Thriller (Michael Jackson album) video that would appeal to the mass market ended up influencing the way that professionals now market and release their songs. John Landis' production of a mini-movie, rather than the usual short music video, would raise the bar for other directors and producers. Before the success of "Thriller", many felt Jackson had struggled to get MTV airing because he was black. In an effort to attain air time for Jackson, CBS Records President Walter Yetnikoff pressured MTV and declared, "I'm not going to give you any more videos and I'm going to go public and fucking tell them about the
Michael Jackson's Thriller (music video) begins the video.Jackson created the zombie dance with choreographer Michael Peters, who had previously choreographed the "Beat It" video. Jackson said his first concern was to create a zombie dance that did not seem comical. He and Peters imagined how the zombies would move by making faces in the mirror, incorporating "jazzy" moves, "not too much ballet or whatever". Landis's wife Deborah Nadoolman, who had previously designed costumes for films, designed the costumes, including Jackson's red jacket. Nadoolman had previously served as a costume designer for the film "Raiders of the Lost Ark" (1981), designing the jacket and fedora worn