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"HIStory" Album Teaser
Rupert Wainwright, director, “Iconic” magazine (Issue 20) (2015) (archived)
Michael was going to do the close ups on a green screen, but when he saw the videos he got excited and wanted to come!
Chris Cadman’s “Michael Jackson the Maestro”
Rupert Wainwright felt the gigantic statue was not a good idea. He felt it was perhaps a little too conceited.
“I sat beside him and tried to explain that people might see him as a very selfish person, but he looked at me without blinking. ‘You have statues of this woman all over the country, right?’ replied Michael. ‘What woman?’ Wainwright asked. ‘You know, that woman …The Queen .., ‘said Michael.”
In the splendid surrounds of a 13th century palace, Michael Jackson held court yesterday.
The singer became Budapest's main attraction as hundreds of fans swarmed through the city's historic castle district, hoping for a glimpse of their leather-clad hero.
Accompanied by his bride Lisa Marie Presley, Jackson spent most of the day filming scenes for his latest video.
Liberator
Lisa Marie, wearing a short black backless dress, quickly took refuge in an air-conditioned caravan on the set as her husband sweltered in soaring temperatures.
Sheltering under a shocking pink umbrella, he scurried to join her during takes.
The video, to promote Jackson's new album, "HIStory", portrays the singer as a self-styled pop liberator.
In heavy make-up and military-style leathers, he is seen freeing the people of Eastern Europe from the tyranny of the Red Army.
Reveling in their liberation, the grateful population then erect a monument to honor the King of Pop.
The palace, which usually serves as an art gallery, was adorned with red flags and banners for the shoot.
Streamers and confetti rained down from the balconies, littering the square outside.
As the heat became overwhelming and scenes were shot and re-shot, extras became unsteady on their feet.
Jackson remained cool, waving to a euphoric crowd in one scene, and marching at the head of Red Army troops in another.
Among the ranks of locally-recruited extras were Britons specially brought over for the shoot.
Jackson is expected to continue filming at the palace today and may extend his stay in Budapest until tomorrow morning.
He and Lisa Marie make their way around the city in a van with tinted windows and curtains.
Several large bodyguards accompany them at all times, ensuring that the couple, who married in May, are rarely alone together.
They have little chance of finding peace--even in their hotel suite.
Hundreds of teenage fans camp outside until the early hours, pleading for Jackson to appear and scrambling for posters and photographs thrown down from the roof.
...Lisa Marie was on the set of Jackson's new short movie to promote his next album called "HIStory", which started filming yesterday.
And I was picked to be in it--along with 250 Hungarians.
I had to wear a soldier's uniform and march around carrying a 12ft flagpole with a banner of one of Jackson's eyes.
In temperatures touching 100 degrees, Jackson went through five takes of a sequence depicting him as a freedom fighter leading the soldiers against communism.
But he actually performed for less than 2 1/2 minutes--five takes of under 30 seconds. In between the "action", Jackson was protected from the sun by a pink umbrella and a make-up artist wiped his bro.
An aide changed his customary dark glasses for another pair.
And to make sure he wasn't injured, we extras were ordered not to throw streamers in his direction. After he had finished pacing with his team of soldiers, the singer disappeared behind huge white canopies and walked to the side of Lisa Marie.
She wore a tight black dress as she watched the filming.
Jackson is spending hundreds of thousands of pounds on the film to promote "HIStory", which is due out in November.
Tight security ringed Budapest's Royal Palace close to the Danube as filming began.
But reclusive Jackson was less distant than usual with the thousands of fans who tried to see him.
He waved a girl fan over to him, removed his sunglasses, and kissed her on the cheek.
Helyei Zsolt, 13, was overcome at meeting her idol and was still crying with emotion an hour later and had to be given water.
Filming of the 15-minute video yesterday was equally bizarre--with Jackson matching at the head of 200 Soviet-style troops.
As he led the full-scale parade through Budapest's 700-year-old Royal Palace, Lisa Marie applauded and giggled with delight in the video, the singer plays a freedom fighter who rescues the country from an evil Communist regime.
Wearing a military-style black and silver uniform and jackboots, he strutted across the courtyard leading his "army"--locals paid £15 a day to act as extras.
They rallied behind Jackson as he waved grandly and blew kisses to the crowd.
Refused
Fans were given banners saying, "We love you, Michael" and his picture hung from walls.
But the superstar's request to blow up a Soviet tank outside the Parliament building was refused by officials.
As temperatures soared into the 90s, Jackson and Lisa Marie took cover under a huge pink umbrella. Between takes, they giggled and whispered.
...The singer marched at the head of 200 Soviet-style troops in the courtyard of the 700-year-old Royal Palace in the Hungarian capital of Budapest as the Elvis heiress giggled and applauded with delight.
Dressed in a black and silver military-style uniform and jackboots, he led his "soldiers"--locals paid £15 a day to act as extras in a video for his new album--up and down the Palace grounds five times.
Kisses
Huge speakers pumped out a regimented drumbeat and reams of tickertape exploded overhead.
Jackson, wearing silver-rimmed sunglasses, waved grandly and blew kisses at 200 fans admitted into the Palace as he strutted across the courtyard.
Huge Big Brother-style posters of his eyes hung from the Palace walls and fans were given handwritten banners by Jackson aides which read, "We love you, Michael", and "We don't have to dream when Michael is here".
Two camera crews filmed the action while Lisa Marie, 26, sat in the shade of the couple's customized van as her husband of 12 weeks marched towards her.
Shooting is continuing on Jackson's promotional video, in which he liberates Eastern Europe from the Red Army, with a huge polystyrene statue of him erected in Heroes Square.
Watched by Lisa Marie, he frequently hid from the crowds and the scorching sun under a large pink umbrella held up by a bodyguard.
