Astrantia
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My footage from yesterday now live (with Q&A) - Now live: http://youtu.be/u-Ci4Hfu2wU
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[Spoiler Alert] Spike Lee Bad 25 Documentary UK Premiere & Fan Reviews
- Thread starter ivy
- Start date
rish15
Proud Member
Sorry for the delay in my review but I was very tired yesterday after all that travelling.
Everything has already been mentioned by other fans who attended in terms of content and what was said by Branca and Lee.
I'll post my review and about my experience when I get back later this afternoon, but in short it was an amazing experience and the documentary was just brilliant and jaw-dropping :O
Everything has already been mentioned by other fans who attended in terms of content and what was said by Branca and Lee.
I'll post my review and about my experience when I get back later this afternoon, but in short it was an amazing experience and the documentary was just brilliant and jaw-dropping :O
Elegantly Wasted
Proud Member
Ohhh I can't wait to see this (that comment about Mike getting dressed up for his brothers and them not turning up broke my heart)
Personally I love "Just good friends"!
I hope they do a lot with the HIStory area, it's my favourite..I'd love to see another concert though that's not Munich...Brisbane maybe
Personally I love "Just good friends"!
I hope they do a lot with the HIStory area, it's my favourite..I'd love to see another concert though that's not Munich...Brisbane maybe
Memefan
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Ohhh I can't wait to see this (that comment about Mike getting dressed up for his brothers and them not turning up broke my heart)
Personally I love "Just good friends"!
I hope they do a lot with the HIStory area, it's my favourite..I'd love to see another concert though that's not Munich...Brisbane maybe
Do we know why he was meeting with the brothers? Were they gonna be on the BAD album? (I hope not)
zhelva
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ok, thats funny
are you being serious?And they mention it in a Bad 25 documentary or what?
Astrantia
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ok, thats funny
And they mention it in a Bad 25 documentary or what?
Yes, Sheryl is interviewed and said something along the lines of "The guys in the band would have bets whether Michael would get excited (during their duet).
Also, if I recall, there was a portion about Michael's disguises (and photos) followed by some people saying he got dressed up in a disguise to meet his brothers one time, but they didn't show up (I think that's what was said).
Steve001
Proud Member
I'd love to see another concert though that's not Munich...Brisbane maybe
The HIStory Tour concert in Brisbane has long been at the very top of my personal wish list as I was there live!
Also, as a side note, my avatar is taken from the Brisbane '96 show...(One of the only pics I've ever encountered from that particular night).
You may also want to send a PM to a Moderator here and gain access to the 2000 Watts section. Inside, you will find roughly fifteen Pro Shot HIStory Tour shows alone
AliCat
Proud Member
Lee was commissioned by Sony and Epic records to make a documentary for the anniversary, gathering interviews with collaborators on the album: dancers, choreographers, song writers, short film directors, back-up singers, sound technicians and friends.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-207_162-57504829/spike-lee-doc-pays-tribute-to-jacksons-genius/
Great commentary from everyone. The Sheryl Crow part is pretty funny and I give her kudos for moving on with her Career and establishing herself as a strong woman role model. She is a professional, both on and off the Stage, she learned from the BEST!
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-207_162-57504829/spike-lee-doc-pays-tribute-to-jacksons-genius/
Great commentary from everyone. The Sheryl Crow part is pretty funny and I give her kudos for moving on with her Career and establishing herself as a strong woman role model. She is a professional, both on and off the Stage, she learned from the BEST!
Jesta
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Here's my write-up about the day. Sorry I took so long, I've been battling with tiredness
First of all, the day itself was incredible. I met up with two (and later three) fans and we spent about 45 minutes getting acquainted with each other and talking about our fandom. When we got in line, we were amazed by how many people were accumulating; it nearly reached around the corner! The inside of the West End Odeon was adorned with the Bad 25 logo, as well as a giant poster of the Bad 25 album cover. We were treated to complimentary popcorn and water, and we sat in the front row.
Picture courtesy of Amie Louise Landsborough
Before the film started, Spike Lee and John Branca took to the stage to talk a little bit about the film. Branca compared the film to This Is It in the sense that it documented Michael's creative process for an album as This Is It documented Michael's creative process for a live project.
Picture courtesy of ~Lindsey~
(Forgive me if my memory's a little fuzzy when it comes to detail of the film)
The film opened with footage of Michael's interview with Ebony magazine discussing the project. This footage is seen throughout the film and is the primary interview footage of Michael. We are treated to the backstory of the album and how Thriller was seen as a massive success due to its record-breaking sales and achivements in the industry. We see figures such as Joe Vogel discussing this, as well as pointing out several quotes by James Baldwin.
They discuss the original concept of the album - it was originally titled "Smooth Criminal" and had the veil cover, but Quincy Jones disliked it. The whole ideology behind the album was to break down any misconceptions that the public had about him and black singers in general.
The film talks about each song in the order that they appear in the album... Mostly. Prince was vehemently against the idea of a collaboration with Michael, and a meeting between Michael and Prince ended badly when Michael believed that Prince was trying to curse him with a voodoo doll. The film was worked on to be bigger than Thriller in terms of being a dramatic piece, inspired by the shooting of a young black boy in Harlem. Michael was only satisfied with a take if he "could feel it in [his] soul" (as explained by a note). Michael was shocked by the living conditions of the location in which the exterior shots were filmed, and was excited by the authenticity of the subway (remarking that the authentic urine stains were a particularly nice touch). Michael was upset that he hurt the old man's arm in the subway and pleaded with Scorsese to not do another take. Scorsese's picture is seen on the WANTED poster, which causes his daughter to question him on whether he had been in prison before! We are then shown Michael climbing into the ceiling so he can drop down from it. Michael used a combination of street dance and theatrics for the choreography, and liked the idea of being followed by the camera for it as opposed to the shots remaining static. The "shamone" was taken by a soul singer who I believe was called Mavis, but I can't remember her second name.
Michael developed The Way You Make Me Feel at his home studio. We see a studio sheet with the name "Hot Fever" on it as we listen to the harmonies of the song. Michael worked tirelessly on the harmonies and ten variations of his voice are on that track's ones. The graininess of the film was a design choice due to the style of one of the director's previous documentaries showing gang life. The extras were real gang members and police were there at all times to prevent a riot. Michael was upset about the smoking, and Joy Pytka yelled at them to stop it, prompting Michael to retreat behind him. A dance scene was worked in last second, with the fire hydrant being the best place aesthetically to do it. Tatiana was instructed to not kiss him due to it being cheesy, but she recalled that the hug at the end had Michael with minty breath, so she wondered if he could've handled a kiss. Tatiana's kiss with Michael n the Bad Tour was EXTREMELY brief, and the quality of the footage was OK.
Siedah Garrett was initially surprised and thrilled that she was given the chance to sing with Michael. Studio footage of Michael and her singing is shown next, with the backing track on. The way it was shot was incredible, and it looked like it could've been a music video. The Bad Tour band made bets as to whether Michael was turned on by Sheryl Crow during the song when they played it live.
Not much was discussed with Speed Demon as a song, except that the song was a metaphor for how the public perceived him and it symbolised the mission statement of the album itself. Michael loved the idea of claymation being worked into the piece. To get the dance scene technically right, a guy in all-black outfit danced alongside Michael, with Spike edited in later.
Liberian Girl was very challenging for its time because NO songs talked about black women as if they were beautiful. Michael only did one take at the end of the video, as he was called in last minute to make an appearance.
Just Good Friends was looked at unfavourably by a lot of people as the only filler song on the album. Studio footage of Michael and Stevie was shown, with them singing the song without any music playing in the background.
Archive footage of Quincy discusses the issues between picking Streetwalker and Another Part of Me to make the album, but the tracklisting was decided when he caught Michael dancing to the latter. Pristine footage of the Bad Tour in Paris is shown next, and it looked jaw-droppingly incredible.
Steve Stevens was reluctant to work on Dirty Diana because he wasn't a session musician, and would only work if Michael was in the room with him. Dirty Diana was designed to break the misconception that black people couldn't be rockstars. The film was initially going to have Michael on-stage and in the rain at the end, but he hurt his knees too badly shooting the other scenes that he couldn't do it.
Leave Me Alone was a way to make fun and embrace the media stories that arose of Michael in the 80s, in order to ruin the fun of it for everyone else. The giant Michael was inspired by Gulliver's Travels, and the effect throughout the entire film was tireless for the animators. An animator spent two weeks just cutting out Michael's hair for the entire piece.
Smooth Criminal was inspired by Fred Astaire's "The Band Wagon" aesthetically. The enigmatic Annie was inspired by a CPR dummy named Anne and the first thing one must do before administering CPR is to ask that they're OK. Rehearsal footage of Michael with Vincent Patterson in a studio is seen, as well as a full-dress rehearsal on-set (featuring Michael with a red shirt instead of a blue shirt). The hopping seen in the film was inspired by a Bugs Bunny move, and the Lean was Michael's way of topping himself with his other moves. Footage of dancers falling down during the Lean is seen. No-one knew of the break in the song except for Michael initially, and he wanted it so that the dancers can "feel the space". Michael drew a picture of the Smooth Criminal suit, and the arm-band was originally black. Bruce Swedien explains that the mic used by Michael for all of his songs (bar Earth Song) was made for narration, but it fit Michael's voice.
Man in the Mirror was inspired by a saying that one of Siedah Garrett's friends said to her in 1985. As Glen Ballard was coming up with the music, Siedah had a rush of inspiration and couldn't write the lyrics down fast enough. The song was included as Michael wanted an anthem song, that he felt was lacking on Thriller. Siedah sent a demo to Quincy and he loved it, but one part was just a bit too high for Michael, so she sang a demo live for Michael (who was holding the camera and clicking to keep her in time).
Every interviewee is asked "Where were you when Michael Jackson died?" and what followed was a montage of reactions. Most, if not all ended in tears and they all spoke extremely highly of Michael when they reminisced about him at this point. The most heartbreaking was Vincent Patterson's who broke down and said about how much he cared for him. He started tearing up earlier when recalling that one of Michael's biggest wishes was to just be able to go to a party and sit alone in a corner. Then Seth Riggs recounted over how he yelled at the person who told him the bad news on June 25th because he couldn't believe it. The pain in his eyes was the most raw and sincere that I had seen in a person discussing Michael.
The film ends with a performance of Man in the Mirror from July 16th at Wembley. The performance itself was incredible and Michael's vocals were flying over the added crowd noise (which was very effective as it gave a feeling that you were there at the concert). The quality is not good by HD standards by any means, but as a VHS it looks damn incredible. The documentary ends in a similar way that This Is It did, except that Michael takes a bow after the Christ pose.
Picture courtesy of Amie Louise Landsborough
I've almost definitely missed things out, but that's what watching the film when it comes out is for
Discussion about the Q&A session will be written up today, probably after I've edited my small featurette.
First of all, the day itself was incredible. I met up with two (and later three) fans and we spent about 45 minutes getting acquainted with each other and talking about our fandom. When we got in line, we were amazed by how many people were accumulating; it nearly reached around the corner! The inside of the West End Odeon was adorned with the Bad 25 logo, as well as a giant poster of the Bad 25 album cover. We were treated to complimentary popcorn and water, and we sat in the front row.
Picture courtesy of Amie Louise Landsborough
Before the film started, Spike Lee and John Branca took to the stage to talk a little bit about the film. Branca compared the film to This Is It in the sense that it documented Michael's creative process for an album as This Is It documented Michael's creative process for a live project.
Picture courtesy of ~Lindsey~
(Forgive me if my memory's a little fuzzy when it comes to detail of the film)
The film opened with footage of Michael's interview with Ebony magazine discussing the project. This footage is seen throughout the film and is the primary interview footage of Michael. We are treated to the backstory of the album and how Thriller was seen as a massive success due to its record-breaking sales and achivements in the industry. We see figures such as Joe Vogel discussing this, as well as pointing out several quotes by James Baldwin.
They discuss the original concept of the album - it was originally titled "Smooth Criminal" and had the veil cover, but Quincy Jones disliked it. The whole ideology behind the album was to break down any misconceptions that the public had about him and black singers in general.
The film talks about each song in the order that they appear in the album... Mostly. Prince was vehemently against the idea of a collaboration with Michael, and a meeting between Michael and Prince ended badly when Michael believed that Prince was trying to curse him with a voodoo doll. The film was worked on to be bigger than Thriller in terms of being a dramatic piece, inspired by the shooting of a young black boy in Harlem. Michael was only satisfied with a take if he "could feel it in [his] soul" (as explained by a note). Michael was shocked by the living conditions of the location in which the exterior shots were filmed, and was excited by the authenticity of the subway (remarking that the authentic urine stains were a particularly nice touch). Michael was upset that he hurt the old man's arm in the subway and pleaded with Scorsese to not do another take. Scorsese's picture is seen on the WANTED poster, which causes his daughter to question him on whether he had been in prison before! We are then shown Michael climbing into the ceiling so he can drop down from it. Michael used a combination of street dance and theatrics for the choreography, and liked the idea of being followed by the camera for it as opposed to the shots remaining static. The "shamone" was taken by a soul singer who I believe was called Mavis, but I can't remember her second name.
Michael developed The Way You Make Me Feel at his home studio. We see a studio sheet with the name "Hot Fever" on it as we listen to the harmonies of the song. Michael worked tirelessly on the harmonies and ten variations of his voice are on that track's ones. The graininess of the film was a design choice due to the style of one of the director's previous documentaries showing gang life. The extras were real gang members and police were there at all times to prevent a riot. Michael was upset about the smoking, and Joy Pytka yelled at them to stop it, prompting Michael to retreat behind him. A dance scene was worked in last second, with the fire hydrant being the best place aesthetically to do it. Tatiana was instructed to not kiss him due to it being cheesy, but she recalled that the hug at the end had Michael with minty breath, so she wondered if he could've handled a kiss. Tatiana's kiss with Michael n the Bad Tour was EXTREMELY brief, and the quality of the footage was OK.
Siedah Garrett was initially surprised and thrilled that she was given the chance to sing with Michael. Studio footage of Michael and her singing is shown next, with the backing track on. The way it was shot was incredible, and it looked like it could've been a music video. The Bad Tour band made bets as to whether Michael was turned on by Sheryl Crow during the song when they played it live.
Not much was discussed with Speed Demon as a song, except that the song was a metaphor for how the public perceived him and it symbolised the mission statement of the album itself. Michael loved the idea of claymation being worked into the piece. To get the dance scene technically right, a guy in all-black outfit danced alongside Michael, with Spike edited in later.
Liberian Girl was very challenging for its time because NO songs talked about black women as if they were beautiful. Michael only did one take at the end of the video, as he was called in last minute to make an appearance.
Just Good Friends was looked at unfavourably by a lot of people as the only filler song on the album. Studio footage of Michael and Stevie was shown, with them singing the song without any music playing in the background.
Archive footage of Quincy discusses the issues between picking Streetwalker and Another Part of Me to make the album, but the tracklisting was decided when he caught Michael dancing to the latter. Pristine footage of the Bad Tour in Paris is shown next, and it looked jaw-droppingly incredible.
Steve Stevens was reluctant to work on Dirty Diana because he wasn't a session musician, and would only work if Michael was in the room with him. Dirty Diana was designed to break the misconception that black people couldn't be rockstars. The film was initially going to have Michael on-stage and in the rain at the end, but he hurt his knees too badly shooting the other scenes that he couldn't do it.
Leave Me Alone was a way to make fun and embrace the media stories that arose of Michael in the 80s, in order to ruin the fun of it for everyone else. The giant Michael was inspired by Gulliver's Travels, and the effect throughout the entire film was tireless for the animators. An animator spent two weeks just cutting out Michael's hair for the entire piece.
Smooth Criminal was inspired by Fred Astaire's "The Band Wagon" aesthetically. The enigmatic Annie was inspired by a CPR dummy named Anne and the first thing one must do before administering CPR is to ask that they're OK. Rehearsal footage of Michael with Vincent Patterson in a studio is seen, as well as a full-dress rehearsal on-set (featuring Michael with a red shirt instead of a blue shirt). The hopping seen in the film was inspired by a Bugs Bunny move, and the Lean was Michael's way of topping himself with his other moves. Footage of dancers falling down during the Lean is seen. No-one knew of the break in the song except for Michael initially, and he wanted it so that the dancers can "feel the space". Michael drew a picture of the Smooth Criminal suit, and the arm-band was originally black. Bruce Swedien explains that the mic used by Michael for all of his songs (bar Earth Song) was made for narration, but it fit Michael's voice.
Man in the Mirror was inspired by a saying that one of Siedah Garrett's friends said to her in 1985. As Glen Ballard was coming up with the music, Siedah had a rush of inspiration and couldn't write the lyrics down fast enough. The song was included as Michael wanted an anthem song, that he felt was lacking on Thriller. Siedah sent a demo to Quincy and he loved it, but one part was just a bit too high for Michael, so she sang a demo live for Michael (who was holding the camera and clicking to keep her in time).
Every interviewee is asked "Where were you when Michael Jackson died?" and what followed was a montage of reactions. Most, if not all ended in tears and they all spoke extremely highly of Michael when they reminisced about him at this point. The most heartbreaking was Vincent Patterson's who broke down and said about how much he cared for him. He started tearing up earlier when recalling that one of Michael's biggest wishes was to just be able to go to a party and sit alone in a corner. Then Seth Riggs recounted over how he yelled at the person who told him the bad news on June 25th because he couldn't believe it. The pain in his eyes was the most raw and sincere that I had seen in a person discussing Michael.
The film ends with a performance of Man in the Mirror from July 16th at Wembley. The performance itself was incredible and Michael's vocals were flying over the added crowd noise (which was very effective as it gave a feeling that you were there at the concert). The quality is not good by HD standards by any means, but as a VHS it looks damn incredible. The documentary ends in a similar way that This Is It did, except that Michael takes a bow after the Christ pose.
Picture courtesy of Amie Louise Landsborough
I've almost definitely missed things out, but that's what watching the film when it comes out is for
Discussion about the Q&A session will be written up today, probably after I've edited my small featurette.
Last edited:
gerryevans
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Jesta...this was worth the wait. Thank you and all the fans for sharing the experience with us. Much, much appreciated.
StellaJackson
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No it was just a social meeting. He got all dressed up (guess he hadn't seen them in a while with the tour and everything) and they never turned up. He was hurt.
Memefan
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Thank you. Sad that the brothers didn't bother showing up. I can understand one or two missing the meeting for one reason or another...but none showing up? SMDH
Then they go around claiming people prevented them from seeing MJ.
The reviews for this movie are just incredible. I am looking forward to watching this at the theatre and on ABC... hopefully, soon.
loveforever
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No surprise! Didn't Michael say whenever his family wanted to see him, they always wanted something from him. reunion tour, shady business deals, money... I guess just hanging out and having fun as the brothers is the waste of time to the Jacksons. No wonder Michael was looking for love from surogate families.
rish15
Proud Member
Hey guys, i've posted my review on my blog. I would copy/paste it here but I want you to see with the accompanied pictures!
http://rishinium.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/whos-bad.html
http://rishinium.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/whos-bad.html
qbee
Proud Member
I am sorry what is the raisin commercial about again? The whole Prince voodoo doll is weird to be honest. He didn't have to work on the song but what was the point of that? Also Kanye West talked about Smooth Criminal. Did they ask him and Bieber etc what their favorite song was or stuff like that? How were they incorporated into this documentary?
I hope something like this gets done for Dangerous, History or Invincible. Michael was always growing as an artist and it would be interesting to see how he made those albums as well.
I hope something like this gets done for Dangerous, History or Invincible. Michael was always growing as an artist and it would be interesting to see how he made those albums as well.
qbee
Proud Member
^^This is part of thet footage uploaded last year
Michael instructing how he want's the raisins to be and the commercial :lol:
http://youtu.be/PgDOAvX-_Lo
Michael instructing how he want's the raisins to be and the commercial :lol:
http://youtu.be/PgDOAvX-_Lo
Love.him
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I think the raisin commercial was for california raisins. I had totally forgotten about those commercials.
They had people like Kanye West, Bieber, and Mariah Carey give their reactions to the album/short films, how they had felt about them over the years. People's were asked about their favourite songs as well. Bieber said that, I think it was the Way You Make Me Feel was an influence on one of his early videos. Might have been Baby. Kanye West half joked about Dirty Diana being autobiographical for him.
They had people like Kanye West, Bieber, and Mariah Carey give their reactions to the album/short films, how they had felt about them over the years. People's were asked about their favourite songs as well. Bieber said that, I think it was the Way You Make Me Feel was an influence on one of his early videos. Might have been Baby. Kanye West half joked about Dirty Diana being autobiographical for him.
Snow White luvs Peter Pan
Proud Member
His gangsta attituede! :wub: :lol:
Lucky you guys, I wish Mexico had a theatical release as well!
Ashtanga
Proud Member
Me and John Branca (Spike Lee disappeared quickly enough to avoid my request for a picture
Picture courtesy of ~Lindsey~
John!!!!!!!!!!!! :woohoo: