Any news on the This is it project?

[AlwaysThere]

I think that's not true, about the audio. The footage was definitely intended to be seen, in the contract I'm pretty sure it said that they would use it for making of or bonus content a concert dvd. That is the main reason they were being recorded.

Oh? I remember hearing something about potentially using it for a future release, though the primary reason was just to hold it in Michael's private archives. Interesting though, I'll look that up. Thanks for the heads up!

 

[8701girl]

Doesn’t make any sense, at all. The money was in the film being released so close to his death. There were suspicions that MJ was not ready for this. It was in AEG, DiLeo and Ortega’s best interests to show MJ dancing and moving. They dubbed old demo vocals to pretend it was him singing. If they had anything worth using, they used it.

Of course, as MJ fans we want to see all of it but there’s a very strong possibility the best cuts were used already.

'' they dubbed mj vocals'' really cmon now u know that aint true so youre basically saying that it wasnt mj

 

[dam2040]

'' they dubbed mj vocals'' really cmon now u know that aint true so youre basically saying that it wasnt mj

Not sure if sarcasm or not but we all know they dubbed old demo vocals in.

 

[dam2040]

Oh? I remember hearing something about potentially using it for a future release, though the primary reason was just to hold it in Michael's private archives. Interesting though, I'll look that up. Thanks for the heads up!

I'm sure it was AEG, not MJs team filming the rehearsals.

 

[MJTruth]

Here's that trailer, BTW.

what amazes me about that trailer is it was published in 2009, advertises one of the most successful music documentaries of all time - a genuine box office success - but nearly 10 years later it has only 203,050 views. Incredible.

 

[dam2040]

what amazes me about that trailer is it was published in 2009, advertises one of the most successful music documentaries of all time - a genuine box office success - but nearly 10 years later it has only 203,050 views. Incredible.

Don't forget, this isn't the official trailer and there were many of these TV spots uploaded.

 

[MJTruth]

Perhaps it was Sony's plan back in 2009 to give us weaker performances in the film in order to save the best ones as a future investment. It wouldn't surprise me at all.

I don't think that makes any sense at all.
I would be almost certain they kept back some quality footage but not much because it was in their interest to release the best film possible within the constraints they had. That's why they went to so much effort to stitch together footage from multiple performances, dig into the archives to find demo vocals that could be dubbed over (presumably) shakey live vocals etc.

If the rehearsal performances were great (great video and audio quality, great vocals) it would have been much easier and cheaper just to release whole segments of film with minimal editing. The fact there is SO MUCH editing going on in the audio and visual department shows how limited the quality of the material was.

Lots and lots of social media posts. Reddit, Twitter, Instagram. Ranging from general public to celebrities.

3

That really doesn't mean much to be honest, unless you're in a position to compare the volume of those with other shows.

This is a snippet from an interview with Kriyss Grant from March 2010: "The release of This Is It also inspired mixed emotions. At the time of release he gave an interview saying he would wait for the DVD. Today he says he still finds it difficult to watch. He is also bemused by some of the choices that were made regarding what was and wasn't included. "It's funny because those bits you see, he's not doing the full out still. There were times where he was really, really doing it, like full out. There are a lot of things that weren't shown in This Is It. I really don't know why that stuff was left out."

It doesn't make any sense to leave those moments out of the film IF good audio and video existed. I don't think his statement confirms that great quality footage and audio existed. I doubt he was ever in a position to review all the raw material they had to work with when the film was being edited together. Remember the filming of those rehearsals was limited and fairly casual in nature. There wasn't a professional film crew with many cameras. Maybe there just wasn't enough good quality footage of those rehearsals to create coherent performances in the film. Maybe the audio was particularly poor or they couldn't stitch it together convincingly enough.

From what I've heard, a fair percentage of This Is It was re-recorded and/or dubbed (including the band and background vocalists) because, since the footage was never intended to be seen by the public, there wasn't much effort put into properly capturing the audio.

There's also been claims that the estate overdubbed Michael's vocals for no apparent reason; apparently one of the earlier trailers features a live "Billie Jean" vocal snippet that wasn't present in the final film.

As far as existing footage, several people have discussed things that were left out. There's at least one full rehearsal of "Dangerous," a vocal run through of "Stranger in Moscow," walk throughs of "Will You Be There" and "Don't Stop 'til You Get Enough" (likely without vocals), etc. Some figure that Sony had been planning reissues from day one and held back specifically to maximize future profit. They could also present full, unedited performances of songs like "Beat It" or "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'" -- one full run rather than splicing between 2-3.

Yes I heard that too and to be honest I expected it.
I think those overdubbed vocals can be explained. for example, the performances needed to be presented in a coherent way. Although the video footage was chopped and spliced they would want to minimise the effect of that with the audio. Take Billie Jean for example. We dont know how much great live audio was captured. If there were parts that just could not be included due to low quality or poor singing (out of breath, too quiet, out of tune etc) they would need to be replaced with something else. Studio vocals, demo vocals etc. It's possible there was a point where the great sections from This Is It would just not meld with the other vocals, many of which would be 25 - 30 years old. At that point you have to sacrifice the newer vocals to include BJ in the film or exclude the BJ performance completely. BJ is an important song in MJ's catalogue musically, and also from his performance history due to moonwalk, Motown25 etc. So they chose to keep it.

The audios recorded by fans dureing this is it rehearsals are 100% real. No question about that! The only debate can be I'd it was sung live or not..

The audio was real but was it all LIVE? If it was LIVE was it being professionally recorded inside the venue? Quite possibly not.

 

[MJTruth]

Don't forget, this isn't the official trailer and there were many of these TV spots uploaded.

A very good point. :blush:

 

[wonderouzmj]

I was so mad when they used playback on the film. He sounded so good!
https://youtu.be/CwT83wDOUU4

 

[flamyyy]

Also I remember reading about it on another thread, didn't Jonathan Moffett say Michael sang Earth Song live and it sounded really good but instead they chose to use demo vocals?

 

[dam2040]

I was so mad when they used playback on the film. He sounded so good!
https://youtu.be/CwT83wDOUU4

He sounds incredible on the 'breaking my heart now' bit. I had that stuck in my head for days in 2009.

 

[KOPV]

Yeah, that's what I was saying.. SOME of it could have been taken from earlier concerts the vocal from the Bad tour for Dirty Diana etc.

I will say as recorded as some sound, there were lyrics that were messed up in some of them
Similarly how he messed up the words in the field with human nature.

 

[Annita]

what amazes me about that trailer is it was published in 2009, advertises one of the most successful music documentaries of all time - a genuine box office success - but nearly 10 years later it has only 203,050 views. Incredible.

the trailer had millions of clicks just in few hours after the release in 2009. Like dam2040 said this here is only one of many uploads from it on youtoube.

 

[SmoothGangsta]

Also I remember reading about it on another thread, didn't Jonathan Moffett say Michael sang Earth Song live and it sounded really good but instead they chose to use demo vocals?

I really don't think he sang earth song live. Pretty sure it was randy Phillips that said that and he talked some amount of crap about how well MJ performed after he died to save face.

 

[8701girl]

It doesnt even feel like 10years....

i know feels like it was yesterday it haappened

 

[KOPV]

Whatever was live or not, there is footage to be seen.. from band rehersal, staging, dance rehersal, filming for 3d short films, and so on..

if they wanted they could make several documentaries out of what they have..

 

[Hess]

I still hope to see much more footage.

Sound checks - like the TWYMMF clip is so great and shows how much in demand/control MJ was. - Every little note.

More rehearsal clips with the dancers - like the drill - where MJ is so cool chewing gum, dancing The Drill absolutely perfect... - footage like that would be great.

MJ giving directions/orders to the band and dancers - stuff that shows just how much in control MJ was, those clips would be great.

And then of course - if there are more live sung songs - release it.

 

[jacob6428]

So was earth song sung live?

 

[rumandraisin]

Earth song was sing live but part of the agreement for releasing the footage and obtaining it was that Sony were to release nothing that portrays MJ as ill or in a bad light. Sadly his voice was not strong enough on my if the numbers and they chose to dub it instead. Earth Song is probably a very weak vocal and would never have been sung live anyway. While he may have been singing live or doing a very weak vocal while rehearsing similar to what was shoo wn in WBSS, there were always tracks that were going to be mimed such as TDCAU or Thriller.

As I said on another thread Michael Prince confirmed his voice wasn't up to it and they were going to record some new vocal takes and look through the vaults for alternate leads to use. Even for WBSS which had never been mimed before.

 

[Hudson112]

Earth song was sing live but part of the agreement for releasing the footage and obtaining it was that Sony were to release nothing that portrays MJ as ill or in a bad light. Sadly his voice was not strong enough on my if the numbers and they chose to dub it instead. Earth Song is probably a very weak vocal and would never have been sung live anyway. While he may have been singing live or doing a very weak vocal while rehearsing similar to what was shoo wn in WBSS, there were always tracks that were going to be mimed such as TDCAU or Thriller.

As I said on another thread Michael Prince confirmed his voice wasn't up to it and they were going to record some new vocal takes and look through the vaults for alternate leads to use. Even for WBSS which had never been mimed before.

That’s interesting because I’ve read that Michael’s goal was to sing live for TII more than he had in the previous years, hence why they ditched the prerecorded vocals. I guess all we can do is speculate, huh.

 

[SmoothGangsta]

That’s interesting because I’ve read that Michael’s goal was to sing live for TII more than he had in the previous years, hence why they ditched the prerecorded vocals. I guess all we can do is speculate, huh.

Michael Prince said that's what he wanted to do yeah.

 

[mj_frenzy]

According to available information and how he was rehearsing the songs for his ‘This Is It’ shows, Michael Jackson planned to sing fully live the following songs:

- ‘Wanna Be Startin' Somethin’
- ‘Human Nature’
- ‘J5 Medley’
- ‘I Just Can't Stop Loving You’
- ‘Black Or White’
- ‘Beat It’

The rest of the songs were going to be either fully lip-synced, or partly live and partly lip-synced.

For example, ‘Thriller’, ‘Man In The Mirror’, ‘Jam’, ‘The Way You Make Me Feel’, ‘Heal The World’, ‘They Don't Care About Us’ were going to be fully lip-synced with his usual few, live ad-libs.

‘Earth Song’ was going to be partly live and partly lip-synced (the ‘what about…’ parts were going to be lip-synced because they were strenuous for his voice if he sang them live.

Remember, these ‘what about…’ parts were strenuous for his voice when he was recording the song for the ‘HIStory’ album, that is why he recorded these parts at the end of the album’s sessions.

Contrary to what Michael Durham Prince said about that, Michael Jackson generally in his career did not like using pre-recorded vocals during his shows which suggests that he was not going to use pre-recorded vocals also for the ‘This Is It’ shows.

 

[rumandraisin]

A very good post mjfrenzy. Certain songs were always going to be mimed.

 

[Electro]

Contrary to what Michael Durham Prince said about that, Michael Jackson generally in his career did not like using pre-recorded vocals during his shows which suggests that he was not going to use pre-recorded vocals also for the ‘This Is It’ shows.

And to put it as a specificly confirmed fact like that, you rely on which of Michael Jacksons statements?
(Other than your usual next best speculation of what he thought, felt, liked and not liked.)

No reply = you don't know of such statement.

 

[wonderouzmj]

According to available information and how he was rehearsing the songs for his ‘This Is It’ shows, Michael Jackson planned to sing fully live the following songs:

- ‘Wanna Be Startin' Somethin’
- ‘Human Nature’
- ‘J5 Medley’
- ‘I Just Can't Stop Loving You’
- ‘Black Or White’
- ‘Beat It’

The rest of the songs were going to be either fully lip-synced, or partly live and partly lip-synced.

For example, ‘Thriller’, ‘Man In The Mirror’, ‘Jam’, ‘The Way You Make Me Feel’, ‘Heal The World’, ‘They Don't Care About Us’ were going to be fully lip-synced with his usual few, live ad-libs.

‘Earth Song’ was going to be partly live and partly lip-synced (the ‘what about…’ parts were going to be lip-synced because they were strenuous for his voice if he sang them live.

Remember, these ‘what about…’ parts were strenuous for his voice when he was recording the song for the ‘HIStory’ album, that is why he recorded these parts at the end of the album’s sessions.

Contrary to what Michael Durham Prince said about that, Michael Jackson generally in his career did not like using pre-recorded vocals during his shows which suggests that he was not going to use pre-recorded vocals also for the ‘This Is It’ shows.

So....are we going by what was displayed on the film or what he was or wasn't going to do live...not once had he ever performed dirty diana with a backing track & that was going to be rehearsed for sure!