Michael Jackson's BAD World Tour: Future Blu-Ray Release?

[Galactus123]

My brother bought Queen's Hungarian Rhapsody Blu-Ray and it looks amazing. While watching it I was just thinking that I want to see Bad Tour in quality like this. I hope Estate knows what kind of treasure they have in their hands and release it.

 

[b_nhox93]

Maybe Bad Tour Wembley 88

 

[Galactus123]

I hope we don't have to wait long for the next concert release. I would be happy with anything but not HIStory Tour. Collectors Label would be great so they could release more jumbotron Bad Tour concerts.

 

[Electro]

As many of you know, i have long been doing research on the filming regimes of this tour.

Did you find out any information on the possible whereabouts of these film recordings?

I think the biggest difficulty with getting something like this released is the Estate, who
only play save, and don't seem to be in it with the heart of a fan, who REALLY wants to see this.
So the easier it's made for them the better.

And a collectors label would be a great thing btw. It would take away the pressure to
blow up every new release into something contemporary and "MJ worthy" (like those posthumous albums),
which means all the smaller, in that context "unuseable", things just keep rotting in safes untouched forever.

 

[Dunk96]

Oh great another thread like this.
Look I'm all about being optimistic about releases,but some fan requests are delusional and extreme. As if the Estate is going to spend countless hours,days,weeks,and possibly months looking for 30 year old film reels in a warehouse where these things have been stored. They don't have time for any of that. They have bigger and better things to do. And the funny part is: there is NO evidence that The Estate even knows where anything is stored,other than Michael's personal VHS copy of July 16th Wembley 1988. Where they found the July 15th concert has not been answered.

 

[Galactus123]

Did you find out any information on the possible whereabouts of these film recordings?

We can't really know. We can only hope that Estate has them. After the tour ended all the video material were most likely stored at some storage room or warehouse.

Oh great another thread like this.
Look I'm all about being optimistic about releases,but some fan requests are delusional and extreme. As if the Estate is going to spend countless hours,days,weeks,and possibly months looking for 30 year old film reels in a warehouse where these things have been stored. They don't have time for any of that. They have bigger and better things to do. And the funny part is: there is NO evidence that The Estate even knows where anything is stored,other than Michael's personal VHS copy of July 16th Wembley 1988. Where they found the July 15th concert has not been answered.

It would be a crime to let the films just rot and do nothing with them. It would be the stupidest thing they could do.

 

[Dunk96]

It would be a crime to let the films just rot and do nothing with them. It would be the stupidest thing they could do.

That's all fine and dandy to think it's the stupidest thing to do,but here's a reality check: they don't know where anything is. Had they kept better track of everything then we wouldn't be having this discussion anywhere now would we?

 

[Galactus123]

That's all fine and dandy to think it's the stupidest thing to do,but here's a reality check: they don't know where anything is. Had they kept better track of everything then we wouldn't be having this discussion anywhere now would we?

How you know that? We can't really know what they have and what they don't until they say something. They have found some film footage because we saw that in Bad 25 documentary. Also Moonwalker was released on Blu-Ray so Warner might have something.

 

[AlwaysThere]

How you know that? We can't really know what they have and what they don't until they say something. They have found some film footage because we saw that in Bad 25 documentary. Also Moonwalker was released on Blu-Ray so Warner might have something.

The Estate truly doesn't know where everything is. They've come forward on occasion and admitted that they don't have access to something. There are also some people who have shut them out entirely as far as handing over material.

 

[Prince Of Pop]

I'm happy with what we got. We've been begging for it, for years, and we got it. I don't expect Sony/Estate to release a Bad World Tour on DVD/Blue Ray anytime soon, if ever again.

 

[Electro]

As if the Estate is going to spend countless hours,days,weeks,and possibly months looking for 30 year old film reels in a warehouse where these things have been stored. They don't have time for any of that. They have bigger and better things to do.

I don't think it's delusional to expect exactly that from an Estate, who claims to keep the legacy of one of the most legendary artists of all time alive.
That's their f**in job! And it should not be impossible for them to do some indepth researches about all these things.
I mean the most frustrating thing about this, is the impression that this Estate doesn't even try hard enough.

 

[Electro]

There are also some people who have shut them out entirely as far as handing over material.

Who ?

 

[mj_frenzy]

The Estate truly doesn't know where everything is. They've come forward on occasion and admitted that they don't have access to something. There are also some people who have shut them out entirely as far as handing over material.

This is true.

According to Brad Sundberg, MJ was infamous for losing important materials: “Once you hand anything to Michael Jackson you may as well just chuck it off a pier”.

Also, according to Margolis, when they cleaned out Neverland they found a huge library that had every single piece of footage, and every single audio tape that anybody ever gave him, that fell into the Michael Jackson black hole.

 

[SoCav]

I don't think it's delusional to expect exactly that from an Estate, who claims to keep the legacy of one of the most legendary artists of all time alive.
That's their f**in job! And it should not be impossible for them to do some indepth researches about all these things.
I mean the most frustrating thing about this, is the impression that this Estate doesn't even try hard enough.

Exactly. I really do not understand why people say the Estate 'has bigger and better things' to do. Of course there are various things they have to deal with (e.g. the lawsuits), but collecting, transferring and properly archiving all the available mateiral that exists is one of the main tasks of any deceased artist's estate. Even from a purely financial perspective it seems absurd to not invest a lot of time and money into archiving, as it is video and audio material by Michael Jackson that will make them money.

 

[Annita]

I think the Estate spend a large amonut of money into a archieving-process. We know it from the documents. I think it´s still ongoing. So it is something they considered as not important.

 

[Electro]

I think the Estate spend a large amonut of money into a archieving-process. We know it from the documents. I think it´s still ongoing. So it is something they considered as not important.

Which documents?

 

[Annita]

Which documents?

This was from the last management-Report Ivy postet. Contains the month 2012.

Estate has an archiving project ongoing that they paid $146,293. They paid $806,873 for storage of Michael’s property.

 

[AlwaysThere]

I'm happy with what we got. We've been begging for it, for years, and we got it. I don't expect Sony/Estate to release a Bad World Tour on DVD/Blue Ray anytime soon, if ever again.

This right here. The greediness that fans exhibit stuns me. Days after we get something they're immediately asking for something else.

I'm against releasing another Bad concert altogether (aside from Wembley on Blu-Ray). Watching Wembley alone is like watching the entire second leg - Michael's performances, as excellent as they are, run together. There isn't much variation in the calculation of his dancing.

And it should not be impossible for them to do some indepth researches about all these things.

Blame Michael - he was notoriously a disaster with looking over his material. It's not quite fair to blame the estate for not being able to locate material that Michael improperly stored, labeled, and/or archived.

I mean the most frustrating thing about this, is the impression that this Estate doesn't even try hard enough.

Because they can't find film reels for the Bad tour? Don't you think you're being a bit unreasonable here?

If something is missing and the Estate doesn't have any leads, what the hell are they supposed to do? I'm sure they put out phone calls and asked for help from dozens of people. But you can only hit so many dead ends until you realize that maybe something just doesn't exist anymore. We cannot imply that the Estate didn't put effort in because we really don't know.

 

[barbee0715]

This right here. The greediness that fans exhibit stuns me. Days after we get something they're immediately asking for something else.

I'm against releasing another Bad concert altogether (aside from Wembley on Blu-Ray). Watching Wembley alone is like watching the entire second leg - Michael's performances, as excellent as they are, run together. There isn't much variation in the calculation of his dancing.



Blame Michael - he was notoriously a disaster with looking over his material. It's not quite fair to blame the estate for not being able to locate material that Michael improperly stored, labeled, and/or archived.



Because they can't find film reels for the Bad tour? Don't you think you're being a bit unreasonable here?

If something is missing and the Estate doesn't have any leads, what the hell are they supposed to do? I'm sure they put out phone calls and asked for help from dozens of people. But you can only hit so many dead ends until you realize that maybe something just doesn't exist anymore. We cannot imply that the Estate didn't put effort in because we really don't know.

I agree with you on all of this-I'm very happy that we got the Bad tour 88-if we can get something in a little better quality, great.

I'm sure they're frantic about finding all that material and getting it properly archived. Branca has experience with music estates-Presley's and Rodgers and Hammerstein's to name two. I always thought Michael was brilliant for hiring a videographer to film his every move most of his life-wish he had hired a good archivist to keep track of it all!

 

[SoCav]

This was from the last management-Report Ivy postet. Contains the month 2012.

Estate has an archiving project ongoing that they paid $146,293. They paid $806,873 for storage of Michael’s property.

Yes, they have been investing in it. Whether they have invested enough and whether it's been done properly is up for debate. Hard to say for us I guess.

This right here. The greediness that fans exhibit stuns me. Days after we get something they're immediately asking for something else.

I'm against releasing another Bad concert altogether (aside from Wembley on Blu-Ray). Watching Wembley alone is like watching the entire second leg - Michael's performances, as excellent as they are, run together. There isn't much variation in the calculation of his dancing.

Ok, but this is your opinion. I've seen you mention before that live concerts do not really interest you, which is fair enough. Personally, I think there needs to be a Bad Tour release in the highest available quality at some point. Most of us agree that this was Michael at his peak as a live performer. To only have a crappy VHS transfer out there as a historic document of Michael on the very top of his game, knowing that film reels most likely exist, would be an absolute shame.

Blame Michael - he was notoriously a disaster with looking over his material. It's not quite fair to blame the estate for not being able to locate material that Michael improperly stored, labeled, and/or archived.

This is true to some extent, but that does not mean that they should not put in maximum effort to locate material. Didn't Teddy Riley say on Twitter that he had never been approached by the Estate about the MJ solo version of Joy? If true, that's a sign that archiving does not appear to be a massive priority: you'd think the very first thing they would do is to approach all his former producers (and they even worked with Teddy in 2010...). Also, didn't they have to be notified by the guy who recorded the audio for Wembley that multitracks existed? If true, that's another sign that they have clearly not been putting in maximum effort. If even fans can find people who possess rare material, the Estate with all their resources most certainly should be able to as well.

 

[AlwaysThere]

Ok, but this is your opinion. I've seen you mention before that live concerts do not really interest you, which is fair enough. Personally, I think there needs to be a Bad Tour release in the highest available quality at some point. Most of us agree that this was Michael at his peak as a live performer. To only have a crappy VHS transfer out there as a historic document of Michael on the very top of his game, knowing that film reels most likely exist, would be an absolute shame.

I wholeheartedly agree with you on that front. I'm all for a Blu-Ray pressing of the Wembley concert considering it's generally considered to be one of Michael's best performances, if not his all time best. That, plus the audio is top notch. Clearest I've ever heard the man.

This is true to some extent, but that does not mean that they should not put in maximum effort to locate material. Didn't Teddy Riley say on Twitter that he had never been approached by the Estate about the MJ solo version of Joy? If true, that's a sign that archiving does not appear to be a massive priority: you'd think the very first thing they would do is to approach all his former producers (and they even worked with Teddy in 2010...). Also, didn't they have to be notified by the guy who recorded the audio for Wembley that multitracks existed? If true, that's another sign that they have clearly not been putting in maximum effort. If even fans can find people who possess rare material, the Estate with all their resources most certainly should be able to as well.

Again, wholehearted agreement here. But it isn't absurd to suggest that there is material the estate simply doesn't know exists. When the Michael album was being put together they called almost everyone on their contact list and asked for whatever they had. Some people responded, others didn't. And someone could very easily lie - how are they to know?

When you get down to it, it's essentially the estate asking if someone has something. Either they get it or they don't.

 

[Galactus123]

I wholeheartedly agree with you on that front. I'm all for a Blu-Ray pressing of the Wembley concert considering it's generally considered to be one of Michael's best performances, if not his all time best. That, plus the audio is top notch. Clearest I've ever heard the man.

If you mean the Wembley concert we got it will never be Blu-Ray quality. It wasn't shot on film.

 

[charismatic]

I went out and purchased concerts that were shot on film in the 80s and early 90s and released on dvd or Blu Ray and the video footage is simply amazing. I don't even know much about the artist, I did it to see what the potential we'd be looking at for a Michael Jackson concert. I mean I was so pissed that we didn't get the tour in HD and shot in a manner intended for home viewing. I'm praying they release the concert in blu Ray without the need to tie it to any anniversary per se. fingers crossed!

 

[Galactus123]

I went out and purchased concerts that were shot on film in the 80s and early 90s and released on dvd or Blu Ray and the video footage is simply amazing. I don't even know much about the artist, I did it to see what the potential we'd be looking at for a Michael Jackson concert. I mean I was so pissed that we didn't get the tour in HD and shot in a manner intended for home viewing. I'm praying they release the concert in blu Ray without the need to tie it to any anniversary per se. fingers crossed!

You could have just bought the Moonwalker Blu-Ray and watched the Man in the Mirror part.

 

[innuendo141]

The short films should be released in HD quality before ANYTHING else.

 

[CodaBroda]

For sure. I wonder if restoring the short films would be an easier process than the tour film, in terms of locating the film prints. Now that I think about it, where WOULD the originals be located? All in one location, or with the people who filmed them, etc.?

 

[Dunk96]

For sure. I wonder if restoring the short films would be an easier process than the tour film, in terms of locating the film prints. Now that I think about it, where WOULD the originals be located? All in one location, or with the people who filmed them, etc.?

Probably in various locations. I doubt The Estate has all the film reels of the short films. For instance,the Bad short film is with Martin Scorsese as evidenced in the Bad 25 documentary.

 

[HIStoric]

Probably in various locations. I doubt The Estate has all the film reels of the short films. For instance,the Bad short film is with Martin Scorsese as evidenced in the Bad 25 documentary.

At what point in Bad 25 do they say Scorsese has a film copy of Bad? I wouldn't be surprised if he did though, he has a proper film collection of his own.

 

[Dunk96]

At what point in Bad 25 do they say Scorsese has a film copy of Bad? I wouldn't be surprised if he did though, he has a proper film collection of his own.

They didn't say that he did. When they showed the shots of his computer set up,you can see that he was using film reels and a reel-to-video converter to get it hooked up to his computer.

 

[HIStoric]

They didn't say that he did. When they showed the shots of his computer set up,you can see that he was using film reels and a reel-to-video converter to get it hooked up to his computer.

...that's not how it works. As far as I'm aware, you can't simply run film reels on the fly and convert it to a digital live stream. You have to scan the film frame by frame which then produces a playable digital file. There's nothing in the documentary that suggests they are using film to watch it, it just looks like they're watching a plain ol' digital copy (and, by the looks of things, from the same DVD/Tape-quality source we have).

In addition, if Scorsese was watching it on film then he would've almost certainly allowed them to take the film and digitalise it for the documentary. Scorsese is a huge vocal supporter of the preservation of film and has personally helped fund many restoration projects where they would digitally scan and restore the film. It seems very unlikely he wouldn't at the very least hand over the film for his own short film, especially since it would help preserve it for future generations.