The Unfaithful and Irritating Editing of the 30th Anniversary Concerts

[Snek]

This has annoyed me for a while and I'm sharing my thoughts here to find out if anyone else feels my pain .

The editing on the 30th Anniversary Concert video that was broadcast has some baffling editing decisions that have annoyed me ever since I watched the full amateur footage of both nights. I have never wanted to re-edit something myself so badly in my life, and I have zero experience in that field. The footage we received in the professionally shot TV special omits live vocals, chops up good sections of performances, cuts to crowd shots like a overly-excited toddler (or a Live in Bucharest editor ), and even messes with the appearance of certain figures on the show. Here's a quick rundown of the issues I have and what I would change for the final product.

(Not So) Live Vocals

Here's perhaps the most egregious edit of the whole TV special. Parts of the shows were sang live by Michael and then were later dubbed. Particularly, the entire Jacksons section of the show was sang completely live and is heavily dubbed in the special. Obviously Micheal (and the brothers?) was/were involved with this decison, as the dubbed vocals are freshly recorded for this concert video. But it is something that I cannot understand. The vocals were decent on the second show, at least in my opinion.

Side note: yes, the performance on the first night was a little bit all over the place. Even the most ardent MJ defender would have a hard time disputing that fact. Which is why I believe this show in pro footage should be represented 100% in September 10th footage except from Dancing Machine, which was only performed on September 7th.

Bizarrely, only Dancing Machine and I'll Be There retain Michael's original vocals 100%. The rest of the songs have live snippets scattered about in them.



Also on this night, Michael sings a near-flawless live version of his blues-y TWYMMF intro that is almost all cut out of the final product. Why! The rest of the songs seem pretty faithful to the original shows.

The Frankenstein's Monster That Is Billie Jean

Where to start. This definitely appears to be the song that was messed with the most. Basically, both nights of this show had a totally different vibe and presentation. The first night is more spontaneous and the second night is more traditional. The dance breakdown of the first night is longer and appears to be entirely improvised. The second night's dance breakdown is much more reminiscent of a HIStory Tour concert. The edit that we got seems adamant to mash the two together in the worst possible ways. Judge for yourself:



I would rather just see a professionally shot version of one singular night, flaws and all. In this case I'd still take the performance from the 10th.

So Many Crowd Shots

This show has maybe the most cringe-inducing crowd shots of any MJ concert. Overly-excited bowl cut lady, dancing fat man, drunk bowl cut lady, the drunk singing trio, confused lady. Some of these are so bad I have to physically look away when they come up. The only redeeming crowd shots are the cameos from fans that you can spot at other previous concerts. Honestly, if you're gonna cut a show together like this, please have some discipline .

Digital Alteration of Appearances

This show was infamous at the time of airing for smoothing out the appearance of Whitney Houston's chest and neck. The consensus at the time, however true it may be, is that it was done to cover up her thinness. Less discussed, however, is that the exact same effect was applied to Michael Jackson's cheeks in the final video. This effect is especially obvious in the upscaled footage and will only become more obvious as time goes on. This effect needs to go, it's not even necessary. He may have been having issues at this time but there is no need to mask this as if he has something to hide.




VS



Just looks silly to me.

TL;DR

Anyway, I hope someone with the power to make these changes gets to see this. I anticipate one day we'll see an anniversary re-release of these concerts (perhaps on their 30th anniversary? ) and I would be sincerely sad if these things were left unchanged. The presentation of these concerts could be so much better.

[Serious Effect]

Nice analysis. It does bug me that a lot of officially released or broadcasted concerts of Michael's have undergone so many edits and modifications, almost to an unnecessary extent. The only raw concert footage available (in full) has been leaked by whomever. I agree that viewing the original unrevised feeds of both 2001 concerts should be an opportunity sometime in the future.

[Hulkamaniac]

(Unpopular opinion I know but) I do enjoy this show

Show is way better than any HIStory tour IMO. The Jacksons part is gold. I wish we had HQ footage from the Triumph Tour. Such an underrated show/tour. In general, The Jacksons are very underrated even though they made some kick ass songs.

[camusn]

30th Anniversary was not the best presence of Mike. He just looked tired and confused in both concert.
The live experience must be terrible except for seeing him singing live with the Jacksons for the first time in decade. I think he would rather not to broadcast this concert if possible, yet it must be something related to the contract.

[dam2040]

I like the show.

[Galactus123]

I wonder why they didn't include the second moonwalk in the broadcast version?

[Hudson112]

30th Anniversary was not the best presence of Mike. He just looked tired and confused in both concert.
The live experience must be terrible except for seeing him singing live with the Jacksons for the first time in decade. I think he would rather not to broadcast this concert if possible, yet it must be something related to the contract.

Believe it or not, these concerts were reviewed by journalists who were there and if you go back and look at the reviews of the time, they are generally positive.

[Snek]

I wonder why they didn't include the second moonwalk in the broadcast version?

This is another omission that just boggles the mind.

Also I forgot to mention the unnecessary changes made to the order of the setlist. In reality it went:

TWYMMF > Chris Tucker > Billie Jean > Black or White

But what we see is:

Chris Tucker > TWYMMF > Black or White > Beat It > Billie Jean

This means we see Michael perform Black or White in his Billie Jean outfit, seemingly change out of that outfit, and then change back into it for Billie Jean. Wut. This was clearly done only to keep people watching past the ad breaks on TV.

[lubyss]

Here is the ultimate comparison... I love this video... And I love BJ on 30th ann... :-)

https://youtu.be/xQHo29ZaRbY

[analogue]

Here is the ultimate comparison... I love this video... And I love BJ on 30th ann... :-)

https://youtu.be/xQHo29ZaRbY

I wish they would have left in the live adlibs from the 7th. They edited out some of the coolest moments from both nights. The adlibs, the ankle breaker dance (AKA Rock With You legs) the 2nd moonwalk, the beat boxing at the end of the song.

[DanGerouS-]

i actually loved the "failed" dance routine on twymmf and Mike then shouting "GO!" at the band.

that's missing on the TV version.

[analogue]

I'm surprised that Michael didn't do a Dangerous performance. He seemed to really love performing that one, and he even performed it on American Bandstand in 2002. 11 years after it was released

[Snek]

i actually loved the "failed" dance routine on twymmf and Mike then shouting "GO!" at the band.

that's missing on the TV version.

Totally forgot about this too, yeah I'd def add this back in

[analogue]

If the estate was in charge of edited the Billie Jean performance they'd probably throw in some clips from Motown 25 thinking no one would notice.

[Rocketeer]

If the estate was in charge of edited the Billie Jean performance they'd probably throw in some clips from Motown 25 thinking no one would notice.

Better yet, they could put some Destiny and Triumph Tour footage in the Jacksons medley segment