I just watched this video again--on full screen this time, which made it even more incredible. And now that I've gotten over my utter awe, I wanted to come back and make a real comment.
First, I want to comment on the song, which is astounding. It could have been written to describe Mick. I'm
so glad Lucky heard it, and asked you to turn it into a video.
Shadow, I agree--it is an absolutely
epic piece of music, and I can imagine how excited you were to have such an inspiring song to work with. And what an amazing arrangement! Peter Gabriel is a musical genius. This song could so easily have gone over into hyperbole, but he kept it on the right side of the line. The emotion in the song is held at such a fever pitch through that long buildup, that the silence in the middle seems excruciatingly long. And then the amazing second half of the song begins, and the quality of emotion changes, and all that tension is turned into relief and hope and joy. The song is cinematic in itself, isn't it?
And you turned this masterpiece of a song into a staggeringly powerful film. (Yes, film. The term "fan video"
really doesn't do this piece justice.) I'm in awe of your vision, your talent, and your amazing ability to tell the story of Moonlight in so many new and different and utterly meaningful ways. It just blows me away, how you can use the limited amount of footage you've got, and make it seem totally new every time! And lord! the images you evoke in this video!!!
I could go on for a paragraph about the symbolism of fire alone. There is just so much to appreciate here. Your use of light and shadow, of perfectly applied special effects, and of dialog is... well,
perfect, but that doesn't seem high enough praise. I loved the use of footage from other shows, too... it was so subtly done, and it was really seamless.
And maybe "subtle" is the word I'm really looking for, to describe your filmmaking here. The song is so powerful and so epic--which could have tempted you to cross that line between powerful emotion and overblown schmaltz. But you didn't. You kept it simple, which sounds weird for such a complex piece, but I think it fits. You put a huge amount of work into crafting this video, but you didn't use a lot of flashy effects. You let the music supply the "big" and you kept your effects pretty subtle, so that they don't jump out at the viewer. The end result is a piece that literally took our breath away.
I will come back to watch this video many, many times. I'm so glad you are still addicted to making Moonlight videos, because your addiction feeds
our addiction to your brilliant creations. And this one is really the crown jewel.
Thank you so much
. . . but one thing I can say is, I sure feel now that all the time spent on little changes and fixes was well worth it! (I've never had to make so many copies of a video before - so many that the program itself started to glitch, and I was running out of names for the files and forgetting which were the newest ones.)
