Dangerous Incorporated
Guests
For a moment in This Is It, the documentary that captures Michael Jackson as he rehearses for the unprecedented 50-show spectacular he was to perform at London's O2 arena, you realize you're witnessing an impromptu master class by one of the pop world's greatest talents.
Few performers give their all in rehearsal. They save voices, bodies and fireworks for the real thing. But here's 50-year-old Jackson alone on a stage, intending simply to go through the paces of Billie Jean but all of a sudden giving in to that musical passion that made him such a force. With no real audience watching, he jerks and breaks and glides and twirls in those trademark moves that belie his age and the reports following his sudden death in June that he had been abusing potent prescription drugs.
The Miami-raised Sandrine Orabona, one of two cinematographers for This Is It, to be released on Blu-ray and DVD on Jan. 26, knew she was watching history through her lens.
Could this unplugged take of Billie Jean be as powerful as the version that became one of Jackson's most famous performances, when, in his 20s, he did that glittery moonwalk across a stage during the 1983 TV special celebrating Motown's 25th anniversary?
``Here is Michael Jackson performing Billie Jean six feet away from me,'' says Orabona, 35, who attended Coral Gables High and graduated from the University of Miami's film school in 1997. ``You want to be a professional. You want to make sure you get the shot. But you're a little overwhelmed, because you realize you're in on an incredible moment in time.''
Which is why Orabona turned the camera on the small group of dancers and crew members who stood transfixed in front of the stage.
``I couldn't get carried away. I had to keep shooting. I started filming the dancers as they were cheering, because that's what I wanted to be doing myself.''
There was another time Orabona felt overwhelmed while documenting the weeks leading to Jackson's great comeback. On the morning of June 25, just 18 days before the first London show, the news hit at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. Jackson had been expected to arrive at any moment for one more rehearsal. Instead, the King of Pop was dead. Cardiac arrest.
``It was such a shock,'' Orabona says after breakfast at the Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables, during a quick layover on her way to a surfing holiday in Costa Rica.
``The minute I found out, I started filming what was going on around me. Because I understood the importance of the moment even though the whole thing was sort of like an out-of-body experience for me. People were finding out, and I was having a hard time holding the camera up.''
She was so unsteady, ``I shot most of it on my knees. Because I couldn't stand up.
BOX OFFICE HIT
This Is It broke box-office records when it opened in theaters this past fall. The DVD and Blu-ray promise plenty of extras in this behind-the-scenes look at one of the biggest musical figures of his time, someone poised to prove to the world that beyond the ugly tabloid headlines, the accusations of child molestation, the financial crash-and-burns and the disfiguring plastic surgeries, he not only still had the goods as a performer, but also, perhaps, was better than ever.
``I can't speak to his health at that time,'' Orabona says. ``My experience is that he came to work every day, and every day he was at 100 per cent, if not more. He not only knew all of his steps, but his dancers, who were much younger, were all trying to keep up with him.''
The man remains mostly a mystery even after 100 hours of taping, but the performer comes into focus more clearly than ever. He wasn't just veneer, like so many other stars who rely on the studio magic of their producers to make them sound good. Jackson was a serious musician, singer, dancer.
He knew every note, every beat of his songs. And although he always came off as shy and unsure of himself off stage, during these final rehearsals, he seemed completely in command, giving direction to the world-class musicians, not the other way around. And gently coaching Orianthi, the fierce blonde guitarist who was to play the London concerts, on how to get the most out of her instrument.
MISTER JACKSON
``My experience of Mr. Jackson is that he was someone who was incredibly professional,'' Orabona says. ``He definitely knew what he wanted creatively. Being around someone who has been studying the craft for years, until it becomes second nature -- it's beautiful to see. There are just not that many people in the world with that much experience and that much raw talent.''
Orabona always called him ``Mr. Jackson,'' never ``Michael,'' or ``MJ,'' or ``*****.'' She still refers to him that way.
``It's out of a great deal of respect. I hope that respect comes through in the documentary. My experience of him was that he was a kind, gentle soul. Very respectful of all the people working with him. Very respectful of his fans. Whenever he was entering and exiting places, there were always fans waiting to catch a glimpse, and he always took the time to say hello.
``Even his security staff was incredibly respectful of everyone. Everyone around him had a similar approach and a similar work ethic. My mother has always said you can judge a person by who their friends are. That seemed to be true with Mr. Jackson.''
After graduating from UM, Orabona, who was born in France and raised in northern Virginia and later on Key Biscayne, went to work for MTV Latin America on South Beach. She shot Unplugged performances by Shakira and by the Mexican rock band, Maná. She later moved to Los Angeles, where she works as a cinematographer, editor, producer and director. Among the documentary projects in which she has been involved are several ``Making of'' features for Pirates of the Caribbean, Monster in Law, Seabiscuit, Ocean's 12. She has also shot several musicians at work, from Ani DiFranco and Tito Puente to the Dave Matthews Band.
Her greatest passion is filming musicians and their process, she says.
``I think music is probably the single-most-powerful art form. Other people might disagree,'' Orabona says. ``But you would be hard pressed to find someone who doesn't equate a certain moment in time with a certain song. You can't go to a really great concert and not be emotionally charged in some way. When you can capture a musician in the middle of doing their art, that is just incredibly powerful.''
Orabona needs to live on the West Coast because that's where the work is, she says. But there are also the killer waves.
How serious is she about her surfing?
``It's serious as in I'm seriously addicted, but I don't see myself winning any competitions anytime soon,'' she says. ``I'm a Pisces and truly a water person, so it's come to the point that I wake up about three to five times a week before dawn to don a wetsuit to get into the ocean when it's 45 degrees out. . . . Thankfully I'm not the only nutcase out there, so it makes me feel somewhat normal.''
When Orabona returns to Miami to visit friends and family, she always indulges in Cuban food, she says.
``I miss my plantains and my Cuban coffee. My uncle married a Cuban American so I inherited a large Cuban family,'' she says. ``After living in Virginia for eight years, when we moved to Miami and I started junior high, I finally felt like I fit in. Speaking two languages and having a name that wasn't American made me stick out in Virginia. Here, everybody speaks two languages and comes from more than one culture. And after all those years in Miami, now I can say that I'm trilingual because I also learned Spanish.''
What she'll always take with her about her experience working with Michael Jackson?
``To experience him as a genuine human being and as a consummate musician at the very top of his craft -- I will never know how to put it all into words. To me it was an amazing experience to be around the man who was likely the best-known person of our time. Thankfully, there is this film. And it says everything. It explains exactly what I experienced.''
http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/top-story/v-fullstory/story/1415845.html
Few performers give their all in rehearsal. They save voices, bodies and fireworks for the real thing. But here's 50-year-old Jackson alone on a stage, intending simply to go through the paces of Billie Jean but all of a sudden giving in to that musical passion that made him such a force. With no real audience watching, he jerks and breaks and glides and twirls in those trademark moves that belie his age and the reports following his sudden death in June that he had been abusing potent prescription drugs.
The Miami-raised Sandrine Orabona, one of two cinematographers for This Is It, to be released on Blu-ray and DVD on Jan. 26, knew she was watching history through her lens.
Could this unplugged take of Billie Jean be as powerful as the version that became one of Jackson's most famous performances, when, in his 20s, he did that glittery moonwalk across a stage during the 1983 TV special celebrating Motown's 25th anniversary?
``Here is Michael Jackson performing Billie Jean six feet away from me,'' says Orabona, 35, who attended Coral Gables High and graduated from the University of Miami's film school in 1997. ``You want to be a professional. You want to make sure you get the shot. But you're a little overwhelmed, because you realize you're in on an incredible moment in time.''
Which is why Orabona turned the camera on the small group of dancers and crew members who stood transfixed in front of the stage.
``I couldn't get carried away. I had to keep shooting. I started filming the dancers as they were cheering, because that's what I wanted to be doing myself.''
There was another time Orabona felt overwhelmed while documenting the weeks leading to Jackson's great comeback. On the morning of June 25, just 18 days before the first London show, the news hit at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. Jackson had been expected to arrive at any moment for one more rehearsal. Instead, the King of Pop was dead. Cardiac arrest.
``It was such a shock,'' Orabona says after breakfast at the Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables, during a quick layover on her way to a surfing holiday in Costa Rica.
``The minute I found out, I started filming what was going on around me. Because I understood the importance of the moment even though the whole thing was sort of like an out-of-body experience for me. People were finding out, and I was having a hard time holding the camera up.''
She was so unsteady, ``I shot most of it on my knees. Because I couldn't stand up.
BOX OFFICE HIT
This Is It broke box-office records when it opened in theaters this past fall. The DVD and Blu-ray promise plenty of extras in this behind-the-scenes look at one of the biggest musical figures of his time, someone poised to prove to the world that beyond the ugly tabloid headlines, the accusations of child molestation, the financial crash-and-burns and the disfiguring plastic surgeries, he not only still had the goods as a performer, but also, perhaps, was better than ever.
``I can't speak to his health at that time,'' Orabona says. ``My experience is that he came to work every day, and every day he was at 100 per cent, if not more. He not only knew all of his steps, but his dancers, who were much younger, were all trying to keep up with him.''
The man remains mostly a mystery even after 100 hours of taping, but the performer comes into focus more clearly than ever. He wasn't just veneer, like so many other stars who rely on the studio magic of their producers to make them sound good. Jackson was a serious musician, singer, dancer.
He knew every note, every beat of his songs. And although he always came off as shy and unsure of himself off stage, during these final rehearsals, he seemed completely in command, giving direction to the world-class musicians, not the other way around. And gently coaching Orianthi, the fierce blonde guitarist who was to play the London concerts, on how to get the most out of her instrument.
MISTER JACKSON
``My experience of Mr. Jackson is that he was someone who was incredibly professional,'' Orabona says. ``He definitely knew what he wanted creatively. Being around someone who has been studying the craft for years, until it becomes second nature -- it's beautiful to see. There are just not that many people in the world with that much experience and that much raw talent.''
Orabona always called him ``Mr. Jackson,'' never ``Michael,'' or ``MJ,'' or ``*****.'' She still refers to him that way.
``It's out of a great deal of respect. I hope that respect comes through in the documentary. My experience of him was that he was a kind, gentle soul. Very respectful of all the people working with him. Very respectful of his fans. Whenever he was entering and exiting places, there were always fans waiting to catch a glimpse, and he always took the time to say hello.
``Even his security staff was incredibly respectful of everyone. Everyone around him had a similar approach and a similar work ethic. My mother has always said you can judge a person by who their friends are. That seemed to be true with Mr. Jackson.''
After graduating from UM, Orabona, who was born in France and raised in northern Virginia and later on Key Biscayne, went to work for MTV Latin America on South Beach. She shot Unplugged performances by Shakira and by the Mexican rock band, Maná. She later moved to Los Angeles, where she works as a cinematographer, editor, producer and director. Among the documentary projects in which she has been involved are several ``Making of'' features for Pirates of the Caribbean, Monster in Law, Seabiscuit, Ocean's 12. She has also shot several musicians at work, from Ani DiFranco and Tito Puente to the Dave Matthews Band.
Her greatest passion is filming musicians and their process, she says.
``I think music is probably the single-most-powerful art form. Other people might disagree,'' Orabona says. ``But you would be hard pressed to find someone who doesn't equate a certain moment in time with a certain song. You can't go to a really great concert and not be emotionally charged in some way. When you can capture a musician in the middle of doing their art, that is just incredibly powerful.''
Orabona needs to live on the West Coast because that's where the work is, she says. But there are also the killer waves.
How serious is she about her surfing?
``It's serious as in I'm seriously addicted, but I don't see myself winning any competitions anytime soon,'' she says. ``I'm a Pisces and truly a water person, so it's come to the point that I wake up about three to five times a week before dawn to don a wetsuit to get into the ocean when it's 45 degrees out. . . . Thankfully I'm not the only nutcase out there, so it makes me feel somewhat normal.''
When Orabona returns to Miami to visit friends and family, she always indulges in Cuban food, she says.
``I miss my plantains and my Cuban coffee. My uncle married a Cuban American so I inherited a large Cuban family,'' she says. ``After living in Virginia for eight years, when we moved to Miami and I started junior high, I finally felt like I fit in. Speaking two languages and having a name that wasn't American made me stick out in Virginia. Here, everybody speaks two languages and comes from more than one culture. And after all those years in Miami, now I can say that I'm trilingual because I also learned Spanish.''
What she'll always take with her about her experience working with Michael Jackson?
``To experience him as a genuine human being and as a consummate musician at the very top of his craft -- I will never know how to put it all into words. To me it was an amazing experience to be around the man who was likely the best-known person of our time. Thankfully, there is this film. And it says everything. It explains exactly what I experienced.''
http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/top-story/v-fullstory/story/1415845.html
