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Information

• Member: TaranT
• Studio: Studio Tarantella
• Title: Silent Memory
• Premiered: 2005-09-23
• Categories:
  • Drama
  • Serious
• Song:
  • Mychael Danna Deirdre of the Sorrows
• Anime:
  • Grave of the Fireflies
• Participation:
  • Anime Weekend Atlanta 11, AWA 2005 AMV *MASTERS* CONTEST (2005-09-23)
• Comments: **********
  CD: "Sirens" by Mychael Danna (Hearts of Space 1991)
  
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  I suspect some viewers of this video will be tempted to read too much into its production. While it has some personal meaning for me (family connections that I won't go into here) I made this largely because the music and the video go together so well. Furthermore, this is not - for me - an anti-war statement since that is not my viewpoint as a rule. At the same time I know that each viewer will bring and take away something that is individually relevant to him or her. It's in the nature of art and entertainment art, in particular.
  
  First, about the music. Although I listen to a fair amount of New Age music, I had never heard of Mychael Danna until I heard this piece on a music video DVD that I bought off the bargain shelf. Coincidentally, this tune followed the piece that I used for my Mononoke Hime video; two good concepts for the price of one. The title of this composition refers to an old Irish legend that goes by the title of "Deirdre of the Sorrows". I won't go into detail; you can read about it in a Wikipedia article. It's enough to say that it is a sad tale about tragic romance and the fall of heroes.
  
  The concept for this video actually stewed for over a year. Although I decided early on to use Grave of the Fireflies, it was a few months before I got the idea to mix in the archival footage from the World War II (WWII) era. The scenes come from about a dozen documentaries that I culled for appropriate content. I was specific about the kind of scenes that I did not want. I ignored all scenes with dead bodies, soldiers in combat, and anything with extreme emotion on display, especially negative emotions. The same was true of any footage from the anime movie itself.
  
  The reason for this lies in what I set out to do with this project. And that is to tell two intertwined stories, one of the nation and one of a family caught up in that war, and to tell into in a typically stoic, Japanese style. This is not an exciting video and it is that way by intent. Emotions are not on display, but they are there nonetheless.
  
  (Of course, having written all that, I can still say that I bent the rules in a few scenes. Just slightly, but enough to count.)
  
  Also, along the same lines, this is a specifically Japanese story, so you will see no scenes of the Americans or the Allies in general, just their war machinery. This was also by choice in order to keep the focus where it belonged. One thing that bothers me slightly is that the sequence of scenes almost implies that the US started the war. Of course that's not the case, although it may have seemed that way to some Japanese inhabitants for whom the progression of events was little more than rumor. In any event those of us who have seen Grave of the Fireflies will understand why scenes progress as they do in this video.
  
  Although I generally dislike making message videos, I have some hope that this project will help anime fans grasp the context in which Grave of the Fireflies was made and presented to the public. It was a much different era back then, at a time when large populations and mass industry supported mass warfare in ways that people today can barely conceive. The movies and video games with all their action and excitement only obscure the experience of the individual players in the drama called war.
  
  A few more minor notes: while reviewing footage it occurred to me that Grave of the Fireflies could be seen as a runaway-kids movie rather than just a war film. The reason is that there was no significant reason for the boy and his sister to move out of their aunt's home. She was unpleasant, but not abusive. She did offend the boy's pride and perhaps rightly so. With this viewpoint, the movie is essentially a Greek tragedy: the protagonist's character flaw (pride) leads to the death of himself and his sister.
  
  While I was creating this video, I desperately wanted to delete a large part of the music. In part this was because I was running up against a hard deadline, but also because I thought the last minute or so was redundant. Despite several attempts I was unable to find a clean way to cut it short and in the end that was for the best. It's longer than I'd like, but I think as a whole it works out well.
  
  I usually try to write some technical notes for each video that I make, but there isn't much going on here. Some overlays, some chromakeying. Most of the effects are invisible and involve cleaning up the black and white footage - which actually came off the source in tones of green and brown.
  
  This video premiered in the Masters contest at Anime Weekend Atlanta 2005. And not very well, I might add. The projectors could not handle the nightime scenes in this video. This is typical of projectors in general, at least the type you'll see at a convention. It was something I anticipated, but really could not do anything about. And it makes a good object lesson for music video makers looking to present a work in public.
  
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