysterically and just pointing, and obviously [she] had no idea what was going on, because she's so far away. It landed home for me, that you can be on a job, and have fun, that you can have a sense of humor... your work can be fun, and your fun can be art, and your art can be fun, and you can have all of that at the same time. And I've held that with me always when I go to sets and things, that I wanna have fun, that I wanna laugh, and that I can, and I give myself permission to have fun, I give myself permission to laugh.
Deborah Nadoolman Landis, costume designer, Frocktalk (June 27, 2009)
When I designed the video Black or White with Michael, we paired his costume down to a white shirt, black trousers, white socks and black loafers – pure Astaire. Black or White was visually lush and filled with costumed dancers from Thailand, Africa, and cowboys, Michael’s brilliance needed no embellishment – his unique talent shown through the lavish sets, special effects and complicated choreography. I pushed him to lose the baroque gold braid of his personal wardrobe and get modern with his dance clothes and he responded happily. He was a great creative collaborator.
Matt Groening, “The Simpsons” creator, “Us Weekly” magazine (January 1992)
I know Bart Simpson is a bad influence on people, but I'm surprised Michael Jackson would annoy parents the same way Bart does. Michael called me on the phone to talk about what Bart would say at the end of his video, and I didn't believe it was him. I expected a big shot like Michael Jackson would probably have three people to make calls for him, but he called me directly late at night, about 10:30, at my office. Working with him was very simple and very easy. He was very polite. I told him I liked the song ("Black or White") and he was pleased. He knows how good he is, but he seems really interested in everybody's reaction. Michael looks much better in real life. You can see that he's human. Most people perceive him as a special effect. We threw out a whole bunch of ideas about things Bart would say. Michael's very particular, a perfectionist. He had certain moves he wanted Bart to make--homeboy-type moves. He wanted Bart to be hip, not the usual bouncy goofball. I had no idea about the [contents of the] rest of the video. I wanted to be surprised. I didn't see it [when it originally aired], but I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. Honestly, it didn't bother me a bit. I liked it. I think the juxtaposition of a successful entertainer with the exuberant rage at the end of the video alarmed people. It's just a fantasy. But when you're an almost immortal icon the way Michael Jackson is, people are looking for anything to be offended by. And if you're using Michael Jackson as a role model, by the time you're coiffed and dressed like Michael, then you would be very disciplined to go smash car windows.
"TV Guide" magazine (November 2-8, 1991)
It's night in one of the seediest parts of Los Angeles. A limousine cruises down a dark side-street and pulls into an abandoned parking lot. As soon as it stops, half a dozen security guards explode out of nowhere. They race to the car, screaming instructions to each other as a wan, rather hapless young man steps out. The man: Michael Jackson. The danger: two dazed homeless men across the street who haven't even noticed he's arrived.
This is the world of Michael Jackson, a world he's allowed TV Guide exclusive access to for a very important event — the making of his new video, “Black or White.” With a $1-billion deal with Sony and his reputation as a No. 1 recording artist at stake, the superstar has a lot riding on “Black or White” and the album it comes from, “Dangerous.” His concern is evident, from the topnotch Hollywood film director to the state-of-the-art special effects, from the exotic animals to the multinational troupe of dancers — all for the sake of 11 minutes of film.
But right now, he prefers not to discuss the project. Wrapped in a cape, he clings to the shadows, as if afraid of being spoken to. Most of the technicians don’t notice he’s there. In real life, there’s nothing charismatic about him. In fact, he seems tense.
“I think unfortunately that there is pressure and it's put there by everyone else,” confirms director John Landis. That's something Landis, whose screen credits include “Animal House”, “Trading Places”, and “Twilight Zone”, is all too familiar with.
But tonight the tension is palpable. A bout with the flu has cost Jackson several days' work and Landis has to leave for Rome in 48 hours. If the shooting isn't completed by then, there won't be enough time to finish the special effects.
Now, on top of everything else, the next scene calls for a temperamental costar, A sleek black panther is led in--but that’s only the beginning. To get the panther to perform, it has to be kept hungry. And when a panther is hungry, anything can happen. “Clear the set!", an assistant director yells. Jackson, who seems fascinated by the beast, is reluctantly ushered to his trailer as Landis and crew watch from a video monitor.
The panther stalks toward the camera, growls, then slinks on. For one second, he eyes a young camera operator standing nearby. He pauses and hisses. At the last moment, he turns away. Miraculously, he does exactly as he's been told. A collective sigh goes up from the crew.
Later, through a sophisticated computer technique called morphing (similar to the one used in “Terminator 2"), Jackson will transform into the panther--a special effect that can cost up to $10,000 a second. Landis can’t explain how the panther will figure in the finished video, which features Macaulay Culkin, in a fantasy revenge, banishing his obnoxious father, George Wendt, to different parts of the world. Macaulay himself is revealed to be a fantasy of Bart Simpson's. How all this illustrates the video's supposed theme of racial equality, heaven only knows. Landis shrugs off any interpretation: “There’s going to be a lot of improvising.”
After innumerable takes, the work with the panther is completed. Its 1 A.M. The homeless have vanished, along with the vagrants and junkies who inhabit these dark streets. The crew is exhausted. Landis hugs himself, fighting off the flu he jokingly quips he caught from his star. The panther is led away to his cage. He suddenly seems tired, almost tame.
And so does Jackson. He re-emerges from his trailer, eyes bleary. It's hard to believe this man can burst with energy whenever he's onstage. Landis leads him to the spot where he must move just like the panther. And, for a few brief takes, Jackson suddenly comes alive. He arches like a wild cat, crawls forward, unfurling as if he's about to take off. Then it's over. The energy is gone, and the near-invisible man is back again. Jackson disappears into his trailer, locking the door behind him.
Rolling Stone (January 9, 1992)
To announce the new album in a style appropriate for "the King of Pop," Jackson brought back his old friend John Landis for an encore. Landis had last worked with Jackson on the "Thriller" video in 1983. Although Landis says he doesn't have exact figures, he estimates from his experience that "Black or White" may have cost as much as $7 million. (Dave Glew, president of Epic Records, the label Jackson is actually signed to, denies this figure but would not divulge the actual amount.) It also took about two months to shoot.
The weeks of filming found many celebrities dropping by the set, including Paul McCartney, Nancy Reagan, the O'Jays, Emmanuel Lewis and, naturally, Jackson's latest friend, Home Alone star Macaulay Culkin, who is not only featured in "Black or White" but also appears on the cover of Dangerous.
"Michael's really a celebrity magnet," says Landis. Then, chuckling, he adds: "I remember looking over at one of these giant, seven-foot speakers Michael was having the song played through, and Nancy Reagan was standing right in front of it. All I had to yell was, 'Playback,' and that would have been it."
"Black or White" became one of the most expensive one-song videos ever made because of, among other things, the cost of the cast and crew, which Landis says would read like "the credits to Ben-Hur," and the extremely expensive "morphing" process used to transform men into women and Jackson into a panther.
And then there were the days when Landis and the crew were all set up on location, ready to begin filming, when Landis would get a call informing him that the star wouldn't be showing up at all. "I was told, on one occasion," says Landis, "that Michael Jackson was doing a commercial for Sony Television, Japan."
Jackson also had his album to finish. "It was a difficult schedule," says Vince Paterson, who will be directing a video for "Jam" should Sony go ahead with the song as a single. "There were days when we were put on hold while he worked on the album. The album had to take precedence. So the video got scrambled. And if Michael was in the studio for eighteen hours, there was no point in then bringing him out to the set and trying to shoot him. He would have been dead, he would have been exhausted, and we would have just had to reshoot it anyway.
"If you've got a sound stage and equipment and people, you have to pay everyone involved whether or not anything gets done," says Paterson. "A lot of the expense was due to that. Bam! A couple hundred thousand dollars — gone!"
Landis says the video's controversial four-minute ending was entirely Jackson's idea."He wanted it to be even more sexually explicit," says Landis, adding that some of the dancing they shot was even more extreme. As for the negative reaction to that part of the video — which resulted in Jackson's decision to cut out the entire ending — Landis says: "It wasn't so much what Michael was doing but the juxtaposition of simulated masturbation with the violence. And of course, the fact that it was Michael. I don't know that we discussed his intention. It was simply 'I'd like to do this,' and me giving him what he wanted."
MacCaulay Culkin, child actor, unknown newspaper snippet
When I spend time at his place, we play tricks on his security guards--he has every practical joke you can think of", says McCauley, who opens the video by playing the new single.
Michael decided on his "splint" image, er, by accident.
The singer had been racking his brains for a fresh gimmick when a worker on his new video turned up with her arm in plaster.
[illegible] yelled out, "That's it", as other workers looked on bemused.
He gathered his closest aides around him and told them he wanted to have a splint just like hers to replace his trademark white glove.
George Bruder, animator for morphing effects, "Billboard" magazine (December 14, 1991)
Michael Jackson's "Black or White" music video certainly stirred up a fair amount of controversy, but the one segment that has garnered nothing but praise is when the faces from different ethnic backgrounds seamlessly meld into each other.
That transformation effect, produced by Pacific Data Images, is called metamorphosis (or morphing, for short).
According to animator George Bruder, who created the sequence with PDI's Jamie Dixon, the first commercial application of morphing was in the movie "Willow". The two main companies that have developed morphing programs are PDI and George Lucas' Industrial Light & Magic, which did the effects for both "Willow" and "Terminator 2: Judgment Day".
Propaganda Films, which produced the video, approached PDI after seeing its show reel that included morphing segments from Chrysler and Schick commercials.
They showed our reel to Michael and he came up with the idea of the international faces", says Bruder.
The morphing segment was the first one shot because of the time required to edit the technique.
When pitching the scenes for the segment there were no specific types that were sought. "As you can see, there is no consistency between some of the models", Bruder says. "I think they were just looking for beautiful international people."
For the Jackson video, after the initial shooting where the models sang the chorus facing different ways, PDI worked with an editor who lined up the images with a 60% dissolve (the technique used in Godley & Creme's "Cry") and made sure all the heads were turning the same way. "We didn't want to start morphing and have one head turning to the left and have one had turning to the right, because it would just look like a mess", says Bruler. After the dissolve, the morphing took place. "Once we got all the characters aligned, we started matching features. Some of them we made the eyes turn first, others the mouth. There are little tricks in each one of them."
Bruder believes "Black or White" takes morphing one step further than previous applications. "If you look at the history of morphing, we tried to do something different here", he says. "All the morphs I've seen before now were really static, the objects weren't moving. Out models were dancing and moving the whole time, so to get a smooth transition was the biggest challenge."
Another challenge was the now-deleted morph scene where a black panther turns into Jackson. Unlike the model scenes, which were shot against a plain backdrop, the panther transition had other activity that had to be matched perfectly. "I'm not really upset that that part isn't in the video anymore", Bruder says. "It did air and most people got to see it."
The effects have PDI's phones ringing off the hook with many callers wondering if they can afford morphs in their projects. "It's definitely affordable", says Bruder, adding that the scenes for "Black or White" cost less than $1 million.
However, he is still a little surprised at just how much attention PDI's work is receiving. "Throughout the video shoot, John [Landis] had been saying the faces would be a big part of it. I thought the whole thing would be a hit, and it came down to the faces really making it."