Fuzball
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Epic Records had no problem in premiering full length versions of Bad, Black or White or YRMW videos. For TWYMMF they've gone with an shorter edit. I wonder why?
Joe Pytka has talked about it, but most likely he refered to the 9:30 edit.
THE WAY YOU MAKE ME FEEL
When I first heard the demo for THE WAY… I felt the song was soft. It reminded me of a summer’s day in Kansas. I hadn’t a clue of what to do. Quincy Jones said simply, “The song has to get Michael some pussy.” I asked Michael where he thought it should take place and he said Skid Row. I got some gang members together, the Bloods and the Crips and did some crude documentaries of how they hung out and dealt with their women. The video more or less represents that reality. I showed the stuff to Michael, apologizing for the language, but he loved the stuff and asked if the video could have the same “truthful look.” It was his instinctive way of saying cinéma vérité. Michael wanted a long prequel to the actual video so I asked playwright August Wilson to help and he turned me down flat. Martin Scorsese had gotten Richard Price to write the material for BAD. I decided to write the thing myself. Most people haven’t seen the LONG FORM. Epic felt that it wouldn’t get enough play at the longer length so we cut a much shorter version. The purpose of videos, remember, is to sell records. The critics and the public completely missed the fact that there is another song on the video, Roy Ayers, HOT, HOT, HOT. It was used to set up the piece. I had wanted to use Miles Davis but Michael’s manager, Frank Dileo said not to because Miles was a pain in the ass to deal with. I had been experimenting (with the editor Larry Bridges) with filmic techniques, especially how little information a shot needs to get a point across. The structure of the piece was a loose sonata form with the final movement being rather poetic. Michael had said that he didn’t want to dance in a formal manner but during the prep and prelight days I heard the song playing in a distant room in the warehouse we were using as a sound stage. I popped my head in and there was Michael and Vince Paterson rehearsing a formal piece. I watched for a while and they then told me that Michael had decided to put in some dance after all. My problem was that I had no place to put it. I went back to the set and asked Geoffrey Kirkland, the production designer, to build a place for a fire hydrant at the end of the set. I then took a sledge hammer to a beater car and we had a setpiece. The choreographed piece was provocative and wonderful, full of Michael and Vince’s genius.
Joe Pytka has talked about it, but most likely he refered to the 9:30 edit.
THE WAY YOU MAKE ME FEEL
When I first heard the demo for THE WAY… I felt the song was soft. It reminded me of a summer’s day in Kansas. I hadn’t a clue of what to do. Quincy Jones said simply, “The song has to get Michael some pussy.” I asked Michael where he thought it should take place and he said Skid Row. I got some gang members together, the Bloods and the Crips and did some crude documentaries of how they hung out and dealt with their women. The video more or less represents that reality. I showed the stuff to Michael, apologizing for the language, but he loved the stuff and asked if the video could have the same “truthful look.” It was his instinctive way of saying cinéma vérité. Michael wanted a long prequel to the actual video so I asked playwright August Wilson to help and he turned me down flat. Martin Scorsese had gotten Richard Price to write the material for BAD. I decided to write the thing myself. Most people haven’t seen the LONG FORM. Epic felt that it wouldn’t get enough play at the longer length so we cut a much shorter version. The purpose of videos, remember, is to sell records. The critics and the public completely missed the fact that there is another song on the video, Roy Ayers, HOT, HOT, HOT. It was used to set up the piece. I had wanted to use Miles Davis but Michael’s manager, Frank Dileo said not to because Miles was a pain in the ass to deal with. I had been experimenting (with the editor Larry Bridges) with filmic techniques, especially how little information a shot needs to get a point across. The structure of the piece was a loose sonata form with the final movement being rather poetic. Michael had said that he didn’t want to dance in a formal manner but during the prep and prelight days I heard the song playing in a distant room in the warehouse we were using as a sound stage. I popped my head in and there was Michael and Vince Paterson rehearsing a formal piece. I watched for a while and they then told me that Michael had decided to put in some dance after all. My problem was that I had no place to put it. I went back to the set and asked Geoffrey Kirkland, the production designer, to build a place for a fire hydrant at the end of the set. I then took a sledge hammer to a beater car and we had a setpiece. The choreographed piece was provocative and wonderful, full of Michael and Vince’s genius.
