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March 1993 - "Who Is It" Music Video / Short Film (Compilation Video)

Note: There are two music videos for “Who Is It”, one directed by David Fincher released on July 13, 1992, and a compilation video by Glenn Ribble, released in March 1993.

Glenn Ribble, MTV producer, personal blog post (February 12, 2014) (archived)

In November of 1992 I was free-lancing as a Producer of MTV’s On-Air Promos department. In March of 1993 I was put on staff as the Senior Producer. Our department was responsible for the look of the channel. One November morning the department head, Abby Terkuhle asked me to accompany him to a 9 am meeting of VP’s on a higher floor. The unspoken agenda of the meeting was to keep MTV in New York. There was talk among the Viacom President and CEO’s of moving it to LA at the time. Complacency was thought to be leading to the downfall of the channel. We all had to put our heads together to come up with new ways of saving the station, and our jobs. The channel needed a new coat of paint; new show packaging for starters.

One idea touched upon by Phil Rosenthal was to resurrect some of MTV’s biggest stars. A few days later Abby asked me to meet with Tina Exarhos of the Talent Artist Relations department. Tina proposed that I make a video for Michael Jackson’s “Who Is It” by creating a video compilation made from his existing videos. She said to start with the clip where he first did his moonwalk on television, and proceed to take excerpts from his other videos. I went in chronological order.

...It was a herculean task, but it made sense to start at the beginning and move through his timeline from the clip where he first introduced the moonwalk. “That’s when it all really started again for him”, Tina told me.

I had directed, shot, animated and edited a few music videos. I directed a very successful crossover. The video first aired on Yo! MTV Raps, then went into heavy rotation. The band asked me why I always cut away just as their dance moves were in full-swing. I learned to let the dance moves progress rather than cutting on the beat.

The lesson served me well working for Michael Jackson. Let the dance moves play out, then cut.

I was warned that the editing budgets for his previous videos often ran into the 250K range, and that he was known to pull videos from an edit house and take them elsewhere. I was told that if he pulled the video during the edit, I would not be blamed.

He liked the first cut just fine, asking only for a few simple changes. One extra shot from one video, one less from another. I cut a frame accurate ¾” U-matic offline in one week, and confirmed it from the 1” masters with an on-line editor that Friday. I made $500 that week.

“Who Is It” had been released as a single by Epic Records back on August 31, 1992. It was the fifth single from the album “Dangerous”, which was released in early 1991. I was cutting a video for a single that was nearly two years old. I didn’t think it was a good career move for Jackson. I felt like I was producing a eulogy for him. It seemed like we were releasing a retrospective; a final display of all his former accomplishments, a pinnacle cut to the last single release.

Sales of the album “Dangerous” spiked when the video went on air, and I made a lot of money for him. He didn’t have to lift a finger, and sales of a two-year-old album were back on the charts.

...Every two weeks or so MTV compiled a new clip-reel of about twelve videos that were ready to premier. Each video was titled using a Chyron at the beginning.  Formerly, videos were chyroned with the recording artist, song title and record label. The clip reel that contained my cut of “Who Is It” was the first in the channel’s history to also include the directors’ names. The facility called MTV and asked Talent Artist Relations who the director of “Who Is It” was, ironically. Meaning to do me a favor in appreciation and in compensation for money, somebody told the dub facility that I was the director, and hence my name appeared as such.

David Fincher had directed a high-budget video for “Who Is It” in Brazil for the release of the single on August 31, 1992. Michael Jackson was on tour at the time, and a double was used for the location shots from the balcony of the hotel. Michael rejected Fincher’s video; he felt that it didn’t accurately represent the song. Needless to say, David Fincher was enraged when my version appeared on MTV with images from Michael’s previous videos, many of which Fincher had shot, with me listed as the director. The other directors and labels were upset as well.