"Ancillary Justice" book trailer
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| Vid | |
|---|---|
| Title: | "Ancillary Justice" book trailer |
| Creator: | bironic |
| Date: | Aug 12, 2016 |
| Format: | digital vid |
| Length: | 1:28 |
| Music: | "Nad Dunaem" by DakhaBrakha and "Epic Drums" by Immediate Music (edited) |
| Genre: | Fake Trailer |
| Fandom: | Imperial Radch |
| Footage: | |
| URL: | Dreamwidth, AO3 |
 Screenshot of the vid on Vimeo | |
Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
"Ancillary Justice" book trailer is a constructed reality Imperial Radch vid by bironic. It was created for, and premiered at, Vividcon 2016's "No source? No problem!" vidshow.[1]
The summary, which quotes from the novel Ancillary Justice, reads: Nineteen years, three months, and one week ago, I was a troop carrier.[2]
The vid caught the attention of the canon's author, Ann Leckie, and subsequently went viral.[3]
Vidder's Notes
A labor of love, nine months in the making. I watched or scanned through about 50 movies and TV shows (plus endless YouTube videos) in the hunt for clips that looked like my headcanon of critical moments, places and characters from the books, while trying not to use hugely recognizable actors and actresses. Not that you'd know it from the final source list, but the research process involved reading and learning a lot about the history of black characters in Western science fiction film and television as well as a crash course in modern African SF/F independent filmmaking, both of which were fascinating.
I listened to a lot of polyphony and shape-note singing before settling on a single female voice blended with more traditional trailer music. Something just makes me think Justice of Toren would enjoy DakhaBrakha's harmonies.
ETA: Okay, for the record, because wow: Ann Leckie's blog post/Tumblr post/tweet, Metafilter, Tor.com[2]
Contents
Script
The script, which was adapted from Ancillary Justice, reads:
19 years, 3 months, and 1 week ago, I was a troop carrier
An artificial intelligence linked to an army of ancillaries
Until the Lord of the Radch destroyed all but one body
I've followed the trail from planet to planet
Risked failure and death
To obtain justice
Before everything falls to pieces[2]
Sources for Footage
Because the canon is a book with no accompanying visual media, all of the footage for the vid came from external sources. In the vid post on Dreamwidth, bironic lists these sources in order of appearance:
- Halo/UNSC Infinity
- Total Recall (2012)
- The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1
- The Expanse
- Pumzi
- Killjoys
- Planet Earth (BBC)
- Stargate: Continuum
- Interstellar
- "Bowl Tea" by Wu De
- Only Lovers Left Alive
- "Brave Man's Bridge" in Shiniuzhai National Geological Park/China
- Men in Black III
- Doctor Who
- bronze statue of Kali
- Blade II
- Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn
- The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
- Firefly
- Ascension
- Gravity
- Virtuality
- Sunshine
- After Earth
- Une Africaine dans l'Espace
Reactions/Review
It’s a book trailer! It’s by bironic, you know, the person who did the awesome Starships video! This trailer is assembled from a bunch of different sources, none of which was any sort of adaptation of any of the Ancillary books, and yet. And yet!
Look at that. Look how awesome that is!
oh man, now I really want to see what you'd do for Ancillary Sword and Ancillary Mercy.There's such evocative sense of place throughout this - space itself, and spaceships as the bodies that belong to space (vs. Breq's human body spiraling out, which viscerally does not belong to space and in immediate peril of dying of it); the planets, and the way green and swampy is shown as a plane or a satellite might see it vs. ice / snow world hits us at ground level as Breq and Seivarden struggle through it; and all the references to Radch culture - the glimpse of tea, the omen coins, the gloves - and to Breq (the statue! eeeee - also, given the text that comes immediately after, it comes across as 'the moral weather today is justice, and by justice I mean head whacking').
I just commented on AO3 but it needs to be said again and again. OMG this is good! I'm always of two minds about fully constructed reality when there is no source, but this vid is a prime examples of how it can be done and how utterly wonderful the results can be. THANK YOU!!!
This is gorgeous, and my interest is piqued. I have still not caught up on sleep so I am writing this sentence in deadly earnest: nice use of font. And color scheme. It's nice shades of s/f blue!
The music's really compelling/well-pieced together. I especially like the hitch in the moment of fading sound/light around :37.
You really aced the choice of music, here; the standard trailer music for drama plus the lone female voice as a reminder of what Breq has been reduced to: one body, rather than 20+.
I just finished reading Ancillary Justice and came here IMMEDIATELY so that I could finally watch this vid! Then I watched it twice more. It's AMAZING, wow, what a terrific job you did. I looooove the music choice - One Esk would definitely be into it - and your casting choices are terrific. I'm always going to see the lady from Pumzi as One Esk now. :D Love that you got in the bridge scene and the tea and gloves and Amaat and decompression and everything. It feels like the book. What an impressive undertaking, so well executed.
References
- ^ Vividcon 2016: No Source? No Problem Archived version
- ^ a b c Vid post by bironic Archived version on Dreamwidth
- ^ Dreamwidth post by bironic (archive link): "Ann Leckie retweeted/reblogged/posted about the "Ancillary Justice" book trailer (!). ETA: Uh and then --> Metafilter --> Tor.com?! What is happening."
- ^ Blog post by Ann Leckie: Ancillary Justice Book Trailer (Aug 13, 2016)
- ^ DW comment by jjhunter (Aug 12, 2016)
- ^ DW comment by cathexys (Aug 13, 2016)
- ^ DW comment by shati (Aug 17, 2016)
- ^ AO3 comment by ExtraPenguin (Aug 19, 2016)
- ^ AO3 comment by thingswithwings (Jan 8, 2017)