After my final weekend trip to Nuremburg and Rothenburg, it really sunk in that my time in Berlin was coming to an end and that finishing the project would be no small challenge.
In order to deal with the time constraint as a group we worked cronologically for the most part. Our film was one that really gained direction in the editing process. The entire quarter we spent experiencing and capturing what our film sought to depict, but the format for how we were to present it wasn't really clear from the beginning.
On Tuesday we dealt with our personal introductions in the film. Our idea with the closeup and text over were there from the beginning but actually deciding where and how it would be shot was still undecided.
We tackled these small problems one at a time throughout the week working to create transition scenes to bring together all of out collected footage. The largest task that we confronted in terms of shooting in the last week of production was deciding on the viewers' perspective. This was critical for us because we had to decide what type of feel the entire film would have. In the end we chose to shoot interviews instead of voice over so that we could impose our own personalities on the film and add an additional comedic element.
As we worked through the editing in the last week I found myself completely engaged with it, so it was no surprise that this time when I watched "Good bye, Lenin", I really focused on the stylistic elements that it used. I've seen the film quite a few times now but this last time, for the first time, I noticed the video accelerations in the film. Alex and Dennis arrive in the van in high speed in one scene, and Alex meets Laura in the same fashion on his scooter. We also tried to incorporate that effect into our film, so it was interesting to see a good example of it while we were still editing. It was important to us that the audience wasn't left to focus too long on any one shot, because we wanted to maintain a speed to the film that was only broken with our interviews.
Previously I had not known that this was a film created by film makers from west Berlin, and while I still don't consider the film a west Berlin film, some aspect of it now make more sense to me. I thought that it was curious the degree to which Ostalagie was incorporated
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Friday, November 30, 2007
Week 10
After a long Thanksgiving break, it was time to refocus on the final project. On Monday morning with a realization of week 10 and renewed panic, we set out with the camera and a purpose. We sought to shoot the iconic footage that we were missing for our intro. Jessica shot the Reichstag, Potsdamer Platz, and the Brandenburg Gate. Frodo and I then headed to the shoot the Oberbaumbruecke, Eastside Gallery, and the U-bahn as it crossed through that area above ground.
With the material that we needed captured, Jon and I began laying the footage into Premier, and aquainting ourselves with the program. Joel's help was crucial in getting us started. He showed us the more technical ins and outs of the program, to speak technically. We realized that we couldn't work with the HD footage, so every clip that we would like to use must first be rendered into NTSC, a process that takes about a half our for every five minutes of footage. The really frustrating part is that rendering uses so much cpu power that it is impossible to do anything else with the computer. In order to deal with this problem we have realized that we must stay ahead of ourselves by rendering the clips we would like to work with beforehand. So whenever we're in class or asleep, the computer is always working.
On Tuesday Jon and I again got out and filmed. The highlight was a time lapse on Friedrichstrasse from dusk to dark of the construction going on there, and standing out there for twenty minutes in the cold really paid off. That night we put a lot of work into the project and as a group sat down and went over the course of the film in step by step detail with each other. We discussed perspective a lot and decided on a third person perspective that I have a lot of hope for right now. It will allow for the type of commentary that we feel will be most entertaining and best contribute to the point of the film.
One major problem that I have had in the group is delegating work. I don't know that much about film, nor do I feel that it is really my place to start handing out tasks seeing as this is suppossed to be a group project. The main thing that I have tried to contribute to the group is leading by example. I get out there and capture video, I use my limited language skills to my advantage to communicate with locals regarding our project, and I have taken a large initiative to learn the editing software, which at this point I feel relatively comfortable with. Jon has been great to get film with and recently has taken a lot of initiative to learn the editing software on our work with the final project, it makes everything much easier. Before I felt like I was the only one who really knew how to manipulate everything. So we have worked together on the first minute of the film so far and I really like what we've been able to put together. This week I saw a turnaround, group participation was much stronger than I've seen before, and we had a solid outing as an entire group where a lot was accomplished. I hope that this level of involvement continues, if it does not I doubt we will be successful in realizing a finished product.
The Wednesday film viewing of Me Boss, You Sneaker, was great and I really enjoyed the humor that it had. I thought it was a very entertaining film and was happy to see a film from a Turkish perspective. As far as a Berlin film, it had great city imagery, that included very iconic shots, and also represented the Turkish neighborhood well. It was fun to see the places that we live right next to in film. During the film I paid a lot of attention to the transitions, hoping to get an idea of how to make them in our own film. Often they were very distinct transitions from one setting to another and yet they didn't seem out of place. Most of the time the transition effect was very simple. Me Boss, You Sneaker, was a good film to pay attention to with regard to transitions because its production was simple enough to try and replicate.
I think that the type of humor in the film does well to address the aspects that it was centered around, as long as the humor doesn't undermine itself as we talked about in class. The reading addressed the historical uses of humor, and I found that to be very interesting. The reading specifically pointed out the way in which humor can be by one group to evoke certain ideas. Normally when I think of humor and comedy I think of it from a simplistic entertainment standpoint, when I a public forum like film it needs to be addressed with more care. It is clear to me that comedy is in many ways as strong as a drama for making people reflect on certain ideas and for that reason it really should be analyzed as such. The article mentioned the role of humor as a device, and explored to some extent how it is used by different groups. Which brought us to the discussion in class of who has the right to use certain comedic devices. In a public context this has a lot of legitmacy. We talked about how comedy can be used with disrespect towards someone or something, and also how it can be used to make us reflect on the absurdity of a situation. It seemed that some people were critical of the way the director Kutlucan directed his humorous stereotyping of the asylum seekers, but I saw it as him using those stereotypes for the purpose of pointing out their absurdity. The film was successful in that it left me feeling that the entire situation surrounding integration and immigration in Germany was absurd. How that by placing so many restrictions on a people they made it nearly impossible for immigrants to achieve was asked of them. As a result of this discussion, in the future I will be more analytical of humor's uses and its motives. As for our film I feel lucky in getting around this scrutiny, because the humor we are shooting for is directed only at us or the spectacle that we're creating.
With the material that we needed captured, Jon and I began laying the footage into Premier, and aquainting ourselves with the program. Joel's help was crucial in getting us started. He showed us the more technical ins and outs of the program, to speak technically. We realized that we couldn't work with the HD footage, so every clip that we would like to use must first be rendered into NTSC, a process that takes about a half our for every five minutes of footage. The really frustrating part is that rendering uses so much cpu power that it is impossible to do anything else with the computer. In order to deal with this problem we have realized that we must stay ahead of ourselves by rendering the clips we would like to work with beforehand. So whenever we're in class or asleep, the computer is always working.
On Tuesday Jon and I again got out and filmed. The highlight was a time lapse on Friedrichstrasse from dusk to dark of the construction going on there, and standing out there for twenty minutes in the cold really paid off. That night we put a lot of work into the project and as a group sat down and went over the course of the film in step by step detail with each other. We discussed perspective a lot and decided on a third person perspective that I have a lot of hope for right now. It will allow for the type of commentary that we feel will be most entertaining and best contribute to the point of the film.
One major problem that I have had in the group is delegating work. I don't know that much about film, nor do I feel that it is really my place to start handing out tasks seeing as this is suppossed to be a group project. The main thing that I have tried to contribute to the group is leading by example. I get out there and capture video, I use my limited language skills to my advantage to communicate with locals regarding our project, and I have taken a large initiative to learn the editing software, which at this point I feel relatively comfortable with. Jon has been great to get film with and recently has taken a lot of initiative to learn the editing software on our work with the final project, it makes everything much easier. Before I felt like I was the only one who really knew how to manipulate everything. So we have worked together on the first minute of the film so far and I really like what we've been able to put together. This week I saw a turnaround, group participation was much stronger than I've seen before, and we had a solid outing as an entire group where a lot was accomplished. I hope that this level of involvement continues, if it does not I doubt we will be successful in realizing a finished product.
The Wednesday film viewing of Me Boss, You Sneaker, was great and I really enjoyed the humor that it had. I thought it was a very entertaining film and was happy to see a film from a Turkish perspective. As far as a Berlin film, it had great city imagery, that included very iconic shots, and also represented the Turkish neighborhood well. It was fun to see the places that we live right next to in film. During the film I paid a lot of attention to the transitions, hoping to get an idea of how to make them in our own film. Often they were very distinct transitions from one setting to another and yet they didn't seem out of place. Most of the time the transition effect was very simple. Me Boss, You Sneaker, was a good film to pay attention to with regard to transitions because its production was simple enough to try and replicate.
I think that the type of humor in the film does well to address the aspects that it was centered around, as long as the humor doesn't undermine itself as we talked about in class. The reading addressed the historical uses of humor, and I found that to be very interesting. The reading specifically pointed out the way in which humor can be by one group to evoke certain ideas. Normally when I think of humor and comedy I think of it from a simplistic entertainment standpoint, when I a public forum like film it needs to be addressed with more care. It is clear to me that comedy is in many ways as strong as a drama for making people reflect on certain ideas and for that reason it really should be analyzed as such. The article mentioned the role of humor as a device, and explored to some extent how it is used by different groups. Which brought us to the discussion in class of who has the right to use certain comedic devices. In a public context this has a lot of legitmacy. We talked about how comedy can be used with disrespect towards someone or something, and also how it can be used to make us reflect on the absurdity of a situation. It seemed that some people were critical of the way the director Kutlucan directed his humorous stereotyping of the asylum seekers, but I saw it as him using those stereotypes for the purpose of pointing out their absurdity. The film was successful in that it left me feeling that the entire situation surrounding integration and immigration in Germany was absurd. How that by placing so many restrictions on a people they made it nearly impossible for immigrants to achieve was asked of them. As a result of this discussion, in the future I will be more analytical of humor's uses and its motives. As for our film I feel lucky in getting around this scrutiny, because the humor we are shooting for is directed only at us or the spectacle that we're creating.
Monday, November 26, 2007
Week 9
After the completion of our acoustic film, Jon and I switched our focus completely to our joint project for Thorsten. We worked intensly from Friday after class, until Wednesday at Wannsee. I felt that the expectations of our project were much greater than those of the projects that precluded it. Jon and I led nearly an entire class discussion and a tour of the Wannsee Conference Villa. It was actually enjoyable work because it was a topic that both of us had a lot of interest in, but nevertheless it occupied us completely during the week leading up to our Thanksgiving break. For that reason, our focus for nearly two weeks was shifted away from the final project. It was two weeks where we accomplished a lot but weeks that definitely distracted us from our film.
On Thursday of last week Jon, Cynthia, Sean, and I left for Munich. Jesse and Jessica who didn't leave until Friday were able to stay behind and attend a Tischtennis tournament. As a group we had high expectations for the footage that we could get there. After meeting up with Jessica in Munich later that weekend, we found out that the play had been really slow and as a result they were unable to get any good footage.
Week nine was a short week and didn't result in any progress in regards to our final project, time will have to be made up to compensate.
On Thursday of last week Jon, Cynthia, Sean, and I left for Munich. Jesse and Jessica who didn't leave until Friday were able to stay behind and attend a Tischtennis tournament. As a group we had high expectations for the footage that we could get there. After meeting up with Jessica in Munich later that weekend, we found out that the play had been really slow and as a result they were unable to get any good footage.
Week nine was a short week and didn't result in any progress in regards to our final project, time will have to be made up to compensate.
Monday, November 19, 2007
Week 8
After an amazing trip zum Schwarzewald, where we collected enough footage to create our own documentary, we were back and ready to tackle a busy week.
As soon as I could on Tuesday I got an early start on the acoustic film. As a group we had discussed how we wanted the layout of the acoustic film to go. It was to be about our commute to class and I started laying up sound clips into the acoustic track in the order that we experience that. In order to make the most sense of it I compartmentalized what I was working on by laying in a portion of the daily routine and then only working on that part. I did this by making six segments, the first one was of the apartment. I took sound clips that Jessie and Jessica had shot in the apartment and first laid them all into the audio track and from there I had to figure out how to work with them. I had seen friends do video editing in high school and that turned out to be reaslly helpful because I hate reading instructions. I found the software to be somewhat intuitive and it was easy to learn it as I went along. I realized that the only way to make the sounds interesting was to leave them very quick and choppy. There are very few cross-fades in the first segment and I think it helps to emphasize urgency. I worked through each of these segments constantly learning how to deal with areas that required much more editing, segments like the U-bahn and bus.
Throughout the editing it became evident what sounds we needed or needed to recapture and Jon, and I were able to do that everyday on our way to class. The rest of my time was really dedicated to editing. It was a process that took the entire week, and much more time than I anticipated, even with what we discussed in class.
After sitting in front of the computer for hours listening to the sounds of our commute I thought it was really interesting then to go see Lola running through Berlin. I've seen the film before but this time when I watched it I couldn't stop focusing on the amount of motion that the film depicts. The film is nonstop motion through the city, and in a much different way of capturing motion, so is our acoustic project. Motion was definitely the aspect that I would relate strongest with our own project. As Lola runs through the city we see distinct images of Berlin, but images that are in many ways far from iconic.
As the reading discussed, Berlin film critics were unsatisfied with the locations that Tom Tykwer chose in that they were not distinctly iconic of the city. Tom Tykwer wasn't necessarily setting out to make a Berlin film. He wasn't trying to deal with issues of the city today. He was instead trying to focus on his plot, one that was reliant on Berlin as a location, which the text mentions. We on the other hand are trying to make a film about Berlin. A film that couldn't be translated to any other city so for this reason I think it is important to analyze what the film critics were saying. I think that iconic footage will play a definite role in our film. I also think that only showing iconic footage might come across as too much of an outsider's perspective. So for the imagery that we use I think some kind of balance will be required.
Speed is another element that was key in Run Lola Run and one that the subject of Tischtennis will really allow us to capitalize on, so in that way I think there are some definite lessons we can draw from the style of Tom Tykwer's film and also some of the criticism that surrounded it.
In order for us to shoot at the Serene Club as we had arranged the week before, Jon and I had to leave the screening of Run Lola Run a little early. It was rough taking time out of our busy editing schedule to work on the acoustic and for that reason we were a little upset that the turn out for the event wasn't what we had hoped for. At any rate we did get some usable footage, played some Tischtennis and did get an interview from the bartender.
As the week went on we were able to film in the gaps with newly collected footage for the acoustic film, I learned a lot about Adobe Premier, and the project really began coming together. Working on the project in a compartmentalized way was really effective, after I had a rough version worked out of the entire acoustic commute. Jessica, Jon and I sat down and went through the details of the entire project. We smoothed out transitions, adjusted volume levels, and cut the overall project down even more. The nature of working with one project of one computer is difficult without everyone having an good understanding of the software, the good thing about being the one most familiar with the editing and the footage we had collected, was that I got a ton of creative control, but I think that in the end sitting down as a group allowed us to really allow for the input of the collective.
At the end of the week I was happy with the way the acoustic video turned out, and now more than ever realize how much work will have to go into the editing of our final project.
As soon as I could on Tuesday I got an early start on the acoustic film. As a group we had discussed how we wanted the layout of the acoustic film to go. It was to be about our commute to class and I started laying up sound clips into the acoustic track in the order that we experience that. In order to make the most sense of it I compartmentalized what I was working on by laying in a portion of the daily routine and then only working on that part. I did this by making six segments, the first one was of the apartment. I took sound clips that Jessie and Jessica had shot in the apartment and first laid them all into the audio track and from there I had to figure out how to work with them. I had seen friends do video editing in high school and that turned out to be reaslly helpful because I hate reading instructions. I found the software to be somewhat intuitive and it was easy to learn it as I went along. I realized that the only way to make the sounds interesting was to leave them very quick and choppy. There are very few cross-fades in the first segment and I think it helps to emphasize urgency. I worked through each of these segments constantly learning how to deal with areas that required much more editing, segments like the U-bahn and bus.
Throughout the editing it became evident what sounds we needed or needed to recapture and Jon, and I were able to do that everyday on our way to class. The rest of my time was really dedicated to editing. It was a process that took the entire week, and much more time than I anticipated, even with what we discussed in class.
After sitting in front of the computer for hours listening to the sounds of our commute I thought it was really interesting then to go see Lola running through Berlin. I've seen the film before but this time when I watched it I couldn't stop focusing on the amount of motion that the film depicts. The film is nonstop motion through the city, and in a much different way of capturing motion, so is our acoustic project. Motion was definitely the aspect that I would relate strongest with our own project. As Lola runs through the city we see distinct images of Berlin, but images that are in many ways far from iconic.
As the reading discussed, Berlin film critics were unsatisfied with the locations that Tom Tykwer chose in that they were not distinctly iconic of the city. Tom Tykwer wasn't necessarily setting out to make a Berlin film. He wasn't trying to deal with issues of the city today. He was instead trying to focus on his plot, one that was reliant on Berlin as a location, which the text mentions. We on the other hand are trying to make a film about Berlin. A film that couldn't be translated to any other city so for this reason I think it is important to analyze what the film critics were saying. I think that iconic footage will play a definite role in our film. I also think that only showing iconic footage might come across as too much of an outsider's perspective. So for the imagery that we use I think some kind of balance will be required.
Speed is another element that was key in Run Lola Run and one that the subject of Tischtennis will really allow us to capitalize on, so in that way I think there are some definite lessons we can draw from the style of Tom Tykwer's film and also some of the criticism that surrounded it.
In order for us to shoot at the Serene Club as we had arranged the week before, Jon and I had to leave the screening of Run Lola Run a little early. It was rough taking time out of our busy editing schedule to work on the acoustic and for that reason we were a little upset that the turn out for the event wasn't what we had hoped for. At any rate we did get some usable footage, played some Tischtennis and did get an interview from the bartender.
As the week went on we were able to film in the gaps with newly collected footage for the acoustic film, I learned a lot about Adobe Premier, and the project really began coming together. Working on the project in a compartmentalized way was really effective, after I had a rough version worked out of the entire acoustic commute. Jessica, Jon and I sat down and went through the details of the entire project. We smoothed out transitions, adjusted volume levels, and cut the overall project down even more. The nature of working with one project of one computer is difficult without everyone having an good understanding of the software, the good thing about being the one most familiar with the editing and the footage we had collected, was that I got a ton of creative control, but I think that in the end sitting down as a group allowed us to really allow for the input of the collective.
At the end of the week I was happy with the way the acoustic video turned out, and now more than ever realize how much work will have to go into the editing of our final project.
Friday, November 9, 2007
Week 7
After our return from our class trip to Hamburg and Lübeck, we resolved to not fall into the schedule traps that caught us the week before. We have realized that we are to the point where there no longer is any freetime. Every bit of daylight has to be utilized for shooting iconic city shots that we plan to include in our final project. Every night, even Tuesdays has to be explored for new ping pong clubs. When it isn't late enough to head out to the ping pong bars and clubs we shoot acoustic.
We did a good job of sticking to that this week and it really panned out for us. Tuesday I spent a few hours in the morning going through all of the audio that I had collected the week before and cut all the sounds of interest out of the larger files and converted them to mp3s. From there I was able to work with them much more easily in Adobe Premier. My role so far has been the primary collector of city sounds for the acoustic. The camera carrying case that we purchased as a group makes collecting city sounds a one man task. So I've now taken the camera on a couple walks and from that I would estimate that we have about a quarter to nearly half of all the raw city sounds that we will need for the project. What we now need are more specific sounds that we must either shoot in the apartment and actually generate ourselves, or they are things that we have plans for capturing in specific spots along our route to the university.
Tuesday night Jessica, Frodo, and I took all of our equipment to Dr. Pongs where we recieved permission to shoot. We started off first by playing ourselves, hoping that the fact we were participating would make everyone more compfortable about us filming. That is the whole idea of the film, using the game to allow us to get into the niche and community surrounding the game. For a while there was a decent turnout but soon the number of players dwindled to the point that we no longer thought it worth our while to shoot.
Our next plan of action for the evening was for the three of us to head over to a club we had researched the week before. The name is Zimt und Zunder and it is located in Friedrichshain. The place turned out to be really great but because it was so late it was also nearly deserted. I spoke with both the manager and the bartender in German and was able to recieve permission to come back and film, which at that point we made plans to do later in the week.
Before screening the film die Mauer on Wednesday I had my second meeting with Conny. Our meeting was excellent, she was able to teach me quite a bit. I learned that many of our English phrases don't directly translate. An example is the difference between taking a class and zu eine Seminar besuchen. The other really great part about our meeting is that we talked a lot about the stereotypes that each of our countries has of the other and peculiarities like the strange popularity of David Hasselhoff in Germany. To sum it up briefly it was really interesting and enjoyable and I feel like it is a big help meeting with her once a week.
Die Mauer is the first film that we have screened so far that I felt actually gave me some practical techniques to consider in our own film. The interviews in it made me think about the best camera angles for shooting our interviews and the candid footage in it was also of interest to me. All of the interviews seemed to be shot while standing. Die Mauer also only used one camera and I think that lent a very first person feel to the film. Our film will also have that aspect, because we too only have one camera at our disposal. I've seen so many interviews and before this point I never really thought about how most interviews don't have that first person feel to them. In fact most interviews are shot from tripod with more than one camera being used. In Die Mauer the candid footage that I liked caught people interacting with the wall, and with each other in a way that really made you feel like you were an observer catching random glimpses into their lives. Now that I think back on the types of documentary footage that I've seen I must say that a candid first person perspective seems to be the most meaningful, it captures what it sees and therefore has a more authentic feel to it. This is a technique that I will keep in mind while filming our project, but one that is also problematic. While shooting from first person perspective and standing up gives the effect of being an authentic observer, we will have to be careful that it just doesn't come across as shaky amateur footage.
The next day was followed up by our discussion with Wolfgang Kohlhaase which I also thought was very thought provoking for our film. Not only was it interesting to hear from someone that has been in film making for so long, but he had some great statements that really made me think about the story making process in general. The two most important statements for me were the need to include an element of fantasy and the idea that place can push plot. What he mentioned regarding fantasy was that it isn't necessary to tell everything, let somethings be assumed and leave space for interpretation. The idea of showing something and not telling, is familiar to me from the way that I learned to write papers. Instructors have always told me to write in a way that shows by example and brings an element to light rather than trying to plainly state it. Before Kohlhaase said this I hadn't thought about it but it does make sense that a writing technique could be translated so easily to film. The other idea about place pushing plot was that you can't always expect to know what is coming next and when you need inspiration look around you and explore how it could be incorporated with the story you are trying to tell. Those two ideas really resonated with me. I think that utilizing the fantasy element might give our project more depth and I already realize that the direction of our film is dependent upon where each night takes us. In that sense place has a huge role in pushing our plot.
Thursday night was very successful, first we found the club Serene, which is host to ping pong Wednesdays. After talking with the bartender we were able to arrange to shoot there on next Wednesday and he even offered to send out an email to all the patrons on the list in order to achieve a higher turnout for us. Later that night on our return to Zimt und Zunder we got some great footage, met a guy willing to interview and who said that in exchange for a finished version of our final project he would take us on tour of a place where his Tischtennis club regularly trained. Before leaving we were also able to arrange an interview with the manager.
This ended up being a very productive week, a lot was accomplished with regards to the final project and I also got a head start on understanding the acoustic editing software.
We did a good job of sticking to that this week and it really panned out for us. Tuesday I spent a few hours in the morning going through all of the audio that I had collected the week before and cut all the sounds of interest out of the larger files and converted them to mp3s. From there I was able to work with them much more easily in Adobe Premier. My role so far has been the primary collector of city sounds for the acoustic. The camera carrying case that we purchased as a group makes collecting city sounds a one man task. So I've now taken the camera on a couple walks and from that I would estimate that we have about a quarter to nearly half of all the raw city sounds that we will need for the project. What we now need are more specific sounds that we must either shoot in the apartment and actually generate ourselves, or they are things that we have plans for capturing in specific spots along our route to the university.
Tuesday night Jessica, Frodo, and I took all of our equipment to Dr. Pongs where we recieved permission to shoot. We started off first by playing ourselves, hoping that the fact we were participating would make everyone more compfortable about us filming. That is the whole idea of the film, using the game to allow us to get into the niche and community surrounding the game. For a while there was a decent turnout but soon the number of players dwindled to the point that we no longer thought it worth our while to shoot.
Our next plan of action for the evening was for the three of us to head over to a club we had researched the week before. The name is Zimt und Zunder and it is located in Friedrichshain. The place turned out to be really great but because it was so late it was also nearly deserted. I spoke with both the manager and the bartender in German and was able to recieve permission to come back and film, which at that point we made plans to do later in the week.
Before screening the film die Mauer on Wednesday I had my second meeting with Conny. Our meeting was excellent, she was able to teach me quite a bit. I learned that many of our English phrases don't directly translate. An example is the difference between taking a class and zu eine Seminar besuchen. The other really great part about our meeting is that we talked a lot about the stereotypes that each of our countries has of the other and peculiarities like the strange popularity of David Hasselhoff in Germany. To sum it up briefly it was really interesting and enjoyable and I feel like it is a big help meeting with her once a week.
Die Mauer is the first film that we have screened so far that I felt actually gave me some practical techniques to consider in our own film. The interviews in it made me think about the best camera angles for shooting our interviews and the candid footage in it was also of interest to me. All of the interviews seemed to be shot while standing. Die Mauer also only used one camera and I think that lent a very first person feel to the film. Our film will also have that aspect, because we too only have one camera at our disposal. I've seen so many interviews and before this point I never really thought about how most interviews don't have that first person feel to them. In fact most interviews are shot from tripod with more than one camera being used. In Die Mauer the candid footage that I liked caught people interacting with the wall, and with each other in a way that really made you feel like you were an observer catching random glimpses into their lives. Now that I think back on the types of documentary footage that I've seen I must say that a candid first person perspective seems to be the most meaningful, it captures what it sees and therefore has a more authentic feel to it. This is a technique that I will keep in mind while filming our project, but one that is also problematic. While shooting from first person perspective and standing up gives the effect of being an authentic observer, we will have to be careful that it just doesn't come across as shaky amateur footage.
The next day was followed up by our discussion with Wolfgang Kohlhaase which I also thought was very thought provoking for our film. Not only was it interesting to hear from someone that has been in film making for so long, but he had some great statements that really made me think about the story making process in general. The two most important statements for me were the need to include an element of fantasy and the idea that place can push plot. What he mentioned regarding fantasy was that it isn't necessary to tell everything, let somethings be assumed and leave space for interpretation. The idea of showing something and not telling, is familiar to me from the way that I learned to write papers. Instructors have always told me to write in a way that shows by example and brings an element to light rather than trying to plainly state it. Before Kohlhaase said this I hadn't thought about it but it does make sense that a writing technique could be translated so easily to film. The other idea about place pushing plot was that you can't always expect to know what is coming next and when you need inspiration look around you and explore how it could be incorporated with the story you are trying to tell. Those two ideas really resonated with me. I think that utilizing the fantasy element might give our project more depth and I already realize that the direction of our film is dependent upon where each night takes us. In that sense place has a huge role in pushing our plot.
Thursday night was very successful, first we found the club Serene, which is host to ping pong Wednesdays. After talking with the bartender we were able to arrange to shoot there on next Wednesday and he even offered to send out an email to all the patrons on the list in order to achieve a higher turnout for us. Later that night on our return to Zimt und Zunder we got some great footage, met a guy willing to interview and who said that in exchange for a finished version of our final project he would take us on tour of a place where his Tischtennis club regularly trained. Before leaving we were also able to arrange an interview with the manager.
This ended up being a very productive week, a lot was accomplished with regards to the final project and I also got a head start on understanding the acoustic editing software.
Week Six
Our weekend trip to Bamberg, Bayreuth and Kulmbach was amazing. Bamberg was the real highlight of the trip. The town was founded in 1049 and survived both world wars and so it was in amazing condition. In the town is a large monastary and a Cathedral that I still found to be very impressive even after the dozen or so Cathedrals I've already seen in my European travels. Many towns I've visited have an old district, but Bamberg appeared to be frozen in time. The entire town was either beautiful high peaked Bavarian style roofs or elegent stone facades. I felt that it was a great contrast from the big city Berlin life that we experience on a day to day basis, the people were very friendly and the food was all traditionally German. The little extra Bamberg had to offer for us was the beer, as it is home to the German Rauchbier. Once there were 65 breweries in what is now a town of almost 70,000 people and today still ten of them are in operation. For Sean, Frodo, and I who consider ourselveses to be rather experienced beer tasters the Rauchbier was a new treat. It was a very richly flavored smokey beer, so strong was the smoke that it reminded me of the smoke cure used for smoking meats. We liked the stuff so much that we carried back on the train four small kegs which we plan to space out over the remaining length of our stay here in Berlin.
One experience that also stood out was our happening upon an old antique store. It was run by an older man probably in his 70s and after inspecting the store hoping to find some authentic old beer steins, we came across his collection of Nazi memorabilia. He had every thing from books with Nazi propoganda to toy Nazi soldiers waving banners with swastikas. It was shocking to see because I knew that things of that nature were illegal to sell. After seeing that and being aware of all the Nazi history in Berlin that we have been discussing it really made me think about what the Nazi past of Bamberg was. We were probably walking through a small town that had an equally devastating past for its Jewish inhabitants, but there are no memorials to tell the story. It was clear that Bamberg had a Jewish past because we past a street named Judenstraße. Although I've honestly been a bit overwhelmed with monuments lately, the fact that there were none seemed creepy because the perpetrators never recognized it there.
After returing from our trip we realized as a group that the week would be difficult because of the number of things we had planned. Tuesday was the Berliner Ensemble, and Jessica's birthday. Wednesday was Halloween. So for filming our main project that only left us with Thursday available to film ping pong clubs.
The Berliner Ensemble was really enjoyable especially because for me it was the first time that I had attended a performance entirely in German and at the end of it walked out feeling that I had understood everything. The way the dialogue between charachters helped in that each would finish the sentences of the other and also it was very simple language but I still had a sense of accomplishment.
Our Wednesday screening of Wings of Desire, and the discussion that followed on Thursday was interesting mostly because it made me think about perspective. The discussion and debate that insued over white male angels propogating the image of white male dominance really sparked my thinking on the topic. Specifically how our perspective is formed and the judgement of one perspective by a person of another perspective.
Before class on Thursday I had my first meeting with Conny, the tandem language partner that Thorsten set me up. From the start it was clear that she requires very little help with her English speaking skills. For her the most important thing is to become more comfortable speaking the language. Our first meeting was definetly more English oriented because after my overcelebrating of Halloween, German was not coming easily to me that next day. I'm really glad though that I have someone to meet with and I'm confident that speaking once a week with her will really help. If nothing else it will force me to study my grammar text that I brought, just so that I can save face.
After our chaotic week was finished we came out of it with not much getting accomplished. The only real steps forward that we made were gathering some iconic footage of the Reichstag, organizing and cataloging all of our footage to this point, and obtaining leads for ping pong clubs that we will follow up next week.
One experience that also stood out was our happening upon an old antique store. It was run by an older man probably in his 70s and after inspecting the store hoping to find some authentic old beer steins, we came across his collection of Nazi memorabilia. He had every thing from books with Nazi propoganda to toy Nazi soldiers waving banners with swastikas. It was shocking to see because I knew that things of that nature were illegal to sell. After seeing that and being aware of all the Nazi history in Berlin that we have been discussing it really made me think about what the Nazi past of Bamberg was. We were probably walking through a small town that had an equally devastating past for its Jewish inhabitants, but there are no memorials to tell the story. It was clear that Bamberg had a Jewish past because we past a street named Judenstraße. Although I've honestly been a bit overwhelmed with monuments lately, the fact that there were none seemed creepy because the perpetrators never recognized it there.
After returing from our trip we realized as a group that the week would be difficult because of the number of things we had planned. Tuesday was the Berliner Ensemble, and Jessica's birthday. Wednesday was Halloween. So for filming our main project that only left us with Thursday available to film ping pong clubs.
The Berliner Ensemble was really enjoyable especially because for me it was the first time that I had attended a performance entirely in German and at the end of it walked out feeling that I had understood everything. The way the dialogue between charachters helped in that each would finish the sentences of the other and also it was very simple language but I still had a sense of accomplishment.
Our Wednesday screening of Wings of Desire, and the discussion that followed on Thursday was interesting mostly because it made me think about perspective. The discussion and debate that insued over white male angels propogating the image of white male dominance really sparked my thinking on the topic. Specifically how our perspective is formed and the judgement of one perspective by a person of another perspective.
Before class on Thursday I had my first meeting with Conny, the tandem language partner that Thorsten set me up. From the start it was clear that she requires very little help with her English speaking skills. For her the most important thing is to become more comfortable speaking the language. Our first meeting was definetly more English oriented because after my overcelebrating of Halloween, German was not coming easily to me that next day. I'm really glad though that I have someone to meet with and I'm confident that speaking once a week with her will really help. If nothing else it will force me to study my grammar text that I brought, just so that I can save face.
After our chaotic week was finished we came out of it with not much getting accomplished. The only real steps forward that we made were gathering some iconic footage of the Reichstag, organizing and cataloging all of our footage to this point, and obtaining leads for ping pong clubs that we will follow up next week.
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Week Five
Monday I began correspondence with Conny my new tandem learning friend from the University. Thorsten set me up with her after I talked with him about how I didn't feel I was doing well at progressing my German. Just corresponding with her via email this week has already helped as a refresher. This week I have also been writing to a previous German teacher of mine from the UW, who I hope to meet up with over Thanksgiving break in Bavaria. On top of that, I have got to talking with some of the people in the program that have some German experience and we decided to start meeting once a week. It is just too easy to get stuck speaking English here in Berlin, but hopefully the steps I'm taking will help me get around that.
Another good thing that I think in part came out of my discussion with Thorsten on the bus was the discussion that we had on Tuesday. I have learned a lot over the years through school and also through my German studies about the Holocaust but for me the question of how it happened was never answered to my satisfaction. I understood how it happened, but not how it came to happen. Thorsten answered a lot of questions for me and really gave me a better idea of how I can go about researching it myself. There were so many elements in play, so many steps in the process that led to what happened. Like Thorsten said, it didn't happen overnight and it wasn't a clear line from a to b. What led up to the Holocaust was a complex tangle of events. I felt that our talk on Tuesday was the most meaningful that we've had thus far. The Holocaust was an extremely tragic and devastating event, and while the suffering and criminality of the event should be observed, I think that it is even more important to understand how it was allowed to happen by a modern society in a first world nation. Only by understanding the social dynamic of how those events came to pass, can we really ensure that something equally devastating will not happen in our future.
This Wednesday I really enjoyed the film, "A Berlin Romance", it was also my favorite film that we've seen so far. It was interesting to see the way the East chose to represent the West even though the film wasn't intended to be politically charged. I think that our film project will contrast it to the extent that we will not be focusing so much on character development. That isn't saying much though because I feel that our film is something that is entirely different than anything that we have seen so far. As I said, it doesn't rely on character development, we won't rely on narration. What we will be including will be observational footage, documentary footage, and interviews, all intended to drive the plot. If I had to, I would identify our film closest with the clip we saw today. Like that film, the name of which I have forgotten, our project will include iconic footage of the city and not be just a documentary but driven largely by documentary footage.
Early in the week I took quite a bit of sound footage that I think will be very helpful for our acoustic movie. While we still have a lot of individual sounds to capture I was impressed with what I was able to get. The clarity and sensitivity of the microphone was surprising. For the first time I also dabbled with the sound editing software, which was really cool. I learned how to cut and space sounds, and I successfully made my first, very own, mp3.
I would say our group progress this week was slower than I would have liked and I think it was just because it was another busy week. As fun as it was our little Mexican potluck wasted a night of shooting in ping pong clubs and tonight again we weren't able to capture any action as a group. This week we were just too concentrated on ping pong club footage and iconic city scape shots. Next week I think we can be more productive by focusing on our acoustic movie, which has much less in the way of time and weather limitations. Hopefully Monday night we can get off to a strong start for next week after our weekend away in Bamberg and Bayreuth.
P.S. Erik
Frodo, Sean, Cynthia und ich fahren nach Bamberg, Bayreuth, und Kulmbach diese Wochenende. Wir werden am Montag zurück sein. Schöne Wochenende.
Another good thing that I think in part came out of my discussion with Thorsten on the bus was the discussion that we had on Tuesday. I have learned a lot over the years through school and also through my German studies about the Holocaust but for me the question of how it happened was never answered to my satisfaction. I understood how it happened, but not how it came to happen. Thorsten answered a lot of questions for me and really gave me a better idea of how I can go about researching it myself. There were so many elements in play, so many steps in the process that led to what happened. Like Thorsten said, it didn't happen overnight and it wasn't a clear line from a to b. What led up to the Holocaust was a complex tangle of events. I felt that our talk on Tuesday was the most meaningful that we've had thus far. The Holocaust was an extremely tragic and devastating event, and while the suffering and criminality of the event should be observed, I think that it is even more important to understand how it was allowed to happen by a modern society in a first world nation. Only by understanding the social dynamic of how those events came to pass, can we really ensure that something equally devastating will not happen in our future.
This Wednesday I really enjoyed the film, "A Berlin Romance", it was also my favorite film that we've seen so far. It was interesting to see the way the East chose to represent the West even though the film wasn't intended to be politically charged. I think that our film project will contrast it to the extent that we will not be focusing so much on character development. That isn't saying much though because I feel that our film is something that is entirely different than anything that we have seen so far. As I said, it doesn't rely on character development, we won't rely on narration. What we will be including will be observational footage, documentary footage, and interviews, all intended to drive the plot. If I had to, I would identify our film closest with the clip we saw today. Like that film, the name of which I have forgotten, our project will include iconic footage of the city and not be just a documentary but driven largely by documentary footage.
Early in the week I took quite a bit of sound footage that I think will be very helpful for our acoustic movie. While we still have a lot of individual sounds to capture I was impressed with what I was able to get. The clarity and sensitivity of the microphone was surprising. For the first time I also dabbled with the sound editing software, which was really cool. I learned how to cut and space sounds, and I successfully made my first, very own, mp3.
I would say our group progress this week was slower than I would have liked and I think it was just because it was another busy week. As fun as it was our little Mexican potluck wasted a night of shooting in ping pong clubs and tonight again we weren't able to capture any action as a group. This week we were just too concentrated on ping pong club footage and iconic city scape shots. Next week I think we can be more productive by focusing on our acoustic movie, which has much less in the way of time and weather limitations. Hopefully Monday night we can get off to a strong start for next week after our weekend away in Bamberg and Bayreuth.
P.S. Erik
Frodo, Sean, Cynthia und ich fahren nach Bamberg, Bayreuth, und Kulmbach diese Wochenende. Wir werden am Montag zurück sein. Schöne Wochenende.
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