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billie jean film tapes - lost?

Beano Wild

Beano Wild

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so i was watching moonwalker and it came to my attention that michael didnt rescan billie jean, yet rescanned all the other film for beat it, thriller, the bad films, etc. could this mean the billie jean 16mm film prints were lost, or was it confirmed the estate has recovered the reels?
heres a screen from moonwalker for proof.

unknown.png
 
I think the last time the estate mentioned the short films all they said was that they still didn't have all the materials to fully remaster most of them.
 
SmoothGangsta said:
I think the last time the estate mentioned the short films all they said was that they still didn't have all the materials to fully remaster most of them.
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As far as I remember, the main issue was the digital VFX on the 90s videos that couldn't be recreated to be a complete match (the original reels don't have them, of course).
 
MJbr2 said:
As far as I remember, the main issue was the digital VFX on the 90s videos that couldn't be recreated to be a complete match (the original reels don't have them, of course).
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Yeah, I dunno about that myself. Just kinda screams we don't want to spend the money for the majority of the short films. Especially if they're saying they can't find certain stuff, I just have to ask what the hell they've been doing this whole time.
 
SmoothGangsta said:
Yeah, I dunno about that myself. Just kinda screams we don't want to spend the money for the majority of the short films. Especially if they're saying they can't find certain stuff, I just have to ask what the hell they've been doing this whole time.
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The entire Star Trek - The Next Generation series was released on blu-ray, using the original film reels. They had to redo all the special effects there too. That's 178 45-minute episodes, and almost every single one features way more special effects than MJ's short films.

So sure, it would take time and money, but it is not at all unprecedented. MJ was such a visual artist and his short films are legendary. I do not see how it is not worth the investment to present and preserve them in the highest possible quality.
 
SoCav said:
The entire Star Trek - The Next Generation series was released on blu-ray, using the original film reels. They had to redo all the special effects there too. That's 178 45-minute episodes, and almost every single one features way more special effects than MJ's short films.

So sure, it would take time and money, but it is not at all unprecedented. MJ was such a visual artist and his short films are legendary. I do not see how it is not worth the investment to present and preserve them in the highest possible quality.
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They have to do it - and as soon as possible.

Youngsters do not wanna see low quality videos. So if you have to introduce MJ to future generations, his art has to be the best possible quality.
So The Estate should make it a big priority to get all MJ's videos made into 4K (or highest possible quality)

It will cost some money now - but in the long run it will be the best investment they can do.
 
SoCav said:
The entire Star Trek - The Next Generation series was released on blu-ray, using the original film reels. They had to redo all the special effects there too. That's 178 45-minute episodes, and almost every single one features way more special effects than MJ's short films.

So sure, it would take time and money, but it is not at all unprecedented. MJ was such a visual artist and his short films are legendary. I do not see how it is not worth the investment to present and preserve them in the highest possible quality.
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It's only not worth the investment if the Estate don't care about preserving his art.
 
dam2040 said:
It's only not worth the investment if the Estate don't care about preserving his art.
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I think we know the answer to that lol. They still don't even have a lot of his unreleased music and are determined to erase anything on the demos when they release them on official albums.
 
SoCav said:
The entire Star Trek - The Next Generation series was released on blu-ray, using the original film reels. They had to redo all the special effects there too. That's 178 45-minute episodes, and almost every single one features way more special effects than MJ's short films.

So sure, it would take time and money, but it is not at all unprecedented. MJ was such a visual artist and his short films are legendary. I do not see how it is not worth the investment to present and preserve them in the highest possible quality.
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I feel like recreating the effects might not be the best idea. As mentioned, they might turn out to be completely different. Also, since it's the Estate we're talking about, quality control is something they clearly lack (remember Wembley).
 
Interesting. I hadn’t noticed this before.

I wouldn’t at all be surprised if some short films can’t be remastered because the original reels are either damaged or missing. An absolute tragedy, but MJ should’ve been more responsible with the preservation of his art (assuming they disappeared during his lifetime).
 
SoCav said:
The entire Star Trek - The Next Generation series was released on blu-ray, using the original film reels. They had to redo all the special effects there too. That's 178 45-minute episodes, and almost every single one features way more special effects than MJ's short films.

So sure, it would take time and money, but it is not at all unprecedented. MJ was such a visual artist and his short films are legendary. I do not see how it is not worth the investment to present and preserve them in the highest possible quality.
Click to expand...

It's pretty clear that they do not see it as worth their time or money, it's been 13 years.
 
SmoothGangsta said:
It's pretty clear that they do not see it as worth their time or money, it's been 13 years.
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& like 6 years since thriller 4k. IT GETS ME SO ANGRY AT THEM BECAUSE WHY IS REMASTERING HIS SHORTS TAKING SO LONG? I AT LEAST WANT TO LIVE LONG ENOUGH TO SEE MJ IN 4K/8K! LIKE WHAT TF IS THE HOLD UP? WHY HOLD ONTO STUFF. IF THEY CAN'T FIND CERTAIN REELS... JUST DO THE ONES YOU HAVE & LET IT OUT. IT DOESN'T HAVE TO BE ON A PROJECT..... let me stop right there! THE ESTATE RUNS MY BLOOD PRESSURE UP I SWEAR!
 
After the dust settled post TII/Experience/Michael etc the first project should've been remastering the short films imo. More important than Bad 25/Xscape/T40
 
The director Steve Barron is still around.

Maybe reach out and ask him?
 
Nickboi said:
The director Steve Barron is still around.

Maybe reach out and ask him?
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Wait...I just thought about it... the bts footage leaked a while back. Wasn't that the original tape? Maybe this is just a copy of a copy tape
 
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