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.