MORE THAN 2 CAMERAS WERE USED TO FILM “THIS IS IT”

The Prosecution in Conrad Murray Trial will show footage from Michael Jackson’s
‘This Is It’ rehearsals to support their assertion that Michael was healthy. Conrad Murray defense team intends to rebut prosecution’s claim vis-à-vis Michael's health.

The defense team asked the judge to order Sony to turn over the raw footage from
'This Is It' raw footage. Sony attorney Gary Bostwick stated “We will be very concerned that anything shown in court leaks out and goes viral”.

Judge Michael Pastor delayed his ruling until June 24. He said that a possible release of the footage would come with a restriction, preventing the dissemination to the public.

CONFUSION ABOUT NUMBER OF CAMERAS:

Gary Bostwick stated that they are confused about what the defense exactly wants. Does Murray Team want ALL raw footage or just the footage from 2 cameras.

Ed Chernoff said that the confusion stemmed from Kenny Ortega's testimony that there were only 2 cameras. But the defense learnt from Sony that there were more than 2.

Gary Bostwick: There were more than 2 cameras

Ed Chernoff: If it's more than the 2 cameras, we are asking for all the footage

WHAT LIES BEHIND SONY’S RELUCTANCE?

More than the defense Team’s interest in the raw footage, what struck the fan community as peculiar is Sony’s reluctance to turn over the footage.
           
         There may be 2 reasons behind Sony’s reluctance:

• Sony is tacitly admitting that “This is It” documentary was heavily edited to show a more healthy and vibrant Michael Jackson than he really was
• “This Is It” wasn’t it. Sony plans on releasing more films out of the footage

WHOSE IDEA WAS IT TO FILM THE REHEARSALS?

"We knew we were in a bad spot but I don't think we ever panicked. We had faith that we would find a way to recoup our investment" ~TIM LEIWEKE

"A lot of decisions were made between Tim Leiweke and  myself on cell phone

while I was standing outside of the emergency room" ~RANDY PHILLIPS

"AEG will come out of this tragedy extremely well. We just closed a $60m deal against a gigantic back-end for the rights to the film that will be created from
all the footage we so wisely shot from the beginning of this project to the last rehearsal. 

Randy Phillips

Still President & CEO of AEG Live!

P.S. If that action in Vegas is still available, I recommend betting on me!"
~RANDY PHILLIPS

On June 29th, AEG locked the footage that it claims was "Michael's personal property" with literally arm guards at the door. AEG & Michael Jackson contract doesn't give ownership of the footage to AEG. With what authority AEG confiscated the footage? And why did AEG, and not Michael's Estate got paid $66million from Sony? 

Frank Dileo stated that Michael liked to go through the footage at night to review the dance moves but Michael didn't have the footage to review. Tim Patterson took them with him every night and saved them on his home computer. And why film the meetings?

"This Is It" doesn't appear to be pieced together from the rehearsal footage and
"not planned" to be turned into a film. The idea surely came to AEG kinda' quick!

RAW FOOTAGE CONTENT

"Over 100 hours of footage of every single meeting, audition, rehearsal"

ADDITIONAL CAMERAS

Tim Patterson and Sandrine Orabona were the only ones to receive screen credits as “cameramen”. But 5 “additional cameras” also received screen credits.

Additonal Cameras:
Robbie Knouse
Darren Haggard
Greg Harrington
John D'Avignon
Greg Reynolds

Additonal cameras are listed in IMBD listing, under "camera & electrical department"

Sandine Orabona                                 Tim Patterson

Tim Patterson

Sandrine Orabona

Travis Payne

Additional camera (NOT Tim Patterson, NOT Sandrine Orabona)

KENNY ORTEGA EXPLAINS THE ADDITIONAL CAMERAS

“There were about 80 hours and those 80 broke down like this:

Michael and I produced 10 short little films that were going to exist within the layout of the concert. Some of them were in 3-D. 3-D ‘Thriller,’ 3-D ‘Earth Song,’ 3-D ‘Man in the Mirror.’ Some of them were scenic backdrops during the musical production. Some of them were interactive; at one point Michael jumped out of the screen and landed on the stage, and at another part, Michael stepped into the screen, got in an airplane, came speeding down a runway and zoomed out of the screen in 3-D.

Another part of that 80 hours was the interviews, the behind-the-scenes, the auditions and the press conferences that we were going to use as documentation for the behind the scenes of a concert film we were going to shoot in London. Michael and I wanted to shoot the concert, after it had opened, in 3-D as a theatrical release. So we were going to have the ‘making-of’ footage. So that footage was part of the 80 hours, and that also went into this movie. Most of the footage that we used was from the two cameras that were there just capturing footage for our reference. Those are the miracle cameras.
And then there was this series of lower-res cameras that were practicing, getting ready for the big-screen you see in concerts. So it was the combination of that and the two rehearsal cameras that allowed us to have all the rehearsal footage we had.” 

SHOULD THE DEFENSE TEAM HAVE ACCESS TO ALL RAW FOOTAGE?

Absolutely! The raw footage will exhibit Michael Jackson's health for the duration of
his last months, which is paramount to the Trial. In the interest of fairness to the defense team, they should be given access to ALL footage available from Michael's last months.

I believe that making all the raw footage available to BOTH the defense and the prosecution with a stipulation that the counsel will not publicise the footage is resonable.


Related Reads:
Kenny Ortega Interview with Movieline
A Phillips Screwdriver
Conrad Murray Trial Testimonies (based on official transcripts)