What could have helped the Wembley DVD...
WARNING: THIS POST WARRANTS THIS GIF:
---------
Nevermind the fact that they chose to use a VHS tape of a lost master copy of a show.
Nevermind the fact that they claim they only had the Wembley 16th multi track audio (meanwhile, there's Yokohama...July 15th...whatever audio was used for Moonwalkers Man In The Mirror and the music video/Bad 25 version of Another Part Of Me...they have other shows in multi track forms...)
Nevermind that there may or may not be a shows-worth of material shot on film.
This is about the VHS tape they used (which, by the way, is was just a marketing ploy to say that it was found in his dresser or something and it was extra special to him. Michael had lots of his concerts dubbed to VHS so he could preview them. Probably in his hotel room (it's not like he had a u-matic tape player in his room!). So I doubt the Wembley show was any more special than Anytown, Earth. The fact that Diana was there and it was in a legendary venue was probably the only reason they released that show.
BE THAT AS IT MAY, here's what could have made the dvd better...
1-More crowd shots
I'm not talking Bucharest type stuff. That was WAY too much. I liked that they used film-based footage the 2 times early in the show. But I'm sure they had more footage from later in the night that looked decent enough to put on. As the show goes on, the crowd seems like an after-thought. If nothing else, some shots between songs.
But if there was not much good material from when it was darker at night, a handful of more crowd shots during when the sun was out would have been nice.
Shots like these from the crowd or a higher area of the venue would have been great too.
2-Using other shows to enhance poor choices of shots
They used another show to replace certain parts in Billie Jean (and possibly Beat It, but that's debatable) because of (most likely) bad frames from the VHS tape. That's all fine and lovely, but why not go a step further and enhance some parts that would have benefited from a different angle or shot?
Two parts that stick out are the WDAN and BI transition. In Yokohama, the illusion is displayed wonderfully because of more camera coverage. It would have been nice if they found another shot from another source (even if it was another show. No one would have noticed. Same stage, outfits, etc.) to show the illusion better. In Wembley, we just see the curtain-tube and then him on the crane. We barely see the dancers/band distracting the audience with the dance like in Yokohama...
ALSO, I wish they looked for another better shot for the end of Smooth Criminal. You barely get to see that crew members pick up the "dead" dancers off the stage. I'm sure there was another show where maybe a better shot of them picking them up exists. The gag falls flat when it's barely shown.
3-MJ's videographers/alternate camera people
This is the biggest one of all.
Ok, so MJ had his own personal videographers who shot stuff on tape and film. This is shown in things like the Home Movies special and also other assorted Bad Tour specials.
In addition to the main 4-camera crew for the jumobo-trons, he also had people filming crowd shots as well as stuff behind the scenes and at the sides of the stage.
Remember in the Home Movies special, the shot of him leaving the stage in London by a cameraman on the left? Obviously, one of his videographers.
And remember the Rome TV footage? I'm sure this was shot by one of his people and handed off to the TV station. There was probably hours of footage like this from behind the stage from various shows. Can you imagine how enhanced Wembley would have been with footage from the back of the stage?? If for no other reason, than to see the crowd more (and of course, another angle for the dancing!)
Obviously, this footage might not be as organized as a u-matic of the show, but these things exists (and it's silly and naive to think the hours and hours of b-roll for the tour are gone. They just didn't think to use this extra stuff for the dvd...)
In conclusion, there are hours and hours and miles and miles of tape and film based footage from (if nothing else) the Bad era in storage. They could have enhanced the DVD more than the limited views of the jumbo-tron based tape (the 2 crowd shots in the beginning were good, but there could have been more as stated above).
And before anyone says BE GREATFUL THEY RELEASED THIS or whatever nonsense, I did actually buy the dvd and Target edition of the 2-cd/bonus dvd, so I've supported this project already. Doesn't mean I have to love it. Making the best out of a mediocre situation.
This post is totally me just venting...
