Ballada O Soldate

Still remember this video?

And now... I want to tell the story behind the MV.

Intro

I have been wanting to made this MV for long ago. But the concept was different; it was supposed to be just silhouette of soldier walking on a neverending landscape. The sky will show the events happened in the song. But after sketching and rereading my fragments... I think it's a good time to show Dmitry's psyche between July 1944-April 1945. Or precisely, right after Alexei committing suicide by letting the Germans shot him in the middle of battlefield.

The concept finally drawn and made at February 2024. There is trial and error to draw the walking animation, drawing the background, and what is going to be put inside. The song will be the one conducted by late Sergei Sokolov in 2021. But then I was surprised... the song rearranged again by Gennady Sachenyuk, with better composition! And so, I just need to slow the animation a bit (Sachenyuk's conduct always slower than anyone lol).

The background was actually has same composition: tall grass, small path, and sky with clouds. I made 6 variations, but only 4 used (sunset for 1st verse, blizzard night for 2nd verse, twilight hour for 3rd verse, and dawn for last verse). The 2 variations were not suited (clear sky at noon and peaceful night).

This is also my biggest project. For the first time I have to divide Dmitry into 5 keys. Head, Body, Arms, Bag + Belt, and PPSH-41. It took 3 months to finish it, and uploaded it exactly at 9 May.

But the flaw of this record: there is phone ringtone for 3 seconds in the first verse. Some commenters point this out when I uploaded the video. Well, what do you expect from a live concert records, and the ensemble hasn't update their album yet to fill with better version of Ballada o Soldate...

So... I don't think I could do the same like this ever again.

First Verse

During Dmitry's reverie, you could see him holding a photo of plump woman with long hair, and later Dmitry inside the wagon or wooden house (both valid). Well, yeah, that's Darya. He has been trading photos with her since first time writing letter. Their relationship was 100% through mail correspondence, and they do the bulk writing to tell their activity, feelings, and past. Maybe if they are living in modern Russia, Dmitry and Darya would become online friend-to-lovers and use Telegram/Whatsapp once in two-three days, sharing mundane stuff...

Anyway yeah, Dmitry had several photos from Darya's mail... and he kept one that very recently taken. Or precisely, the only one where Darya is wearing a sweater instead gymnastyorka.

Second Verse

Oleg died around December 1941 after stepping on mine.

Vasily died around July 1943 after murdered by Vitaly.

Alexei died around July 1944 after committing suicide.

Maxim died around March 1945 after the wound infection on his arm and shoulder blade never heal. He may disappear first before Alexei, because Maxim already went missing from the battlefield around Autumn 1943.

If you wonder why there is none died in 1942...  well, actually there is one: Alexander Alexandrovich Alexandrov. I don't include in here since I don't know yet what caused his exact death.

You also may wondered why the narration happened in MV is different from fragment "Sacrifice". The most closest answer is... Dmitry's memory has distorted due to the trauma. But yeah, the truth is actually happened in "Sacrifice".

Third Verse

Funny thing is... third verse was the one that I made first. Why? Because it was the verse when I test all of Dmitry's eye movements and lip movements:

1. Eyes: closed, open/half open and facing to front/left/right, narrowed pupil that tremble to random direction but stayed near his eyelid, ¾ open but no light reflection. Not including yet with the transition of blinking and moving his eyes.

2. Lip: straight neutral (😐), frowned (😖), tense (☹️), and small smile (🙂)

Then behind him, there are rotating bullets. Well, I know people won't count... but there are 71 bullets in total. Just to telling the number of full ammunition to fill one PPSh-41. So yeah, actually Dmitry is fully armed in Sacrifice.

However, I was so confused what to fill more. He cannot just walking with thunder behind him and has tense eyes for more than 3 minutes (because the song has long bridge before the ensemble repeating the third verse). And new idea hatched:

1. During first repeat, it was shown the actual event happening: (1) Soldiers charge toward enemy at taiga forest, and (2) Dmitry walking aimlessly among the empty field and boulders. But the drawing was just messy white linearts in the void, and I add soft flicker as if it was the war film.

2. Then flash transition happened, back to animation of Dmitry walking with frown. The bridge of the song become the perfect place to put the song title and Alexandrov Ensemble name.

3. During second repeat, Dmitry will open his eyes... immediately his iris+pupil narrowed and darted to random direction. I made him walking faster until this verse ends. This second repeat also used many filter in Vegas (high contrast, less saturation, red colored filter, and heavy lightning to create thunder effect). Thankfully this second repeat is a bit faster, until slowed down when entering last verse.

Last Verse

At first I want to make Dmitry spreading out white wings as the dawn comes and the last verse repeated for second time. But I realised he would be seen to be dead. And besides the white wings was too blending with the dawn background. Until I remembered one fanart I made long ago in 2017, as my first tribute for the victims of 2016 tragedy. Well, it's still inspired from a Touhou fanart, but I changed the flower composition.

But in short... the white wings turn into flower wings. The composition finally fixed:

4 white lilies with its green leaf, 7 yellow roses, 9 white roses, 3 pink dahlias, many white and yellow peonies, and many lavender flowers ranged from blue till red lavender.

There are 15 movements to spread the wings, and 5 movements to make the flower wings swaying.

This verse was the last thing to work on. Not only for the spreading wings animation and its swaying up to down...

But also I have to held my emotion while seeing Dmitry pulled his smile, but his large green eyes doesn't reflect the light anymore. Moreover I made the video slowly zooming in Dmitry before the song ends.

Till now, whenever I rewatch this MV, I always skip watching this verse. I only dare to watch the first-third verse. Then as the last verse sung for first repeat finished, I press stop button before seeing Dmitry spread out his flower wings.