Week 10 and Week 11

This week’s main focus for the entire class was completing our movies. My group spent the majority of the week editing and piecing together the final segments of our movie. I realized that my movie could use a better ending that would express the main theme of my movie while allowing viewers to add their own interpretations to the theme of my film. My film originally ended with a shot of the sigasol (spelling?) and a pan to the bottom of it where a bas relief shows two soldiers embracing each other while they are framed in the shot with bullet holes that remain from World War 2. This shot held a lot of meaning for me in that there are two figures that are embracing even through the turbulent times that surround them. I was proud of this shot but it just did not fit at the end of my segment. I ventured out this last week in desperation to see if I could find another ending shot that would tie the movie off better. I found a construction site that was surrounded by fences and used a power plant’s smock stack in the background to link this shot into the rest of my movie. The shot pans down the smock stack and into a construction site. The construction site is only visible through a fence that is out of focus. The tractor in the construction site moves out of frame slowly to leave the viewer with an empty construction site that is can only be viewed through a fence, or as my segment refers to it, through memory. I was very pleased with this final shot and edited it into my movie and completed my film. Finally I made an audio track that I believe really helps with my part of the film to drive the viewer’s emotions.

After I completed my segment of the movie I was able to help others with their segments. Every one in our group pitched in and helped with each others movies, this made our team work very well and I am glad we all pulled through and finished a fantastic movie. To continue helping my group I accompanied Ed while he got his tattoo. I have always wanted to see the tattoo process and was very excited to film the tattoo and use my own artistic vision through the lens of the camera to show off Ed’s art. I ended up standing in a small room with Ed for about 2 hours while he got his ink done. I am glad that is over because I could use a break from the drill noises for a while. With all of our completed footage we were able to finish everyone’s segments and combine them into one movie through transitions and a conclusion scene that we shot.

The movie we watched this week was Goodbye, Lenin! I really enjoyed this film and am think that it was a great way to finish our quarter. The movie centers on the post wall era and how a son tries to hide what he believes to be too harsh of news, from his pro-communist mother. This movie was the perfect way to end our film class because after 3 months of viewing films and more importantly exploring the city the class has matured to the point in which we are capable of viewing this film and really being able to understand all the underlining meanings of the film. Topics of East vs. West Germans, perspectives and propaganda could be fully analyzed and discussed within our class with a pretty decent knowledge of the subject. This movie encompasses the course because it deals with how the subject deals with memory in Berlin. Memory becomes distorted in this case, which is something we have learned to look for in Berlin’s memorials.

The reading for this week was from Sean Allan entitled “Ostalgie, Fantasy and Normalization.” This reading referred to the film and the interpretation of memory from Goodbye, Lenin! Memory was used in previous films that dealt with the GDR by using satire to critic cultural identities of East and West Germans. The movie Goodbye, Lenin! strays from previous methods of dealing with memory through introducing the complexities that are involved with addressing memory. The article established the movie as a means to unify two separate cultures. The two separate cultures are drawn together through the finding the “middle way between the two extremes represented.” The extremes are “a total rejection of the GDR past” and the “idealization of a past that never existed.” A median is found in the film through the fictionalization of the GDR past in which there is not a total dismissal or idealization of the past that never exited.

We ran into trouble the day of the movie screening. After creating a title page, we tried burning both our films onto one DVD. We made 4 copies and were ready to go to the screening. After receiving our copies we realized that the audio did not sync up to the film. This was really frustrating because we finished our movie before everyone in order to create a nice DVD with a title page. Not being able to sync the audio to the movie because of software issues that were out of our hands was the worst thing that could have happened. We ended up bringing our external hard drive which was not the best back up plan because it made the movie skip. When we finalize our DVD software issues, the movie will be much better because it won’t show skipping.

We viewed our films last night and I was really looking forward to this night for a long time. This class is rare in which everyone in the class can enjoy each other’s fruits of labor. With a term paper the class cannot enjoy their peer’s hard work. Watching our films put the exclamation mark on this program. I was thoroughly impressed with everyone’s movie and cannot wait to get a DVD copy of all the films to watch for the future.

This entire movie making process was fantastic experience. I am so glad that I have had the opportunity to complete a film with a team of individuals that put as much effort into the picture as I did. I have learned so much about film, editing and organization of a huge project. This has been the best quarter of my college career and cannot express how much I truly am grateful for everything this program has offered me. Thank you.

Week 9

Our group is really making some progress with our film. This week we went out to help Cynthia with her part of the film. She is incorporating many of the landmark sights of Berlin into her film. We traveled to the Marx and Luxemburg statue near Alexanderplatz, the Brandenburg gate, Kaiser Wilhelm church, Tiergarten and the East Side Gallery. We would ask Cynthia about what she wanted to accomplish in her shot. I would come up with ways to frame the scene and took control of the camera to film many parts of her film. While we would walk to the next location, I would film scenes of Cynthia walking, even though she didn’t know, because I feel that we need more footage of her that shows arriving at the different locations. By not telling her I was filming the footage looked much more authentic, (she caught on to me pretty quickly though.) While at the East Side Gallery and Tiergarten I discovered a couple of shots that I thought would fit perfectly into my film. At the East Side Gallery there was a break in the wall that revealed the wire supports inside the cement. The wall turned into a fence, which is the theme for my portion of the film.

I am very excited to have concluded on the central theme of my film. After filming and editing many pieces of my film in the past couple weeks I have realized that there was a constant theme of fences that I really liked to focus on. The film project is about Berlin and memory and fences hold these traits. Fences refer to memory because one can approach a fence and see beyond it, but cannot interact or change what is on the other side of the fence. A memory is an image that cannot be changed by human contact, the viewer is fenced out. Berlin is a city that was devastated during World War 2 and has been in a constant rebuilding process since. Fences can be seen almost everywhere in the city, mostly near construction sites. Fences are also devices used in Berlin to keep people out of monuments. Fences are strategically placed in front of many monuments that discourage any interaction between the viewer and the monument. Most of these fenced sites are Jewish places. The fear of Neo-Nazi resurgence has led to fences being established around many sites. These Jewish monuments and structures refer to the memory of German Jews. The fence again plays a vital roll on how to view memory through its steel structure. I hope that I can relay my ideas of fences in my movie so that the average viewer will be able to comprehend the many meanings of a fence in Berlin.

This week’s screening was entitled, “Me Boss, You Sneaker.” I really enjoyed this movie and thought that the fun spirited director/actor portrayed a serious story that touched on many social issues of German immigration. The class opened up with a quote “Everyday life in Germany is a Trans-national project.” This quote made me think of how Berlin has been a hub for many different nationalities of immigrants in recent years. This quote also made me reflect on how immigration has upset many Germans that have established lineage in Germany as displayed in the film. Though many Germans do not like immigration policies of Germany, the quote refers to migration into Germany as a “project.” To me this means that the issues of immigration is not near complete and it is a work in progress that may see additional people possibly become more lenient toward “Auslnders.”

Over thanksgiving break I traveled through Austria, venturing to Vienna, Salzburg and Mauthausen Concentration Camp. I can’t believe there are only 2 weeks left.

Week 8

This week was a turning point for our film group. A majority of our film was shot during this week and we have already sat down and edited most of the shot footage. Ed started things off with spending a day filming his portion of the film. He shot a majority of it and just needs a couple of interview scenes. It was fun watching the process figuring out camera positioning when we filmed the scene of Ed drawing. Joel brought out a desk that rolls from our room and used it as a dolly to have the camera circle Ed smoothly while he drew. Editing sections of the movie together has been a fun learning process. Joel knows how to do a lot of editing, and watching him edit makes it easy to learn. I will stop him if I don’t understand a particular editing technique, he will explain it, and then we move on. It has been a fast learning process, but it has also been fun.

Joel then took the helm of filming his movie. I sat with Joel during his editing process and am excited to see his film come together with the other films. The idea of blending our four films was debated this past week. We questioned whether or not we should truly try and intertwine the movies together or to have the four films just play in succession and not have much connection from one film to the other. In the end we decided to make bridges between films, but not to have the four segments be completely intertwined which we were going to do previously. The four films will now have minimal references to each other, and will mostly relate with the overall theme of the film. I brought up filming our transition segments sooner than later, but the rest of the group wants to wait till the end to film these transitions. So we will wait.

I filmed a big portion of my film this week too. I had a general idea of where and what I wanted to film but knew that once I got out to the filming location, ideas would flow into my mind and I would take the film in the next direction from there. When we were filming out on the “set” I could really feel this improvisation of filming come to me. I would direct Ed and Joel with the camera and then act out my scene. After we filmed a scene, I would just have an image of what I wanted to come next. This was usually off the cusp and just felt right. I can relate this improvised session of filming with improvising on my guitar with my band in Seattle. I may not fully plan out my next segment, but when I get there, I can just feel how it should sound, and in the case of filming, I can feel how it should look.

This past weekend I went to Prague, and realized that I haven’t been in Berlin for the past 5 weekends. I feel a tremendous sense of accomplishment with exploration, which was one of my major goals when studying abroad. I feel like the main character from the movie we watched this week entitled “Run Lola Run.” Every weekend I find myself picking up the phone and running around the same Europe (berlin for Lola), but a different city every week (story line for Lola). I hope that last part made some sense.

Week 7

This week’s class featured one of Germany’s greatest film contributors, guest speaker Wolfgang Kohlhasse. Unfortunately I do not know much of Mr. Kohlhasse’s work other than A Berliner Romance which was screened previously in class. I searched Kohlhasse in the IMDB database and came across a large resume of his previous works. Mr. Kohlhasse’s class session was a unique opportunity to have private time with a German film legend. Kohlhasse introduced himself and we began and question and answer session. I really enjoyed the thoughtful and story-like character to his answers of what seemed like some abstract and pretentious questions. Mr. Kohlhasse seemed to get past some ostentatious questioning and bring the subject matter back down to a level that was relatable to anyone in the class. He definitely put across a “down to earth” persona. I am really excited to see more of his films, especially after the experience of meeting him in person.

The movie this week was entitled “Die Maur.” Die Maur for the non German speaker translates to “The Wall.” The title is obviously referring to the wall that separated East and West Germany, but the movie focuses on the sometimes not so obvious effects that the wall and its destruction brought to Germany. The film is shot with a documentary style that incorporates artistic elements with a general narrative of how the wall will become a unique piece of history in Germany. The film starts with birds flying freely over the wall. The next main focus of the film is the slow process of tearing down the wall. The first steps to the wall’s destruction starts with the two simple tools of a hammer and a chisel. As the movie progresses, so does the overall evolution of tearing down the wall. More and more people start to chisel the wall for pieces of memorabilia, then in what is perhaps the most striking point in this movie, the wall is extorted for capitalistic means. The film maker finds two young boys who are selling chunks of the wall for profit and holds the camera on these two for a long segment. The younger generation is already benefiting from the wall being torn down, but they may not see the bigger scope. The wall being torn down does not only bring financial prosperity, but it brings freedom.

Perhaps the most intriguing part of this film was when there a movie projector was screening old clips of Germany’s history onto a remaining section of the wall. The wall no longer exists in theory, although many pieces are still remaining. The wall is another layer of dark history that has inflicted the German people. This new layer of history is the backdrop for displaying the many past layers of harsh history that has plagued the German people.

The wall goes starts out as a graveyard of cinderblocks in the beginning of the movie and in the end of the movie there is a long scene of a display of the wall. This ending display shows the wall as almost an art gallery. The unique evolution of the wall from beginning to end in this movie is what makes “Die Maur” one of my favorite movies we have screened in class.

Our movie is also coming along very well and I will update more on it next week because we have set a couple of dates to film.

Week 6

Our group goal for this week was to sketch rough outlines of our movies so that we could start filming the majority of our movie within the next couple weeks. I have written out an outline to my part of the film that sketches out most of my shots and the basic story of my part of the movie. I am eager to finish filming the scenes of my movie and need to figure out a concrete schedule for our group so we can finish filming our movie. It is pretty difficult to get everyone in the group together to hold a meeting. I think a part of it is the lack of urgency some members in the group unfortunately feel. A major struggle in the filming process has been the failure of emphasizing the importance of a strict schedule of tasks that need to be completed. Once we gather everyone’s group outlines of the movie, the process of filming with undoubtedly progress smoother.

Even if we do not have everyone’s finalized movie outlines yet, we could still work on some of the transition shots that we all agreed on earlier in our film making process. I would like to film some of these set shots that we need in our movie in the near future.

This week’s film was “Wings of Desire” directed by Wim Wenders. This has been the most anticipated movie screening for me because of the hype that was associated with the film amongst my fellow classmates. There is a noticeable difference between this film and previously screened movies in the class. I immediately observe that the bar was significantly raised in the artistic presentation of the film as compared to some of the previous movie’s artistic endeavors. The film was often very complex with the many layers of character development and dialogue that were instituted throughout the movie. The use of intricate subject matter within the film perfectly complemented the many layers that are present within Berlin. Wings of Desire used poetic prose throughout the film to reflect the depth of the subject matter of Berlin. I am very interested in watching this film again when I return to the United States and to see if I can develop any new meanings from the movie.

This past weekend I went to Amsterdam and had an incredible time. Amsterdam is a city that is famous for its care-free and relaxed attitude towards many illegal activities. This attitude that provides an outlet for such behavior is what attracts a majority of visitors to this city. But if you look beyond the façade of drugs and prostitution, you will see the true body of Amsterdam which consists of one of the most beautiful cities in the world. I could walk or bike down Amsterdam’s winding canal streets for days. Amsterdam feels like a fantasy city that is only open for vacationing. The harsh reality of the Anne Frank house will bring you down to reality of the dark history of the Nazi regime. But even this example of Nazi atrocity seems surreal because it comes from a larger than life character in Anne Frank. Overall, Amsterdam has been one of the greatest cities, if not the greatest, that I’ve been to during my time abroad.

Week 5

The excursion this past Friday in Wagner's class was one of the toughest moments that I have dealt with during my trip. We went to view a couple memorial sights and one of them was the Grunewald Deportation site. I have been to the Washington D.C. holocaust museum and have even been to Yad Vashem in Israel. Many visitors cry over the shocking pictures and descriptions of the holocaust, yet I never have. At the Grunewald Deportation site, there wasn't a picture or description of the Jews that were deported from there. Instead there were empty rail road tracks, one plaque that mentioned the 50,000 plus deported and rocks that lined the plaque. The class quickly glanced at the memorial and then headed back for the bus, but I couldn't move. There was something so tangible about this monument that made me sink into this spot. This was the actual site where people went to their death, this was not a picture, this was not the re-creation. The rocks that lay silently across the plaque are symbols in Judaism that are usually only found in graveyards. These rocks are placed by individuals to signify they remember and have traveled to see you. I stared at the rocks and realized that this memorial was a cemetery. I started to wonder about how many of my own relatives walked up to the train tracks and into their own graveyards without even realizing it. I then left the memorial and boarded the bus to continue our field trip.

Over the weekend I went to Leipzig. I never even heard of this town until 2 days before I left when Joel asked me if I wanted to go. So I ventured to Leipzig without any expectations and was completely blown away. When I decided to apply to this Berlin study abroad program, I had no expectations. I am constantly being pleasantly surprised through the entire program. From the classes to just walking around Berlin and taking a new street home, and to even finding a new city to travel for the weekend, this program has surpassed any expectations I could have made.

The movie we watched in class this week entitled "Berlin Romance" showed the progression of Berlin films of the era. The previous two films we watched held dark characteristics to express the grief of a post war Germany, including two suicides. In this weeks movie the story consists of innocent and yet naive young love that personifies the struggle of the present time Germany. The movie takes a less haunting approach to tell the story of a struggling Germany in the post war era. Berlin Romance made me realize how serious the divide of East and West Germany was and how movies were a real tool for propaganda. The portrayal of West Germany in this East German production was one of disgust and criticism. When two of the main characters are looking to wash cars for work in the West, their boss informs them that the lack of "bad weather" and the abundance of sun has prevented them from washing cars. This view of West Germans making their money from jobs that involve the suffering of others, in this case bad weather, is prominent in this film. I was really struck by some of the blatant and harsh criticisms made by this movie and did not realize that the movie industry in post war Germany used propaganda after what Germany suffered under the Nazi regime's propaganda.

My group is going to have a meeting this week in which we are going to present our finalized story ideas and the process in which we will undertake the movie. This is a major step for our group because from here we can start shooting more footage on a regular basis. I have come up with a theme for my movie idea and have started shooting. I am going to answer the question "Why am I in Berlin?" This question has many different meanings to me. I have been asked this question from many friends and family members. I want to create the answer to this question not for them, but for me. I want to show through film, how I respond to this question. I am very excited about a couple scenes of my movie and cannot wait for the group meeting so that we can really get this movie rolling.

Week 4

This week our group finished the final scene to our movie which we decided to entitle "Beir." We decided to have an introduction of some kind to the main party scene. We also wanted credits at the beginning of the film because at the end we want the movie to end with the destruction of the beer bottle. We thought of what else a beer bottle may encounter in its life. We came to the conclusion that we had to get the birth of the bottle on film if we are going to show its death. The group threw around some ideas of how to introduce the beer bottle into the film. The idea of going to a bottling facility was very intriguing. Since we were going to show the bottle opening through opening the lens cap on the camera, then going to a bottling facility would not result in any visuals. We also decided that it was important to show another aspect of point of view, which is the audio element. We decided just to introduce the bottle through its journey from the liquor store to our apartment refrigerator. In order to achieve an authentic sound we treated the camera like it was an actual bottle, as we have done throughout filming. We placed the camera in a 6-pack holder along with 2 other glass beer bottles. Since we wanted the sound to appear sharp and crisp in the movie we mad sure that all the noises we made during filming this audio only scene were exaggerated. Joel put on a pair of flip flops and would make the bottles hit each other while he walked up the stairs. I walked behind him and walked up the stairs louder then I usually do. The audio scene was finished and we turned on Ed's computer to finish the editing. It was easy to splice the intro and the main party scene together because the entire intro was filmed with the lens closed and the main body of the movie starts with the lens closed. We placed credits over the introduction noise scene. This process took much too long. I kind of got frustrated when we wanted to make a group name card for the intro, and everyone had their own idea. It was fun at first to joke about different names, but to be honest it got a little annoying after a while. This was the only minor set back I felt during the entire filming process from start to finish. Other than that I cannot complain about our group's production and filming process. Everyone has contributed to making the film, being punctual for group established due dates and most importantly having the work ethic to complete the project.
We spent the past weekend in Koldenhof which was a fantastic experience. Being away from the city and going into a small rural town is something I rarely do. I found a new appreciation for what a small town can offer. It offered me time to reflect on my entire trip so far and also allowed me to ponder about the future.