Spike Lee announces Off The Wall Documentary - Estate Announcement Page 66

Re: Spike Lee announces Off The Wall Documentary

There are two people in the entire world who can give the most valuable insight and most interesting anecdotes from the Off the Wall project: Michael Jackson and Quincy Jones. Considering one of them is dead and the other is at odds with the estate and more than likely will refuse to be involved, this documentary is more than likely going to suffer from the same issues Bad25 did - focusing on the popular tracks and skimming over the less-known ones; studio musicians rattling off information that we already know; contemporary pop stars and/or musicians talking about the album and its influence on their own music; and a handful of genuinely interesting behind-the-scenes videos and live performances.

This is all the more troubling when it's pointed out that the Off the Wall music videos kinda suck. What is the behind-the-scenes footage going to be - Michael dancing in front of a green screen? Michael dancing in front of a black backdrop? Michael sitting in front of a black back drop? Not even remotely as interesting as what Bad25 showed. Also, I'm not entirely certain, but I believe someone said that the Off the Wall recording sessions weren't filmed. I could be wrong though; don't quote me on that.

Yell at me all you want, but assuming this documentary is given a similar formatting/approach as Bad25, it's going to be a complete waste of time and money. I acknowledge that it could easily go either way, but if not, I'm not wasting my time or money on it.

Also, assuming this project is being funded by Sony or the estate, I would advise you all to drop your hopes that there will be any Destiny tour DVD/Blu-ray to go alongside it. There's a slim to none chance of any involved parties wanting to spend the money on finding film reels, restoring them and putting them together.
 
Re: Spike Lee announces Off The Wall Documentary

Actually I find Bruce Swedien's insights on the work process over the years far more interesting and insightful than Quincy self-overpraising Jones'. But I see your point. They can still use archive interviews. I think OTW is the album that got the most attention in interviews artistically because after that journalists wanted to focus more about the Michael Jackson phenomenon and hardley asked about the work in the studio, writing process and all that. Personally I don't care much about what people have to say about the album in hindsight. I prefer as many "making of" videos as possible.
 
Last edited:
Re: Spike Lee announces Off The Wall Documentary

I agree also that Quincy and Michael would have been the best to talk about OTW and sense Michael is not with us that leave Quincy it sad that he has these feelings against Michael's Estate maybe he might be apart of it if not i agree Bruce Swedien would be perfect.
 
Re: Spike Lee announces Off The Wall Documentary

I think their is a big market for a possible 1981 Triumph Tour show to be in theaters, it is a wonderful showcase and i am sure that it could make them some money! it all depends on advertising to be quite honest, even with the best of projects/packages you can't expect it to sell millions without any commercializing.
 
Re: Spike Lee announces Off The Wall Documentary

I think their is a big market for a possible 1981 Triumph Tour show to be in theaters

Yes, THERE is indeed a big market for a Jacksons concert film.
 
Re: Spike Lee announces Off The Wall Documentary

Do people genuinely expect box office smashes from a 30 odd year old concert? Xscape is about as successful as the Estate is going to get and the success of that was surprising to say the least. AlwaysThere makes some great points.
 
Re: Spike Lee announces Off The Wall Documentary

This is all the more troubling when it's pointed out that the Off the Wall music videos kinda suck. What is the behind-the-scenes footage going to be - Michael dancing in front of a green screen? Michael dancing in front of a black backdrop? Michael sitting in front of a black back drop?

:hysterical: I laughed at this because I agree with you, and also I can picture this in my head like ... :busted: I don't think this is what Michael had in mind when he spoke of preserving his art.
 
Re: Spike Lee announces Off The Wall Documentary

I think their is a big market for a possible 1981 Triumph Tour show to be in theaters, it is a wonderful showcase and i am sure that it could make them some money! it all depends on advertising to be quite honest, even with the best of projects/packages you can't expect it to sell millions without any commercializing.

Theaters? I appreciate your excitement but let's be real. A blue ray would be great, I think that's pushing it a bit even. I'm keeping my expectations to a minimum. Bad25 documentary was just ok as far as I'm concerned. I hope for the best.
 
Re: Spike Lee announces Off The Wall Documentary

Yeah, it wouldn't do well. This Is It did great because it was right after he died.
But a limited theater run would be nice.
 
Re: Spike Lee announces Off The Wall Documentary

Such a shame. 'Dangerous' is a far more interesting era for me, both musically and visually.
 
Re: Spike Lee announces Off The Wall Documentary

I'm looking forward to this! Sometimes i think his younger work gets a little over shadowed TBH. I adore the OTW album and it's short films. They may not be as good as his later films but they are fun and colorful! In all honesty I've been kind of irked at the response many fans have posted (in general, nothing specific) complaining about them not doing something for HIStory or Dangerous (which I'd love to see as well don't get me wrong) I think there is more then plenty of time for both of those albums/time periods to be celebrated.
This is all just my opinion, no offence meant at all.
 
Re: Spike Lee announces Off The Wall Documentary

Dangerous and HIStory are Michael's most prolific albums in terms of deepness and artistry but Spike maybe chose to do Off The Wall. I hope he does at least a HIStory docu since he was involved in directing TDCAU.
 
Re: Spike Lee announces Off The Wall Documentary

This is all the more troubling when it's pointed out that the Off the Wall music videos kinda suck. What is the behind-the-scenes footage going to be - Michael dancing in front of a green screen? Michael dancing in front of a black backdrop? Michael sitting in front of a black back drop? Not even remotely as interesting as what Bad25 showed. Also, I'm not entirely certain, but I believe someone said that the Off the Wall recording sessions weren't filmed. I could be wrong though; don't quote me on that.

Yell at me all you want, but assuming this documentary is given a similar formatting/approach as Bad25, it's going to be a complete waste of time and money. I acknowledge that it could easily go either way, but if not, I'm not wasting my time or money on it.
I won't yell at you :) but still my only complaint about BAD25 is I think we could easily have been given another couple of hours of film-outakes or whatever should have been included. Especially since Michael was so interested in his own film career at the time, you just know that there was a ton of behind the scenes being filmed.
And I'd love to see Michael dancing in front of a black screen, a green screen or sitting and show us how they did that-I'm fascinated with the still pictures of the behind the scenes I saw recently.

I hope they include these videos in the doc-maybe at the beginning: I love these so.1980
AND 1981
 
I would love a documentary for each Michael Jackson album but, I would not miss one on HIStory. HIStory would deserve a documentary similar to Nas’ "Time is Illmatic" documentary. HIStory is extremely intimate and no one can speak to the intimacy of that album except the person who wrote the songs. To listen to others talk ad nauseum about what they believed Michael felt and analyzing each and every public action - particularly regarding the accusations of that time - is a complete waste of time for me.

AlwaysThere, I also agree you make very valid points and I only have three points of disagreement.

I do not believe tracks were skimmed over in Bad25. Each track was discussed which means the ones Michael wrote were correctly attributed to him. However, it is completely understandable why the five number one hits had additional time and why MITM in particular was given the most time to shine.

While you and others may have known much of technicalities behind the recording of Bad, many, like me, did not and I appreciated the studio musicians’ commentaries. At least they were factual which I cannot say the same for some of the contemporaries who were mostly spouting their own opinions for better or worse.

The video medium was not as popular in the late 70’s and Michael was one of the first to use a “green screen” with DSTYGE. To have three videos for one album was not very popular at that time either. While some fans have no interest in those films compared to today’s technological advances, decades ago, and at very young age, Michael was attempting to be a pioneer in an emerging field and I for one would like to see some mention of that in this documentary.

I am glad Lee was asked to do this documentary and I believe he will do his best as he did with Bad25. Maybe even better than his best because it is his favorite MJ album.
 
Re: Spike Lee announces Off The Wall Documentary

Dangerous and HIStory are Michael's most prolific albums in terms of deepness and artistry but Spike maybe chose to do Off The Wall. I hope he does at least a HIStory docu since he was involved in directing TDCAU.

Yeah, and there's prolly good behind the scenes footage of him with Michael for both versions of the video shoot.
He should do HIStory doc at some point for that reason alone.
 
Re: Spike Lee announces Off The Wall Documentary

Okay, i concur with those who say that the Triumph Tour doesn't need a theatrical production.. it would be nice to have some preview screening's though, fans can apply for tickets in advance etc.! Straight to Blu-Ray, that would be sincerely perfect.. but i will be more than surprised if they actually do utilize the negatives this time around.. even though it's been nearly 6 years since Branca & McClain began working there, they can't be trusted it seems with a simple 4 month project.
 
Re: Spike Lee announces Off The Wall Documentary

I'm looking forward to this! Sometimes i think his younger work gets a little over shadowed TBH. I adore the OTW album and it's short films. They may not be as good as his later films but they are fun and colorful! In all honesty I've been kind of irked at the response many fans have posted (in general, nothing specific) complaining about them not doing something for HIStory or Dangerous (which I'd love to see as well don't get me wrong) I think there is more then plenty of time for both of those albums/time periods to be celebrated.
This is all just my opinion, no offence meant at all.

Exactly. OTW never got a proper anniversary celebration, so I do not know why some fans are so hostile to the idea. I know some fans get defensive about MJ's later work and feel there is not enough focus on them, but sometimes I feel that is at the cost of deliberately playing down some of his earlier works. OTW is a highly influential album, especially today, so it deserves to be celebrated and pointed out to the younger generation. Like "Are you a Justin Timberlake/Timbaland/Bruno Mars/Pharell/Daft Punk etc. fan? Did you know they were influenced by this great album? Check this out!"

And no, music videos are not the only thing you can talk about when you talk about an album. So OTW had primitive videos? So what? Obviously there is a lot of other aspects that you can choose to focus on when you talk about such an influential album.
 
Re: Spike Lee announces Off The Wall Documentary

I agree OTW was my first and it does need a anniversary celebration i hope that Spike will really has more footage of Michael in the studio working on this album please no more interviews of ppls who has nothing to do with the album like he did in Bad 25 like to see and hear the ppls who were apart of this album.

I really like to see Quincy Jones apart of this this was Michael first with him.
 
Re: Spike Lee announces Off The Wall Documentary

OTW is a great album and I'm interested in seeing the documentary for the insights about Michael as an artist at that point in his career. i just hope Quincy doesn't overshadow it. I'd like to see Michael's input showcased more. Everyone talks about his genius, but I think they need to delve more into why.
It's not really fair to compare videos from back then to his later work as the medium was still fairly new. But for the time they were very good compared to others.
 
Re: Spike Lee announces Off The Wall Documentary

LOL @ anyone saying anything about a Michael Jackson/Quincy Jones collaboration being "over-looked". Those damn albums were a gift and a curse, he released way better content but people only seem to think of MJ/QJ being the good stuff which is absolutely moronic.
 
Re: Spike Lee announces Off The Wall Documentary

LOL @ anyone saying anything about a Michael Jackson/Quincy Jones collaboration being "over-looked". Those damn albums were a gift and a curse, he released way better content but people only seem to think of MJ/QJ being the good stuff which is absolutely moronic.
Off The Wall era, was and still is, by far, the most influential era on popular music. Many fans look down upon it for being the only one casual fans may know about, plus Thriller, but it was by far his musical peak for popular music.
 
Re: Spike Lee announces Off The Wall Documentary

Exactly. OTW never got a proper anniversary celebration, so I do not know why some fans are so hostile to the idea. I know some fans get defensive about MJ's later work and feel there is not enough focus on them, but sometimes I feel that is at the cost of deliberately playing down some of his earlier works. OTW is a highly influential album, especially today, so it deserves to be celebrated and pointed out to the younger generation. Like "Are you a Justin Timberlake/Timbaland/Bruno Mars/Pharell/Daft Punk etc. fan? Did you know they were influenced by this great album? Check this out!"

And no, music videos are not the only thing you can talk about when you talk about an album. So OTW had primitive videos? So what? Obviously there is a lot of other aspects that you can choose to focus on when you talk about such an influential album.

YES!! All of this!! Especially the bold part! TBH I think his later work get just enough attention, especially in the fan community. So I can't really see how it's 'underrated'.
 
Re: Spike Lee announces Off The Wall Documentary

Off The Wall era, was and still is, by far, the most influential era on popular music. Many fans look down upon it for being the only one casual fans may know about, plus Thriller, but it was by far his musical peak for popular music.

Not sure what you meant by this as Thriller was not only his but anyone in history's 'peak for popular music' because of how popular Thriller was and still is. Unless you mean the genre of 'pop music' which is again not true as Thriller surpassed it. It might be a fad now to try and copy the 1970's but back to my original point.. Not a single Michael Jackson/Quincy Jones thing could ever be classed as "over-looked". It is well known these collaborations were the most successful in music history - that's far from over looking them.
 
Re: Spike Lee announces Off The Wall Documentary

Thriller is the studio album that always charts when it comes to MJ (plus two greatest hits albums). That is great because there aren't many albums which still regularly chart decades after their release. So yeah, Thriller is special in that way and undoubtedly the MJ studio album that everyone knows about. But all other MJ albums can use a little extra promotion to draw some more attention to them - and that inlcudes OTW. Yes, it's often cited by musicians as an influence, but I think the general public is mainly focused on Thriller when it comes to MJ.

And whether it's overlooked - depends on by whom. If we talk about the fanbase then it's more overlooked than Invincible about which I always see a lot of discussions. It's like every week there is a thread about Invincible. LOL. I do not see that with OTW.
 
Re: Spike Lee announces Off The Wall Documentary

Only dude who can make a double eye wink look swag!

 
Re: Spike Lee announces Off The Wall Documentary

^^the only thing that Michael couldn't do. Wink with one eye. But whenever I see him wink with both eyes (this, Smooth Criminal, Liberian Girl etc.) I both laugh and my heart flutters.
Adorable.
 
Re: Spike Lee announces Off The Wall Documentary

There are so many things Spike could show besides footage from the studio, behind the scenes from the shorts, there are interviews, commercials, concert footage, photo shoots.

Mikey couldn't wink with one eye, isn't he the most adorable!? :giggle: :girl_aww:


I'd love to see these commercials, behind the scene footage ina a better quality. *shirtless MJ* :swoon:

 
Re: Spike Lee announces Off The Wall Documentary

ALL of those commercials MJ did better be in this doc!
I wish they put the Pepsi ads in Bad 25, but at least they did the California Raisons.
 
Re: Spike Lee announces Off The Wall Documentary

YES!! All of this!! Especially the bold part! TBH I think his later work get just enough attention, especially in the fan community. So I can't really see how it's 'underrated'.

Michael's latter work gets high attention in the fan community because we discuss every aspect of Michael's life and career. The general public completely overlooks anything after Bad; rarely is Dangerous ever mentioned when discussing his music, and HIStory/Blood on the Dance Floor/Invincible may as well not exist.
 
Back
Top