Textual Analysis (Shot by shot)Michael Jackson – Thriller

Context Michael Jacksons’s music video for his song Thriller (Or as it is now know, Michael Jackson’s Thriller) which lasts for almost 14 minutes, was released in December 1983. In 2006, the Guinness Book of World Records listed Thriller as the “most successful music video”.

The music video was directed by John Landis, a Hollywood director, who also directed An American Werewolf in London and Beverly Hills Cop III. He also co-wrote the screen-play with Michael Jackson himself. In the video, Jackson worked alongside Ola Ray, a former Playboy model. Thriller contains a spoken word performance by Vincent Price, who is an American actor.

Michael Jackson’s Thriller begins with a disclaimer from Michael Jackson. It is written in medium sized white text which is easy for the audience to read. This fades to black, which is followed the words Michael Jackson’s Thriller slowly fading in. The text is written in blood red, bold, typical horror themed font. In the background, the sound of slow, raspy breathing can be heard which sets the theme for the video as horror.

Fading from black, the establishing shot of Thriller is of a car driving through the woods. The camera tracks the movement of the vehicle as it drives before the engine splutters and it comes to a halt – having run out of gas. From the style of the car, I noted that it was a 50’s setting.

The first time the characters, a young male and female, are seen, they are sitting in the front seat of the car. The girl is wearing a pink jumper with a red ribbon in her hair, giving her an innocent look, whereas the male, played by Michael Jackson is wearing a red and yellow sports jersey, which gives him the appearance of a jock.

There is a quick cut and then a close up of the camera tracking the movements of the characters feet as they walk through the woods. This reveals the girl to be wearing a long purple skirt, white socks and black and white trainers, and Jackson to be wearing rolled up denim jeans, white socks and black shoes. The camera begins to slowly pan upwards until their top halves and faces are in shot. The couple turn to each other and begin to talk about their love.

There is an extreme close up of a full moon coming out from behind the clouds and then a quick cut to a mid-shot of Jackson’s face contorting with pain. There are quick cut to the girl’s frightened face asking if he’s okay, and when the camera cuts back, Jackson’s eyes have turned yellow and his voice low and animalistic.

There are various close ups and mid-shots to show the transformation of Michael Jackson from a teenage boy to a werewolf. There are also cutaways, showing close ups of the girls terrified face as she watches the transformation process of her boyfriend. I think that the use of camera angles and editing in this particular scene is effective because it shows the audience the transformation, and the girl’s reaction. Throughout this scene, there is loud, eerie orchestral music and the sounds of the girl screaming and the werewolf growling and howling, which, added to the camera movement and editing, gives it a horror theme.

As the orchestral music starts to increase in volume and pace, making the scene more dramatic, is a chase through the forest between the frightened girl and the werewolf. There are the sounds of rustling leaves as the camera tracks the girl’s movements as she runs past some trees. The werewolf then appears after the girl has run away and snaps a tree in half just by punching it, showing the audience his tremendous strength – making him appear even more frightening.

The video shows the girl running past one particular area, and a few seconds later, showing the werewolf taking exactly the same route, which shows that he is not so far behind her which creates more suspense.

As the girl runs towards the camera as she passes between two bushes, the werewolf jumps out in front of her from behind the camera, making her fall to the floor. As this happens, there is a loud scream/growl from the werewolf which is designed to make the audience jump as they do not expect the werewolf to jump out at the girl. There is a cut to a mid-shot of the girl as she lies helplessly on the floor with her arms by her head, looking up at the werewolf who towering above her. There is then a quick cut to there werewolf looking down at the camera and growling ferociously.

The werewolf lunges towards the camera, growling loudly when there is a quick cut to people in a cinema, jumping loudly to the sound of the werewolf’s growl. This shows the audience that the start of the Thriller music video was a fictional film that is being watched by the cinema goers. There camera cuts to a mid-shot of Michael Jackson and a date watching the film. The girl used for this scene, and the previous scenes are the same. She looks disgusted at the film and averts her eyes from the screen, where Jackson watches with a smile on his face. After a few seconds, the girl gets up and leaves the cinema, followed by Michael Jackson. This scene has the sounds from the film playing in the background, so the audience can hear what the audience can hear.

As the opening of the song begins, an establishing shot of the cinema called ‘Palace’ with the words ‘Vincent Price Thriller’ written as the name of the film and its maker appears. The camera pans downwards, revealing the word ‘Thriller’ in red type on the back background. The camera pans down further, showing the opening of the cinema and the two characters coming out of the far doors separately before meeting outside.

The girl is shown to be wearing a denim jacket with blue leopard print material, a red top, leopard print three quarter length jeans and red high heeled shoes. This completely contrasts against her image in the opening sequence of the music video because now she looks feistier and less innocent. Michael Jackson is wearing a black and red leather jacket, red jeans and black shoes.

The camera tracks the couple’s movements as they walk down a dark and deserted street. As the vocals on the song begins, Michael Jackson starts to lip sync along to the words, making it appear as if he is singing to, and about his date.

The couple walk past a foggy, eerie graveyard and as they walk out of sight of the camera, the camera zooms onto a mid shot of one of the graves.

The next scene in the Thriller video is of various zombies coming out of their graves. There are lots of different uses of camera angles and movement to show the living dead awakening, which is effective because it shows the audience the different states of the zombies. During this scene, there is an eerie, spooky voice which talks over the narrative. The voice is of Vincent Price, whose name was shown on the establishing shot of the cinema.

The zombies all walk out of the graveyard and make their way out onto the street. This is shown to the audience via an extreme long shot, to show them how many zombies there are.

There is a cut to Michael Jackson and his date as they walk through the street. They pause, and a mid-shot shows their shocked and fearful reaction to the zombies which. From a cut to a bird’s eye view of the street, the audience can see that the zombies have surrounded the couple and are slowly closing in on them.

The song stops, being replaced by slow eerie music as there is a long shot from outside the circle as the zombies close in. The couple begin to grip hold of each other, terrified by what is happening. There is a mid-shot of the girl, before the camera pans sideways, revealing Michael Jackson to be a zombie.

The Zombies, including Michael Jackson break into the iconic Thriller dance, which includes a series of camera angles to show the audience the dance moves, and the amount of zombies. As the song’s vocals start again, Michael turns into his normal self and lip syncs.

The scene cuts to an establishing shot of an old raggedy house, which the girl runs towards and up the stairs leading up to it, all the whilst turning to look behind her. As she goes inside, shutting the door behind her, the zombies approach the house try to enter it by banging on the doors and the windows. The way that the zombies move so slowly and stiffly contrasts the way they moved earlier when they were dancing with Michael Jackson.

The next shot is of the girl in a dark room, with all the furniture covered in sheets – which shows that this house hasn’t been lived in, in quite some time. She moves one of the arm chairs and puts it up against the door, and then backs up against a window. Using a long shot, the audience see the zombies break through the window and the floor, causing the girl to fall onto the sofa. There is a long-shot of a door which starts to be broken down by a zombie Michael Jackson. There are various cuts between close-ups of the girls terrified reaction and the zombie coming through the broken door and into the room.

More zombies appear behind Michael Jackson and they all walk slowly towards the girl. The eerie, dramatic music reaches its crescendo as Michael Jackson leans down towards the camera, reaching his arm out.

Before the zombie can grab the girl, the scene changes to a bright, colourful room – the same one which portrayed as sinister and dark just a few seconds ago. A long-shot of the couple getting off of the sofa shows the audience that all is well, and that what had happened with the zombies was only a horrible nightmare.

As the couple walk out of the room, Michael Jackson turns towards the camera, revealing a manic smile on his face, and the same yellow, cat like eyes he had right at the start of the video where he transformed into the werewolf. A manic male laugh is heard over the still image as the camera zooms in until just Michael Jacksons face is showing – highlighting his animalistic eyes– ending the music video in disequilibrium.

After the previous image fades out, the dance scene with Michael Jackson plays out with the videos credits in white type appears. As this finishes, a long shot shows three zombies in the graveyard and start to dance.

As they walk out of the view of the camera, another zombie appears looking straight into the camera. This zombie is played by Vincent Price in full prosthetics – the man whose name appears on the establishing shot of the cinema and is the voice to the rap in the middle of the video. The image fades to black as the song ends.

Final Analysis The overall plot of Michael Jackson’s Thriller is slightly unclear as it is a story within a story which may or may not be in a dream. This could have been very complex to understand, but the story is told in a clear, yet entertaining way, allowing the audience to follow the narrative. I believe that one of the most common themes of Michael Jackson’s thriller is using impending danger and fear to attract the opposite sex. This particular theme is used in many horror films today.

The video does not follow Todorov’s narrative theory of equilibrium to disequilibrium to equilibrium. Instead, it starts off with equilibrium with everything okay with the happy couple talking about how they loved each other. It then moves on to disequilibrium when the boy transforms into a werewolf and chases the girl into the forest. The story then changes to equilibrium when the music begins and the girl and the boy walk through the street, and then back to disequilibrium when the living dead awaken and chase the girl into an old house. Finally, it changes back to equilibrium when the girl realises that it was only a dream. The last scene of the music video is disequilibrium when the audiences see that the boy is really a werewolf.

It also follows Propp’s theory of characters, although not conventionally, as it has the Victim as the main girl and the Hero and Villain as Michael Jackson.