Thriller(1982)- By Michael Jackson (Video Anlaysis)

Thriller is more of a Concept/Performance based video, rather than Narrative. The Video begins with a brief intoduction os a young couple at the movies watching a horror movie named "Thriller" Which can already give us some idea of the genre of the song we are about to hear. The Crane shot which is first used to set the scene(Mainly focusing on the Thriller advertisement of the cinema) Along with the music starting in the background with a non- diegetic dog howl suggests again that this RnB video will be on with potentially explicit horror content.

As we see the video progress, we can see that the main focus is on both characters, although Michael himself is always appearing in the front of the woman showing him to be the more important at the time through the backwards tracking shots used. His body movements, the fact that he is the only one talking and even the Mise en scene in terms of his costume(Him wearing bright red) while impending danger, also shows him to be the center of attention, which directly relates to the idea of promting the artist in the video from Goodwin.







The video continues, and as the singing stops briefly we are shown a new setting, that of a Cemetery which is done by a Close up to stress it's importance in the video. A voice over from a man is done which sets up the conceptual part of the video, in that the "Thriller" is that the dead can come back to life - "For no mere mortal can resist, the evil of the Thriller." This can also be applied to Goodwin's theory in that the way the lyrics, or in his case the voice over of the song actually have some literal meaning concerning the video. That evil may be reffering to the power of death and it's ability to corrupt, as we soon see when Michael, once human joins the ranks of the undead once he is encircled by them.

Once we see the converted Michael, the video turns into a performance one in which there is an entire dance routine, and the singing resumes. This is typical for RnB's videos, as they are mainly performance dominated, and once again the attention is shifted to the lead singer, Michael as he is the core of the the dance routine. It seems that during the chorus of the song seems to be where the majority of the performance lies. As we see a build up in the music leading up to the chorus, we can also see a build up in the actual performance in the video, as this is the case for Thriller.