Michael Jackson Bad Tour 1988

[Galactus123]

I wonder why they haven't released any Michael Jackson concert on Blu-Ray? Bad Tour would be amazing in HD and they did shoot full concerts on film. They just haven't released them for some reason. I hope they still have all the footage. It was Michael's' best tour in my opinion and great setlist. They did release a bad quality Wembley concert on DVD in 2012 that was sourced from a VHS tape. It was jumbotron footage and not from the films.

Colorist Warren Eagles wrote this blog post some years ago:

Grading Michael Jackson

My first real grading job was on the Michael Jackson Bad tour in 1988, directed by Patrick Kelly. I was an assistant telecine operator at Visions, located in Soho, London. As an assistant I laced the film, loaded the film cleaner and pressed REC on the 1” VTR. I spent the time in between these duties and lots of my own time observing and learning the nuances of the industry. Visions had 2 senior telecine ops Mark Baugh and Luke Rainey who were both particularly knowledgeable and were an invaluable part of my education. Just watching them grade then asking questions at the right moment was a great way to learn.

The concert was shot on a mixture of 35mm and 16mm film, it seemed at times they were shooting film for fun! The crew filmed 2 nights out of the 5 Wembley stadium gigs, film was also fed from the earlier tour legs in Australia, Japan, and Europe. As an accompanying piece to the concert, an “on the road” documentary was also filmed at the same time. The concert was cut in a 4 machine 1” online edit suit, not offlined. This was before Avid of FCP offline so the alternative would have been a lowband umatic or ¾ edit. As soon as the film came in from the lab we would be transferring it, feeding the footage on to 2 hungry edit suites.

It is still the biggest music project I have ever been involved with in terms of volume of footage. We would load each negative film lab roll onto the Rank MK111 telecine machine then set the counter to a known sync point on the film. So LR 10 would be TC 10:00:00:00. The sync point would be the start mark on the film leader.

There had been a hold up one day at the lab so the pressure was off and Mark said to me “why don’t you jump on the desk and grade a few rolls,” I jumped at it.

I played the film roll into the first song and checked our presets for color and framing. The colorists had set presets based on the different film stock types. Kodak 5248 slightly warmer than the 500ASA variety. I made some small adjustments all looked good and matched the previous work so I rewound the negative slowly to the film leader and then started to record from the Picture Start mark on the leader. To match a shot from a previous camera roll, we had to load that tape, find the shot we wanted to match to, then wipe to it with a vision mixer, no still store back then. The exposure and color balance were adjusted on the fly as the 1’’ VTR was recording. I initially couldn’t adjust the controls quickly enough so found that the exposure was changing during a usable piece of MJ’s performance. This meant we had to stop recording, adjust the shot then pick up the edit on a suitable camera flash or clapperboard. As I became more experienced I leant to change the controls fast enough to keep recording. This type of fly grading was a great way of learning instinctively which way to adjust the joysticks without looking at the Vector scope or Waveform monitor. The key here was consistence as there was to be no final grade. Fly grading is something junior graders don’t do much anymore because film dailies from a TK machine are becoming less frequent. Film is more likely to be transferred to a file then graded. It was a great way to learn how to grade, not just well but quickly.

The single “Another part of me” was cut from some of my early telecine work. The music video was cut from footage shot in London and Paris, that shows you how tight Jackson’s performance was. As far as I know the complete concert and documentary has never been released. A disappointing waste as the film managed to capture Jackson at his peak. Jackson never came into Visions during the project but Frank Dileo, his cigar smoking manager, visited a couple of times.

https://icolorist.com/2011/07/29/gra...chael-jackson/

The movie Moonwalker used film footage for the Man in the Mirror part:

Michael Jackson - Man In The Mirror - Moonwalker [1080p HD Blu Ray Mux] - YouTube

They also used it for Spike Lee's Bad 25 documentary.

[agoofykindasuperman]

Oh man, this would be awesome. That DVD concert at Wembley would be fantastic to own on Blu-ray in HD as well. Always been wondering, waiting, dreaming about them releasing ANY Michael Jackson stuff on Blu-ray and always just thought it was because he had all his stuff shot on that crappy Digital 8 media lol...

So if it was filmed on film, then it's clearly his estate that is holding releases back for who knows what reasons. I thought they could use the money!? lol

[Galactus123]

Originally Posted by agoofykindasuperman

Oh man, this would be awesome. That DVD concert at Wembley would be fantastic to own on Blu-ray in HD as well

It wouldn't be the same concert. It wasn't shot on film.

[HoangLan]

Two concerts should be released on blu-ray are the New York (March 3) and the final one in Los Angeles. The one in New York featured guitarist Slash during Dirty Diana and the kiss of Tatiana in TWYMMF. Also, the NY concert was almost sung live, except for the first half Man in the Mirror.

Now I've heard some people say that the estate will not sell any more of his concerts, probably for a long time or whatsoever. What a shame. I myself don't need a HD concert, but at lease they have to choose the best. The Wembley DVD's picture could not even reach 1% of other footages from documentary source and leaked sources combined (youtube can proves).

In my opinion, we fans or not fans who love real music, need to do something like speak against estate. One person can't get things done but many can. If we insist, they will have to hear.

[Galactus123]

Someone made a petition get Bad Tour on Blu-Ray. It might not work but I think we should try. Would be great to see full concert in HD. Here is the link:

https://www.change.org/p/the-michael...ion=topic_page

Michael Jackson Bad Tour Film/HD Campaign 2020 (4K Teaser) - YouTube

[TylerDurden389]

I'd rather see some sorta release of everything live from 1978-1984 (Destiny tour, Triumph tour, and Victory tour).

[Marv Inc.]

I;d rather they release Thriller in 1:85:1 widescreen which they resorted over two years ago and apart from showing it in a few IMAX theateres. The MJ estate and John Landis have just sat on it.

I dont get it? Why spend all that money scanning the OCN in 2K or 4K and doing a 3D conversion and then not releasing it to BD to make some money back.

Apart from BAD 25 documentary the MJ estate have just sat on everything.

[Galactus123]

Originally Posted by TylerDurden389

I'd rather see some sorta release of everything live from 1978-1984 (Destiny tour, Triumph tour, and Victory tour).

Victory Tour release would be great. People say that this is film footage:

The Jacksons - Billie Jean : VICTORY TOUR LIVE - YouTube

[Galactus123]

Apparently the Munich 1997 concert was converted to 3D years ago but it hasn't been released:
https://twitter.com/damienshields/st...48664395026432

"A 3D version was made more than 6 years ago using those HD Munich ‘97 tapes. I saw a demo of it in 2014 and, in my opinion, it looks incredible. The depth of the stage, the lighting, the audience, etc. It‘s quite beautiful. And Michael looks like he’s right there in front of you."

"The way I saw and heard it, it looked and sounded phenomenal. It was definitely played on a surround sound system. But I don’t know the technical details of what went into the mixing process, or who did what. I just experienced the final product and it was wonderful."

"At the time I remember remarking that it wasn’t shot for shot the same. I didn’t see the entire concert, but what I did see appeared to have used different shots and angles. Some were the same, and some different. I can’t recall with certainty about the audio."

"The 3D element makes it really spectacular. It looks so good. He’s not as his peak and he’s mostly not singing live, but it almost doesn’t matter when you add the 3D element to the experience. Perhaps it could be a cinema-only release. Experience it properly, and that’s it."