‘This is it’, a cinematic creations based on the king of Pop Michel Jackson’s rehearsals for his concert comeback is now being screened at the Liberty cinema, Colombo.
Offering the fans and music lovers worldwide a rare, behind-the-scenes look at the performer as he developed, created and rehearsed for his sold-out concerts that would have taken place beginning this summer in London’s O2 Arena.
Chronicling the months from April through June, 2009, the film is produced with the full support of the Estate of Michael Jackson and drawn from more than one hundred hours of behind-the-scenes footage, featuring Jackson rehearsing a number of his songs for the show.
In raw and candid detail, Michael Jackson’s ‘This is it’ captures the singer, dancer, filmmaker, architect, creative genius and great artiste at work as he creates and perfects his final show.
Kenny Ortega, who was both Michael Jackson’s creative partner and the director of the stage show is also directing the film, which is being produced by Randy Phillips, Paul Gongaware and Ortega himself.
The film opens with a short text introduction stating the purpose of the footage and its intent “For the fans...”. After short dialogues from various dancers, Kenny Ortega is heard talking through the original concert opening sequence involving a body suit made from screens which display fast clips and images with bright intensity from which Jackson emerges on stage. Immediately after this, Jackson begins “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’” first solo, which pauses half-way through and a small snippet of Jackson singing his song “Speechless” acapella is shown.
Jackson is then joined by dancers and completes the first number. A short clip showing rehearsals of the “toaster” mechanism is shown before rehearsal footage of “Jam” is played. This plays directly into the green screen adaptation of soldiers dancers for “Bad” which are also used for “They Don’t Really Care About Us” which is shown next. From here, the film shows Michael directing Ortega and his band for his solo rehearsal performance of “Human Nature” which he performs acapella, then acoustic and finally with full band.
The film also takes up more action of Pop King where he sings “I Just Can’t Stop Loving You”, “Thriller”, rehearsal for “Thriller”, the video-sequence for “Earth Song”, a quick version of his song “Billie Jean”.
At last Michael is seen talking to all crew members and wishing everyone the best for the London performances. At a sound check, Jackson performs “Man In The Mirror” with strong backing vocals. |
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