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Textual analysis on Michael Jackson – THRILLERMichael Jackson's video for "Thriller" was released nearly 30 years ago, on December 2nd, 1983. Director John Landis extended the track into a 14-minute-long nearly musical horror film, allowing Michael indulge his monster-movie fantasies to show to the public. It got saturation play on MTV and has been seen more than 149 million times on YouTube.

Mise-en-scene The setting of the music video revolves around Michael and a girl visiting the

cinema with shots of them travelling to the movies in a car and within the first two minutes of the music video the watcher get to know who the main characters in the music film are. The location where the camera shots are shown to be taken is very creepy, dark and has a sinister feel. This tells the public that the music video will be chilling and this is what the director and Michael wanted to get across. From the beginning to the end, they have shown a horror based atmosphere.

From the cast shown throughout, the audience can understand that they are all pretty normal until the moon comes out and the main character turns into a warewolf. The moonlight creates tension for the watcher and makes them on edge with suspense and slightly nervous. Little factors that hide beneath the background also make the horror build up as the buildings are shown in the music video explaining the characters aren’t in a safe area.

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There is a reoccurring pattern going through the music video, as danger is shown to the audience as different factors such as Michael’s suit is the colour of red so is the cinema chairs, outside the movies (the building) and the movie title page. They have also used red for the outline of the title for the music video right at the beginning, letting the audience know what the music video may entail.

Camera angles and shotsThis shot of the over shadowing moon wanted to capture the image which fit into the narrative of the music video. After this shot, the main character changes into a werewolf, this is why this shot is very significant, explaining why it lasts around two/three seconds.

This shot gives the viewer an insight into Michael’s ideas for the music video. As Thriller starts off as a short story, they wanted to give the viewer a story before the music started.

This close up shot of another main character within the music video shows her to be frightened, alarmed and distressed. I believe they chose a close up for this shot was to emphasise the fear in the women’s eyes. It explains the viewer that the next shot will be unpleasant as shown on this characters face.

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Editing In these two clips, they have edited it to show the difference of Michael holding his hand out (as a werewolf) then they switch it to Michael (in normal form) holding his hand out. This editing shows the contrasting of the two individuals, it explains to the audience that even though he is clearly the same person, they can have split personalities and may show this different side to him to the public more. I believe Michael wanted to get this point across as he has a stereotypical view of him and maybe he wanted to change the public’s thoughts on him and his character.

Andrew Goodwin’s Theory linked with Thriller Throughout the music video, it is a clear show that a link that Michael wanted

to get across a weird, creepy feel from his music video as this would express his personality and make the audience know that this was the artist’s idea to get across his true emotion.

Andrew Goodwin’s theory relates to this as he believes artists show their true qualities and character through their music and now music videos. This video has finally got across to the public that Michael has his own style and people have really enjoyed the Thriller video.