1. Michael Jackson
Thriller

2. Michael Jacksons Thriller was a 14 minute video making it a short film as well as a music video.
It as directed by John Landis who also co-wrote the screenplay with Michael. It was the most
expensive music video of its time, costing $500,000, and is thought to be one of the most
successful music videos of all time. This video really revolutionised the music industry, because
at the time MTV didn’t air black musicians, and when thriller was aired it was the first African
American video to be shown. Changing music
videos forever.
Thriller is not a conventional music video and is
more like a short movie or horror film with Jackson
choreographed dancing with zombies. Throughout
the video we see Jackson in a choreographed
danced routine, including the main dance sequence
with Michael singing the chores, which became a
world famous dance routine. All the chorography
was done by Michael Peters who had previously
worked with Michael on Beat It. There is a lot of
cinematic references within the video which makes
it feel and look like a short film. At the beginning it opens with opening credits and goes into what
seems like a film with a narrative sequence. During this sequence we see Michael purposing to
his girlfriend, which she accepts, but he warns her that he is ‘different’. A full moon appears and
this in when we see Michael change into a werewolf. his date runs aways and he chases after her
which is when it cuts to modern-day and Michael and his date sitting in the cinema

3. watching the film. This makes the audience realise
that what they have just watched actually hadn’t
happened and that it was all part of the video. It
then continues to carry on like a short film, with
the narration and acting, until 4 and half minutes
into the video when Michael begins to sing the
song. Throughout this whole time the audience is
made to feel as though they are watching a film,
and they kind of forget that they are actually
watching a music video. Later, the video was cut to
not contain the narrative beginning but instead just
jump straight into the song. Even after the song is
being sung the audience is still watching the story
unfold and it still feels to the audience that they
are watching a movie. The music video ends with his
girlfriend waking to realise it was all a dream but
Michael turns back to the camera to reveal his
yellow eyes. This ending would be the kind of thing
the audience would be familiar with seeing in a film
and so it rounds up and continues the movie feeling
intertextuality of the music video.

4. This was the first music video of its kind but it
created a whole different genre and merging
of filmmaking and music. Many artist created
the same affect after.
The camerawork throughout the video
helps to make the music video seem like a
short film. The audience would be used to
seeing this type of camerawork in films and
so gives them something recognisable and
something which they can relate to. With the
audience being familiar to the this type of
camerawork it helps them to realise idea of
wanting it to be a short film. In music videos
they audience is used to seeing quick cuts but
in this there aren’t any but only cuts from one scene to another. This type of editing is what we
would be more likely to see in films rather than music videos. Which again help to create its
movie feel.
The lyrics throughout the song helps to tell the story being told in the movie. They are helping
to establish the sense of subject.
Edit cut to new scene