Jacksons Scaryland - Research Paper Example

s the assignment was due Jackson’s “Scaryland” Introduction Ever seen a “skeleton” doing the “Moonwalk”. Now you will be aware of whom we are going to discuss about. Yes, it is none other than the King of Pop, Michael Jackson. We are going to talk about his great work, Ghosts, a musical short film. It was premiered at the Cannes music festival in 1996 and was released for the public viewing in 1997. Based on the story and screenplay by Michael Jackson and horror writer Stephen King, the video was directed by special effects specialist Stan Winston. Playing for 37 minutes, this visual and musical treat was even honored as the longest music video in history by the Guinness Book of World Records in 2002. Although considered to be one of the great works of Jackson, it did not receive enough promotion and appreciation during the period of its release. However, now with the advent of Internet and YouTube, anybody can have a glimpse of this excellent work. Thus, the focus will be on the musical and visual content of the video, discussing whether or not the two relate, then the narrative part, and finally place the video within the greater context of his life and career to find out whether Jackson is making any statement. Overview In this film, Michael portrays five characters, the Maestro, the Mayor of Normal Valley, the skeleton of Maestro, the Super Ghoul and the Ghoul mayor, all of which was achieved by the magic of extensive makeup. The plot starts with the Mayor of Normal Valley along with some delighted kids and angry parents entering the Scary Land, a creepy and haunted mansion of Maestro. Maestro is a man who lives alone and known to possess supernatural powers. The introduction of Michael Jackson wearing a hood and a skeleton mask does prove him as a master of disguise. The Mayor accuses maestro for scarring kids with non-existent ghost stories. He warns him and tries to drive him off, but Maestro challenges him and calls for a game between two of them, with the first one to become scared leaving the game and leave the other undisturbed.1 This scenario provides apt setting for Jackson to exhibit all his dancing moves, stunning make-ups, etc., thereby relating both visual and musical elements. The film ends with the Mayor getting scared and throwing himself out of the window, when self destructed Maestro once again appears as a monster. Musical and Visual elements Jackson is always known for creating awesome music videos, to bring to life his musical creations. Primarily a song writer, Jackson came up with music videos to elevate the song further and reach more people, and also vice versa with the success of the videos further improving the sales of his music album and also increasing their popularity. In the case of this Ghost video, Jackson primarily used three songs, 2 Bad from the album HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I, HIStory, and Is it Scary and Ghosts, both from the album Blood on the Dance Floor: HIStory in the Mix. Apart from the usual utilization of musical equipments, Jackson has aptly incorporated the marching and stomping sounds, which turns into a bass rhythm creating enough resonance. Incorporation of sneezing, coughing, grunting and stomping into the music composition is unique and classy on the part of Jackson. Thus, the track showcases all of Jackson’s trademarks, funky bass lines nicely mixed with voice sounds, which got reflected in the music video as well, thereby creating a correlation between musical and visual aspects. That is, the use of voice sounds automatically got “translated” in the visuals, as Jackson as part of choreography included or performed all those sounds. “Even their coughs and sneezes are choreographed and incorporated into the rhythm of music.”2 Apart from this relation between visual and musical elements, other visual elements stand alone, but contribute optimally to elevate the video. In Jackson’s style, the film featured innovative special effects as well as make-up effects combined with great dance scenes. Jackson does well with his evergreen signature steps like Moonwalk. The conspicuous part of this music video is the Mayor dancing, when he becomes possessed by the Maestro’s spirit. The other thing to look for, is the Maestro’s skeleton dancing, which was created with the aid of computer graphics. Art direction and cinematography holds good in the film, thereby producing a mystical and Outlandish look for the Scary Land of Michael Jackson.3 The film is delightfully scary, especially when the family of Ghouls starts their scary dancing spree. The acrobatics done by the group of Ghouls produces awe, but soon turns into chaos as they start dancing in the ceiling. In the end, the music turns to a soft and slow rhythm, with the Ghouls descending like angels from the ceiling. The inclusion of these two opposite extremes in the same artistic product gives a different experience to the viewers. Thus, although the particular portion regarding the use of voice sounds got related to the visual aspects, in the majority part of the video there is not much of a correlation. Narrative Style Through the story and the screenplay, Jackson and King has succeeded in incorporating a exquisite narrative style. This is because they succeeded in combining the genres of horror and music. That is, the screenplay provided enough scope for Jackson to exhibit his dancing talent, even while bringing out the horror elements through make-up, computer special effects and direction. Thus, the screenplay provides substratum for utilizing Jackson as a whole package combining his singing talent, dancing moves and his fascination for grotesque and grey shades.4 The narration involves sudden transformations of soft spoken Maestro into a monster, and on the other hand, the Ghouls descending from the ceiling like angels, thus showing how Jackson along with other creative people are trying to reveal that the angel and the demonic thing could be one and the same, like the two sides of a single coin. When viewed from a critical perspective, it could be said that the video would have had a better ending, if the Mayor accepted Jackson’s artistic talent and showcase his love for art and music. Even though, the video is not completely horror type, the strong narration along with the content and effects does justice to the horror theme. Was he making a statement? When the video is looked closely, lot of connections can be obtained from his real life experiences, thus validating that Jackson is indeed making statements through the video. Jackson shows Maestro’s mansion like his isolated Neverland mansion, which primarily entertains children.5 That is, he portrays his mansion as an isolated spot, which is haunted and not frequented by anyone. However, he entertains children, who come there voluntarily, thus making a statement that his own mansion Neverland is also an isolated spot, and he only entertains the children coming there and make them happy. In addition, with Jackson designing the character of Mayor based on Thomas Sneddon, prosecutor in Jackson’s infamous child abuse case, he wants to make a statement, which implies that the conflict between Maestro and the Mayor is shown as a conflict between authoritarian power and artists’ free thinking as well as their artistic aesthetics.6 This is quintessential Jackson because he also confronted the establishments more than once. “Pop singer Michael Jackson has launched a fierce attack on the American music industry, labelling the chairman of Sony Music a racist and accusing record companies of a conspiracy to defraud their black artists.7 Even the way Maestro self destructs in the film can be connected to Michael Jackson’s tendency in real life too. Conclusion From the above analysis, it is clear that Ghosts is one of the influential videos of Michael Jackson. The video was done with strong musical and visual elements, correlating at certain occasions. When it came to narrative style, it had an effective narration bringing the element of horror. In addition, it also made a strong personal statement Jackson reflected key aspects of his life and thoughts in the video. Bibliography Burkeman, Oliver. "Jacko gets tough: but is he a race crusader or just a falling star?" The Guardian. 7 July 2002. Web. 2 Dec 2013. Epstein, Debbie and Deborah Lynn Steinberg. "The Face of Ruin: Evidentiary Spectacle and the Trial of Michael Jackson." Social Semiotics (2007), 17.4: 441-458. Hombach, Jean-Pierre. Michael Jackson King of PoP. epubli James, Hunter. "Michael Jackson: Invincible." Review. Rolling Stone. 6 Dec., 2001. Stillwater, Willa. Poetica: Michael Jackson's Art of Connection and Defiance. Amazon Digital Services. 2011. George, Nelson. Thriller: The Musical Life of Michael Jackson. Da Capo Press, 2010. Read More