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Information

• Member: WalterScott
• Studio: Graven Image
• Title: The Flood
• Premiered: 2000-08-05
• Category:
  • Drama
• Song:
  • Peter Gabriel Here Comes the Flood
• Anime:
  • Future Boy Conan
• Participation:
  • Anime Weekend Atlanta 7, Anime Weekend Atlanta 7 (2001-09-21)
• Comments: Nominated for Best Sentimental and Best Artistic Endeavor at AWA 7 Pro Contest!!
  
  I guess this video is an illustration of "stealing from the best" (or more charitably, of the synergies made possible by the web ...) Back in 2000 EK ("Big Big Truck") and Brad DeMoss were discussing use of Peter Gabriel's music in amv's, on the amv mailing list, right after Brad's Rhythm of the Heat came out. EK mentioned Here Comes the Flood as a possibility but couldn't think of a matching video source.
  
  I had been watching Miyazaki's Future Boy Conan and immediately started flashing on all the flood scenes, especially Monsley's flashback to when she was a little girl. I found that to be one of the most haunting images from FBC, reminding me of Tolkien's letters about his constant nightmares of "darkness, darkness inescapable" that inspired his Numenor writings.
  
  I created a rough cut of the video in just one weekend, using a DC10, from fansub source of drastically uneven quality. I used the version of the song that's on Shaking the Tree, which is a wonderful 'intro' CD for anyone new to Peter Gabriel's music and posted it on the venerable 'hawaii' server that was a precursor to today's Golden Donut.
  
  Then a year later I got ahold of some (cough) inexpensive DVD source which inspired me to re-make the video to convention level standards. The remake took much longer - about a month of off and on work. I used standard DVD ripping tools + Premiere w/ DC30 support for real time MJPEG, using an early version of Ermac's guide, and with some helpful advice on MPEG-2 encoding from Quu.
  
  I had gotten compliments on the integrated end titles in the original version, but I didn't want titles in the con entry, so I ended up putting the piano intro back at the beginning, and created a new intro sequence. I miss the old end titles but I also like the way it now just ends with the ship. If anyone has seen both versions, let me know if you think the video works better with (a) the old ending, (b) the new beginning, or (c) both (!?).
  
  Peter Gabriel maintains that this song is not about a physical flood but some kind of psychic phenomenon more akin to what happens in End of Eva (and I was NOT going to go there!). Not that it really matters, since the lyrics evoke so much imagery that can be tied to the physical floods in FBC. I allude to the psychic element briefly by using a shot of Lana's out of body experience from the final episode.
  
  This is probably my best video to date. I was just overwhelmed with the response to it at AWA, especially from some of the amv masters whom I met for the first time. Wow. Thanks everybody!
  
  I regard Conan as an underappreciated gem of Miyazaki's (Otakon showed the whole thing one year to a nearly empty screening room), disregarded perhaps because of its flat 70's TV quality animation. If watching this video compels even one person to seek out the series then I will consider it a success.
  
  I was not able to construct the video without including some spoilers for major plot events including one near the end. If you absolutely can't stand spoilers, there is a happy solution: watch the whole series first! You'll be glad you did. :-) I mean, think of it, it's 12 hours of pure Miyazaki.... There is now a legitimate and reasonably priced Region 2 DVD of the whole series (see www.nausicaa.net). Some day I intend to redo this video off these R2's. Really!