MUSIC SCENE
All for Janet
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| Janet Jackson
7:30 p.m. Saturday Aloha Stadium $35, $45, $65 526-4400 Also: The concert will be taped for broadcast on HBO Sunday on HBO Digital (Channel 611) at 7 p.m., and on HBO (Channel 46) at 9 p.m. Don't bring to the stadium: banners, signs, noisemakers, coolers, purses, backpacks, bags, umbrellas, outside food, bottles Do bring: fanny packs, binoculars, diaper bags |
By Derek Paiva
Advertiser Staff Writer
It had been two years, and HBO wanted Janet Jackson back on the network for some live nastiness in a big way.
But the story of how Jackson's second televised concert for the cable-TV giant wound up as "Janet In Concert From Hawai'i" — set for Aloha Stadium this weekend — wasn't written by a boardroom full of HBO suits looking for a warm winter vacation and a colorful concert backdrop for Mainland subscribers. It was Jackson herself who took, ahem, control of that one.
Flash back to a Sunday night in October 1998. More than 5.3 million viewers in 3.4 million households nationwide make "Janet: The Velvet Rope" a prime-time ratings smash for HBO. Broadcast live from Madison Square Garden, Jackson's two-hour concert crushed the ratings of all four major networks in homes that subscribed to HBO.
"There was no question after that first one, whether we would do another one," said HBO senior vice president of original programming Nancy Geller. The head of HBO's music and event programming, Geller oversaw last year's live satellite broadcasts of concerts by Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band, Garth Brooks and *N Sync, to name just a few. "(Jackson's ratings) were quite large for that time. It was just a question of when she went on tour again and when we would be able to do it."
So the minute Jackson announced last April that she would embark on a 44-date North American tour in support of her new album "All For You" that summer, the New York-based Geller was on the phone to Jackson's manager Roger Davies. The second topic of discussion? Where to shoot it.
"So (Davies) says, 'Well, she does love Hawai'i, you know,'" remembered Geller, her accent New Yawhk husky. "And the minute I heard it, I liked it." Jackson apparently agreed. "Hawai'i was her first choice, and ... the only choice that came about."
Geller, the Jackson fan, was thrilled at the prospect of a live concert broadcast from Hawai'i; but Geller, the HBO executive, was worried about the additional costs shooting in the state would incur compared with a Mainland location.
"It was a terrific idea," said Geller, but "you have to bring in (containers), you have to fly a lot of people there, it's a 10 1/2-hour flight from here. I mean, it's not like I can just go down the street to Madison Square Garden. This was going to be a major haul for everybody."
Geller committed HBO to the project anyway and waited through the summer for Jackson to actually greenlight a Honolulu tour stop before making an announcement. Hawai'i might have been Jackson's first choice for her second HBO concert, but by the end of the American leg of the "All For You" tour in October, a Honolulu stop was still nowhere to be found on her official tour schedule.
To be fair, the "All For You" tour had seen its fair share of tumult over its three-month run. Its July 5 Vancouver, British Columbia, opening date was postponed for several days when a crucial hunk of Jackson's massive stage was held up at the border. An emergency root canal and a nasty bout with the flu led Jackson to postpone concerts in July and August, respectively. After Sept. 11, Jackson canceled the entire European leg of the tour, citing travel concerns.
But in November, Jackson finally committed to a Feb. 17 Aloha Stadium stop for a live HBO prime-time Sunday broadcast, requesting the company hire veteran concert director David Mallet ("Cher: Live In Concert From Las Vegas," "U2: ZOO TV Live From Sydney") to helm it. Concert stops on Jackson's four-date Japan tour and especially a nine-date tour of smaller East Coast and Midwest cities in January and February would serve as "dress rehearsals" for her HBO special. The concert date was changed to Feb. 16 in December when HBO deciphered that a prime-time broadcast on the East Coast would mean a daylight show in Hawai'i.
"I wanted a nighttime concert for sure," said Geller, explaining the added ambience night shooting lends to lighting, special effects and performance shots. The downside of shooting the evening before was that unlike HBO's recent event concerts for the likes of Madonna and Britney Spears, among others, Jackson's could not be broadcast live in prime time.
"And that kind of bothers me," admitted Geller. "But then again, it (will air) within 20 hours ... so it's about as live as we can get."
One of director Mallet's and producer Tony Eaton's first big tasks after signing on was a December O'ahu visit to check out Aloha Stadium and to scout locations for the telecast's opening footage of Jackson cavorting around the island.
"Before we cut to the stadium, there will be an opening set in Hawai'i," Eaton said about the footage, which was scheduled to be shot at various O'ahu locations yesterday.
"We're also shooting some 'pre-game' footage around the island, of residents, and sending it back to HBO ... to air as part of our entertainment news," Geller said. "Kind of like a little (travelogue) showing everybody where we are."
Mallet and Eaton — who were set to arrive in Honolulu last Sunday — spent much of this month and last month largely observing Jackson concerts, including last weekend's final "All For You" tour stops in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., and Hampton, Va.
More than 30 containers of HBO's television production equipment arrived last week for set-up immediately after Saturday's Pro Bowl. HBO's 120-member crew will include camera operators, lighting specialists, tech and production support staff, producers and administrative staffers. Eaton guessed that the "All For You" tour carried a crew of about 50, and seven to 10 containers worth of equipment.
The two-hour concert will be taped by 22 cameras scattered throughout the stadium, including a handful set on cranes up to 85 feet long that can swoop over the stage and crowd. Eaton said his crew will tinker very little with the production Jackson has been touring since July.
"With a major production like this, you don't want to do anything to upset the finely honed balance of their show ... that they've perfected over the 50 dates that they've played," Eaton said. "But you want to enhance it for television and build it out even more. Television's natural tendency is to make things smaller, so we try to overcome some of that and enhance the production."
To wit, HBO and Jackson are shipping a larger stage to Aloha Stadium than has been touring the Mainland, specifically built for the production.
With the show airing nationwide less than a day after taping and to preserve a live vibe, Eaton said very little editing would be done to the footage post-concert. Instead Mallet, Eaton and the HBO production staff will be working throughout the night in a mobile production facility at the stadium, viewing and "quality-controlling" the footage for a final cut. The cut must be relayed by satellite to HBO's New York studios by 11 a.m. ET Sunday.
The concert will make its debut on the East Coast at 9 p.m. ET. Honolulu HBO subscribers will see it at 7 p.m. on HBO Digital (Channel 611) and 9 p.m. on HBO (Channel 46).
"I don't like edited-looking concerts, so it's not going to be edited," Geller said. "We do not have the luxury of doing anything to it except putting it on a microwave and sending it, and that's what's going to happen. Janet will know that this is as live as she can get, and she's going to have to get it. And I know she'll come to the dance for this because she came to the dance for her last live (HBO concert)."
Eaton promised that his camera crew would capture lots of crowd shots ("so tell everyone to dress their finest") and that the concert would proceed rain or shine ("I hear the state of Hawai'i promised us it wouldn't rain, so we're taking them at their word"). He also promised — but declined to elaborate on — a number of Hawai'i-only concert surprises.
Neither Geller nor Eaton would comment on just how much "Janet In Concert From Hawai'i" is costing HBO. The company is bearing a large percentage of the production's tab but will no doubt reap another large percentage of revenue when the concert is released on home video in June.
"You can certainly tell by looking at (past HBO concert events) and looking at the marketing that we support them," said Geller, admitting only "a very big HBO bill." "We want it to be shot beautifully. We want it to be shot big. There's a lot of thought that goes into it. It can't be any figure at all, but we certainly make decisions based on more than just money. We decided to do this even though we knew Hawai'i was going to cost us more, because it's fun and exciting."
And, well, because Janet wanted it that way, didn't she?
