| MTV Interview - December 1999 In conjunction with the TV Guide Interview Michael also granted an Interview with MTV (USA). Clips from the Interview were shown during their countdown to the Top Music Videos of all time in December, 1999. "Well, when I wrote 'Beat It' ‹I don't know why, but I did ‹ about, you know, two gangs coming together and the song is so self-explanatory that it's so easy to make this short film. And I'd seen ‹ I think it was a McDonald's commercial ‹ and I said, 'God, I like the rhythm and the cut of this commercial.' I said, 'I want this director for this piece.' So I reached out to him." [On the 'Beat It' video] "In my opinion, it has to be completely entertaining and have a sense of, a linear sense of continuity." [On making a music video] "My idea was to make this short film with conversation... a beginning, I like having a beginning and a middle and an ending, which would follow a story. I'm very much involved in complete making and creating of the piece. It has to be, you know, my soul. Usually, you know, it's an interpretation of the music." "I love working with John Landis. We laugh a lot. We are never serious on a set. [laughs] It's fun working with John. I used to throw water balloons, and steep bombs and everything at him. It's a ritual for me. On each video, I throw a lot of stuff at everybody. [smiling] So that's funny." [On director John Landis] "That was one of the first raps, actually, I've know Vincent Price since I was 11. He did a great job. The first time I met him it was at the NBC studios. He said 'Come here!' like that [pointing his finger], in his kinda gruesome voice, and I started to cry because I was... I thought he was serious and he scared me." [On late actor Vincent Price] "I like the scene when all the zombies are coming toward us and she thinks she's safe with me, you know, being her boyfriend, and she looks over to me and I become one. And then we do that thing, pull in and pull out moves. Hitchcock move. I love that moment. I remember my original approach was how do you make the zombies and monsters dance without being comical. So I got in a room with Michael Peters. He and I together kind of imagined how zombies should move. I thought it should start like, you know, like, that kind of thing [mimes the dance]. We were going through this kind of jazzy stuff." [On the "Thriller" video] "I want to, you know, create, do something that's totally different and unusual, to take it a step forward and innovate, or else, why am I doing it? I knew if we did something with substance and content that people would watch and if it had a great entertainment value and it held you, I knew it'd be okay." [On making short films] |
| MTV Interview December 1999 |
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