‘This Is It’ - Writing task’ Michael Joseph Jackson (29th August 1958 – 25th June 2009) was known as the ‘king of pop’ (www.michealjackson.com/uk). He was an amazing singer, musician and performer. Michael planned a series of fifty comeback concerts from July 2009 until March 2010, in the O2 Arena in London. Due to his death at the end of June 2009, the concerts never happened but some video footage of the rehearsals has been made into a film in memory of him. I will look at the film ‘This is it’, looking at the processes and also the roles of the staff involved in producing such a large and amazing production. There are a number of aspects involved in the process of making ‘This is it’, such as the auditions, rehearsals, technical run, dress rehearsals and CGI filming. The audition process is a ‘trial performance before a group of judges for a play or show’ that is why this process is so important because, there were a number of dancers from all over the world auditioning in front of Michael Jackson and the crew. The dancers were given a number and were put into groups. The Choreographer, Travis Payne taught the groups a sequence of dance moves, which they performed in front of Michael. Another example of the process would be the rehearsal. A rehearsal is a ‘ practice session of a play, concert… for a public performance.’ This is one of the most important processes because it gives everyone a chance to practice their parts. The rehearsals were held at the Staple Centre in Los Angeles involving Michael, the dancers, singers, musicians and the rest of the crew. During rehearsals Michael was very opionated about what he wanted. The technical run is also an important process in the making ‘This is it’. A technical run ‘is to make sure that all the lighting, sound and set equipment functions properly for the performance.’ Examples could be the sound affects in ‘Thriller’, Pyrotechnics e.g. fireworks or fire, also the smoke, fog and dry ice when the dancers and Michael are dancing in their costumes to ‘Thriller’. A final example could be when Michael uses the ‘Cherry Picker’ and the ‘Toasters’. A dress Rehearsal is ‘ a full rehearsal of a show where everyone is in costume and make up.’ I think that the dress run has to be the most important process in ‘This is it’ because it will bring everything together. The wardrobe designers, Michael Bush and Dennis Tompkins, were working with scientists from the Netherlands, also with people in California, just to push the boundaries for Michael’s amazing costumes. Another reason why I think the dress run is so important to this show is because if a costume wasn’t designed right, such as the widow spider that Michael comes out of on stage in the middle of ‘Thriller’, there would be time to get it fixed. CGI filming means ‘Computer Generate Imagery- 3D computer graphic, to special effects in some films.’ This is important because it means you can have images and films projected while dancers are dancing. Such as in ‘They don’t care about us’ they filmed eleven men using a Green Screen and transformed it to eleven hundred men. Also the 3D film in ‘Thriller’, the film is mostly made by Green Screen but the way it looks when it is shown from behind, looks amazing. As you watch it the zombies and the dead brides and grooms come out onto the stage. To each show there are a number of important roles such as dancers, singers, choreographer, musicians, rehearsal staff and CGI staff. The dancers are in the show are so important because without them Michael would be standing on his own in the middle of the stage doing a dance on his own, which wouldn’t look quite as effective as having backing dancers. Most of the dancers had dancing experience in the past, Charles Klapow (also known as Chucky Klapow); Choreographer for high school musical 1,2 and 3 was one of the backing dancers for this amazing show. During the dances the dancers were always in time and always