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Don’t Stop Till You Get Enough
Filmink caught up with director of This Is It, Kenny Ortega, when he was in town recently to promote the launch of the film on DVD and Blu-ray
Stars and fans alike took to the red carpet at Sydney's City Recital Hall on Tuesday night for the Australian DVD and Blu-ray launch of This Is It, the film which captured the final rehearsals of Michael Jackson in the lead-up to his comeback concerts in London.
In town to help pay tribute to the ‘King of Pop' was the film's choreographer Travis Payne who, along with some of Jackson's dancers, wowed the crowd with a couple of sharp dance routines. There was also a special performance of Jackson's ‘Earth Song' by local stars Delta Goodrem and Guy Sebastian.
Also present for the celebration was the director and producer of the film, Kenny Ortega, who was also a long-time trusted friend of Jackson. While Ortega has directed a number of big-name films, musicals and events including Disney's hugely successful High School Musical franchise, it was his creative collaboration with Jackson which has proven his career highlight.
Ortega, who first worked with Jackson twenty years ago, can still recall how their collaboration came to be. "I got this incredible telephone call at my home one day and it was Michael and my heart was pounding out of my chest. He truly was the artist at the very top of my wish list that I hoped I would one day have an opportunity to work with and he said, ‘I want to work together, I think we would be really good together.'"
The two collaborated on Jackson's Dangerous and History tours and reunited for what were to be Jackson's spectacular comeback concerts. "We lost contact for a while and then a couple of years ago Michael started calling me and we got close again and I could see that he was tossing around the idea of wanting to do something. I thought it was going to be some type of film project; I was as shocked as you could imagine when he said he wanted to go back out and perform again."
After Jackson's sudden death last year, Ortega was initially reluctant to take on the job of compiling this documentary. "At first I wasn't at all interested. I had just walked away from the concert experience and my first thought was, as a filmmaker, I didn't feel like I had the emotional distance. I just thought it would be too overwhelming to be sitting there watching the footage and trying to put a story together this soon.
"However I quickly realised it was something that was going to happen, the fans really needed it and if I didn't do it, who was going to do it? And I didn't want someone stepping in that wasn't familiar with the material or the experience so it was scary and challenging but I was very fortunate that I had many members of our team who had worked with Michael and I who all came together as one creative force."
This Is It follows Jackson and his army of collaborators - dancers, musicians, choreographers - as they prepare for these epic, theatrical performances. It provides fans with an intriguing and often candid insight into the creative process, revealing how Jackson was intimately involved with every aspect of the concert. However the film never delves into any emotional or personal territory, a conscious decision made by Ortega.
"When Michael died, immediately all of us felt this voice from the fans wanting to know what Michael was going to do for the concert and I felt that was the most important thing, to take the material we had at hand and do everything I could to help the fans understand what Michael's goals were for the show. That just seemed to be the right thing to focus on, the right story to tell," Ortega explains.
Reflecting on the time he spent working with Jackson remains bittersweet for Ortega. "This would have been out third time, we got pretty darn close."
This Is It will be released on DVD and Blu-ray March 7.
Picture caption: Travis Payne and Kenny Ortega at the This Is It DVD Launch & Tribute Party