Francis Scott Key and "The Star-Spangled Banner" are automatically associated by Americans.

Key witnessed the bombardment of Fort McHenry in 1814, during the War of 1812, and wrote about the experience. A portion of what he wrote is now our national anthem.

However, it's the creative process Key used to come up with those words that fascinated Mark Hildebrand. The executive director of Make Your Mark Media spent more than two years studying that process as part of his documentary.

The result is "Anthem," which will be screened Tuesday at 7 p.m. at the Jefferson Educational Society, 3207 State St. Hildebrand will be on hand for that free event, which is being put on by the Perry 200 Commemoration.

1. You created Make Your Mark Media as a nonprofit organization in 2009. How many documentaries have you made in your brief history?

"Anthem" is the first major feature-length documentary project that we've done.

This is the first major project that I've worked on with my brother, David. He has a doctorate in musicology from Catholic University and is the nation's leading expert on colonial music.

I had a little bit of a background in history and music, as well, so the story of "The Star-Spangled Banner" seemed like a wonderful thing for us to collaborate.

2. How did this Erie screening come about?

My brother and sister-in-law (Ginger Hildebrand) performed up there once or twice before at the Educational Society. They were also involved in the Perry 200 activities.

We had a (rough-cut screening) of "Anthem" for an audience of about 60 people, and the feedback was fantastic. Everyone stuck around for the 60 minutes of film and then we had about another hour and a half of questions and answers.

3. How familiar were you with Erie's connections to the War of 1812 before the film?

Well, I certainly knew about Oliver Hazard Perry and the Battle of Lake Erie through work on the film.

We feature a couple of images of him and a song that was written about the battle, called "September 12 in the Morning." We show the sheet music from that song in the film.

That song is a good example of musical parody, which is new words being written to an existing melody. It was based on an old Irish tune.

4. Was there anything you were surprised to learn about Francis Scott Key during your research?

There are a lot of misconceptions that people have about his story. Part of that problem is that Francis Scott Key, being a gentleman, did not toot his own horn.

He did not write about the battle. He didn't tell in his own words of the story more than a couple of times in social gatherings, and so all we have are a couple second- or third-hand accounts of what happened.

There's still a lot of dispute over the story itself. Our major theme in the film is that Francis Scott Key did not write a poem. It was a song. He knew this melody and had written a song to this melody nine years before. He absolutely had the tune in mind before the lyrics.

And the song that he wrote to that melody -- nine years before -- included the phrase "star-spangled flag." He definitely had that going through his head when he was writing.

5. What's the best thing you've heard from viewers about "Anthem?"

The most frequent comment I've had from people before seeing the film was, 'You know, I'm not all that crazy about "The Star-Spangled Banner." I don't know why we don't have a better national anthem like "America the Beautiful.'"

After they see the film, they've really been in favor of "The Star-Spangled Banner."

-- Mike Copper

See the full article here: http://bit.ly/AnthemGoErie