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Ghosts (Short Film)
Date Assessed from the facts that the first day of shooting is confirmed in a call sheet (Image 001a and 001b) from Shana Mangatal’s collection, which says the 9th day of shooting was April 25, 1996. Also, one of the clappers from filming says April 15, 1996. Since the filming lasted six weeks, according to the VH1 documentary, the filming would have happened within these two months.
NOTE: For more information on the cancelled 1993 “Is It Scary” short film that this was inspired from, please visit the “August 10 - Mid-August 1993” entry.
Michael Jackson, Molly Meldrum interview (November 19, 1996)
Molly Meldrum: I am a Stephen King fanatic, I have every book that possibly Stephen King has written, um... you can say mind your own business. And I know you've done Ghosts with him and I think that's a sensational piece of work.
MJ: Thank you.
Molly: Did you enjoy doing that?
MJ: Very much, yes.. yes.
Molly: I mean that skeleton blew me right out..
MJ: Were you there at the premiere?
Molly: No, but I've seen it at home.
MJ: Ooohh
Molly: It is just amazing. Can I ask you what is Stephen King like?
MJ: Stephen King is a very gentle sweet kind man. I mean the profile that we see... the books, with his works... he's nothing like that. He's very humble.
Molly: Right.
MJ: Ahhh... A lot of people judge me the same way. I'm pretty simple... I love to create. I love to make magic. I love to create the unexpected. You know. And Stephen, he's just wonderful, he's not bizarre or strange or weird. He's a loving person.
Molly: And great to work with?
MJ: Great to work with. Together, he and I wrote Ghosts and had fun doing it.
Molly: Alright now, listen, I never normally asks for autographs. But this is a Stephen King book and it's called Insomnia, and I'm sure over the last week I've had no sleep...
Stephen King, co-writer, “Entertainment Weekly” (July 3, 2009) (archived)
Filming on the Michael Jackson Ghosts video recommenced as abruptly as it had stopped. Mick remembers getting a call from Michael in 1996: ”Mick, it’s gonna happen! We gotta believe it’s gonna happen!” It did, but without Mick behind the camera. He was working on the miniseries version of The Shining by then, and Stan Winston took over the directing chores. The story had wandered a far distance from my original script, but that hardly matters. What does matter is that the video contains some of the best, most inspired dancing of Jackson’s career. If you look at it, I think you’ll see why Fred Astaire called Jackson ”a helluva mover.” You’ll also see Jackson’s sadness and almost painful desire to please. Yes, I am strange, his eyes say, but I am doing the best I can, and I want to make you happy. Is that so bad?
This is a sadness that’s all too common in people who possess talent in amounts so great it has become a burden instead of a blessing. Despite being extraordinarily beautiful… Jackson was painfully shy, and difficult (sometimes impossible) to talk to, but watching that old video still makes me happy…and no, that’s not bad.
It’s worth noting that he was never convicted of anything in criminal court, and when I asked Mick — who hung out with Michael occasionally — he was emphatic in his belief that Michael Jackson was indeed innocent of the abuse allegations. In the court of public opinion, however, he was found guilty of Weirdness in the First Degree, and ended up secluded in one haunted castle after another. Finally, he died in one. Strange man. Lost man. And not unique in his passing. Like James Dean, Elvis Presley, Kurt Cobain, Heath Ledger, and a dozen others we could name, he just left the building far too soon.
Because, man oh man, that guy could dance.
Stan Winston, director, “Michael Jackson: The Making Of Ghosts” MTV documentary
We have the ability to performance-capture an artist, and take that performance of that artist and give that to a digital character.
Mick Garris, co-writer of Ghosts, Entertainment Weekly / PeopleTV (October 16, 2017)
Well, Ghosts came about as an idea that Michael had. He wanted to do something really scary, and so he called Mr. Scary, Stephen King, to talk about an idea to do together. And originally, it was just going to be a music video for a song that Michael was writing for the end titles to “Addams Family Values”. So, King and I had just shot The Stand. We were just starting post-production when Michael came to him with this idea. And King wrote the script and then suggested me to Michael. We had this meeting. And that's where Ghosts started. It had a very large transformation over the course of it, and eventually became, by far, the most expensive music video ever made. It really is about being the outsider and about being disregarded by normal life. It was something that Michael could really identify with. And so, I decided to--let's put that house as its castle Frankenstein. The townspeople were storming the castle with their torches, and do it black and white for the opening sequence, and do all of that. And what better way to establish the outsider? We shot for two weeks, and never got into the music video part, because when you work Michael hours, they're not the same as regular hours. By the time everything shut down, we had spent $7 million. It ended up coming in at about $15 million, all of it out of Michael's pocket. And so, it became this 35 minute--what do you call it? It's not really a short, it's not a music video, but it's something unique. In the three years between the time that I worked on it and then Stan Winston took it over, it just--first of all, it became Michael's own project. It was his idea to be the mayor and it became huge 'cause Michael loved to do things big. He wanted it to be bigger and better than anything had ever been done before. 35 minutes might be a little long for the story he was telling, but it's just filled with kitchen sink ideas, and if there was an imaginative idea or a visual, it's in there. Pretty spectacular stuff at a time when a lot of digital effects were not that sophisticated, they were leading the charge. What people don't know about Michael was that he was really funny. When we were doing Ghosts, I remember, at midnight, getting a call. "Hello?", being a little annoyed, being called at midnight. "Uh, Mick Garris, please?" "This is Mick." "Gotcha!" [Laughs] You know, and it was Michael putting on a voice. Michael didn't remember that I had been in Thriller until I told him, "You know, I was one of the zombies", and he got really excited about that. And Michael and I became friends. And to have visited Neverland on several occasions during the course of this, was just the most amazing experience that you can imagine. My history has been to collaborate with Steven Spielberg, Stephen King, Michael Jackson, Clive Barker, all these truly amazing people. And I just feel like the luckiest guy on Earth.
Barry Lather, background dancer, Christina Chaffin interview (September 4, 2012) (archived)
Lather said he had another chance to work with him, when he was offered the chance to help choreograph the short film to Michael's song "Ghosts." A few months after the HBO special canceled, Michael and choreographer Travis Payne called Lather, asking him if he would like to help choreograph "Ghosts." Lather said he wanted to be part of the project, but said he was already involved with another project. Though he couldn't break his deal with his other project, Lather said he came up with an idea that would allow him to help choreograph "Ghosts."
Lather said he suggested an idea of videotaping his choreographed ideas and sending them to Michael and his team. "I began filming my choreography in March 1996, and I made up brand-new steps, trying to come up with the coolest, edgiest steps to send to Michael," he said. "I was there for the taping of ‘Ghosts' and asked, ‘Did you guys use any of my [dance steps]?,' and Travis said, ‘Dude, we used like half of it.'" (Besides new choreographed material, Lather said a lot of the "Thriller" routine he created for the HBO special also appears in "Ghosts," because according to him, "Michael loved it,").
Looking back at the moments he spent on the set of "Ghosts," Lather said he treasures those memories with Michael. While on the set, he said the one thing he will never forget Michael saying is, "This is a film. Films last forever." Lather said those words are a clear reminder of the work ethic Michael had as a performer. Another memory of him, Lather said is special describes Michael's humanity. "While on the set of ‘Ghosts,' I told him my wife and I were expecting a baby, and he said, ‘That's a dream of mine, to have kids.," and he was really happy for us," Lather said.
...Barry said one of his light-hearted memories of Michael while on the set of "Ghosts" is, "He always had candy." In addition that that thought, Barry said, "I remember how mild-mannered Michael was. He could truly transform himself and was so warm and loving. He wasn’t loud. He was quiet and calm, but was sure of his talent and ability."
Andre Bustanoby, motion capture supervisor, “Michael Jackson: The Making Of Ghosts” MTV documentary
By putting the markers on his body and putting [Michael] in a performance area we can capture the essence of that character by having him dance, move, emote and gesture.
Brad Sundberg, technical director (not for Ghosts) (MJCast, Episode 15)
They rented out Van Nuys Airport, the big hangar out there, they had a sound team out there, and they couldn't get it loud enough for Michael... Michael got in touch with me, "Can [you] please put something together that's loud enough for me to dance to?"
I built this enormous sound system that's actually stuff we used from the studio. I brought some giant studio monitors in, this stack of amplifiers, and put the whole thing on wheels. And these poor film guys, they had never really seen anything like that. And I said, "Well, you've never worked with Michael Jackson. (PHOTO AVAILABLE)
Shana Mangatal, actress, Damien Shields’ blog
“Ghosts is his view of how people perceived him, so it’s very autobiographical,” says Mangatal. “Finishing it was all Michael talked about for three years.”
“Ghosts is similar to how Is This Scary would have been, but different,” recalls Mangatal. “Is This Scary had that same theme, about people being afraid to have Michael around their children, which is ironic being that the allegations hadn’t even hit at the time it was written, cast, and filming had begun.”
“For Ghosts he changed directors (to Stan Winston) and re-wrote the script. He also re-cast the entire thing because all of the original kids had grown up,” adds Mangatal, who was the only member of the original 1993 cast that was re-cast for the 1996 version. “There was an actual actor who played ‘The Mayor’ in Is This Scary. Michael only played himself in it.”
Nicholas Pike, soundtrack composer, MJVibe (March 30, 2015) (archived)
MJVibe: Lets talk about Ghosts and how successful it was.
Nicholas Pike: Well, initially Mick Garris was supposed to direct Ghosts. Stan Winston who was doing the effects became the Director. The schedule was very tight so I had 3 weeks to make the score. The next meeting was with Michael, Stan and the editor. They showed the first 30 seconds of the video and most of the conversation was between them 3. When Michael and I had a moment together he said “I think I hear an orchestra coming at that moment.” So I said “what about a huge Gothic orchestra?” and he said “YEAH!
MJVibe: What was your inspiration in creating the music for Ghosts?
Pike: I just followed my feelings and the storyline. It was gothic really. I could work freely and not be imposed by any other music. A very inspirational process really.
MJVibe: When you worked with Michael, people see the end result but not the creative process behind it, what was it like in this environment?
Pike: It was fantastic! Probably at the top of my list of working creatively with anyone. A big part of that was Michael being an incredible musician. The first time he came to my studio he said “look, if you have any questions, just call me any time of the day or night… He was a real gentleman and a sweetheart!
MJVibe: Were there any plans to release the score itself on CD?
Pike: No! That never came up because it’s only 20 minutes and back in those days if it was not a full album they would not release it. Also, because of the unions, it would be too expensive to do… Another big frustration is that it didn’t come out on DVD!
MJVibe: We say the same thing. Michael said in an interview in 2001 that he wanted Ghosts on DVD as soon as possible.
Pike: Yeah! It didn’t make any sense to put it on a VCD where the quality is not that good. I tell you the sound on that video is spectacular! It’s a huge, jaw dropping sound and it is such a shame it is not on DVD.
