Behind The Mask: Michael Jackson’s Crowdsourced Music Video Premieres

It has been almost two years since the death of Michael Jackson, but people continue to display their adoration for the “King Of Pop”. There is a new MJ video going around featuring Jackson’s fans.  The crowdsourced video is for the electropop song, “Behind the Mask.”  Eliot Van Buskirk over at Wired wrote about how this video was put together in his column.

Director Dennis Liu told Evolver.fm that the video was inspired by Jackson’s own work, in particular his 1991 “Black or White” video, with its emphasis on “connecting” people — something that today’s social technologies are sometimes about, too.

The idea of having people act out moves from the video came from the crowd too, according to the director — in particular, flash mobs in which everyone from Philippine prisoners to Swedish volunteers dances to Jackson’s music.

Some clips ran 15 seconds, and others covered the song’s duration. A team of five needed two months to sift through the videos before Liu and his team arrived at the finished product, including video of 1,600 participants woven together.