Week 4 was the first week that Humbolt University was actually in session, so we shared the halls and the cafes with all the other students milling around, trying to get to our classes. This also marked the first week of the super early classes (eight a.m…. dun, dun, dun.)
I had just gotten back from our class trip to Koldenhof, so I felt particularly appreciative of Berlin this week. When you are in the city so much, you tend to forget how great it really is and all that it has to offer, so I intended to take full advantage of Berlin this week, since I did not have weekend plans to travel that weekend. The day we got back from Koldenhof and walked to the U-Bahn station, I felt almost in awe of being here in the city and started taking several pictures of our neighborhood and little things I want to remember when I don’t live here anymore. There’s nothing like a little weekend trip out in the country to make you feel refreshed and ready to be back in the city. I was determined to do every single thing I could and to be out and about as much as possible, as well.
For our first 8 AM class, we all met in the new classroom at Dorotheenstrasse to watch this week’s film, Germany Year Zero. I liked that it was the first film we have seen in class with a constant, easy to follow plot and it was extremely interesting to see the actual Berlin rubble documented in a film. I couldn’t believe that it actually looked like that here those years after the war. In all the German history and culture classes I have taken in the past, no one ever really told or taught me about how Berlin was doing immediately after the war (and judging from the film, apparently it was not faring all so well). It was also interesting that the characters spoke in Italian. Nathan mentioned that he thought that the Italian perspective gave the characters more Italian attributes and mannerisms.
I felt that the final scene of the film (that we watched more than once in class) was a really epic-type scene that I would expect to analyze in a film class. The hidden meanings behind what Edmund’s last actions were in the film really blew my mind—especially the comparison someone thought of when Edmund slides down the plank right before he jumps off of the building as if the plank were a slide.
Although the film was kind of a downer, some of the best films are, I think. Sometimes happy endings make the film a little too boring and thoughtless, in my opinion, because it’s as if the director is giving in and showing the viewers what they want to see. The viewers can’t always pick what they want every time!
During the Friday class, our film group screened our short film project (Point of View) for the class, and I thought the final product turned out very well. Initially right after we were done filming the party scene, I was a bit worried that it wouldn’t turn out the way we had intended. However, when we all edited the film together as a group two nights before, I began to feel more and more confident about our final product, especially when we managed to splice the end scene with the party scene flawlessly. Also, I was very happy with how the intro looked and the beer bottle opening sound we added in worked nicely as well.
It feels a little weird to tell people that “yeah, our film consists of three takes in total” and “we actually got most of our footage on the first try”. Normally, people might assume that we didn’t really care or spend much time trying to get everything right for our final product. In truth, I feel that it was with a great deal of luck that everything went according to our plans the first time. We had intended for the majority of the film (party scene) to be one long take because it would look unnatural for it to consist of different takes. Also, the less takes for the party scene the better because we were using so many of our classmates as extras in our films that they might have lost their “party energy” for the scene so to speak if we kept telling them to do the same thing over and over.
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Thursday, October 18, 2007
week three
Week 3 as I remember it was just a normal week in Berlin, becoming more and more acclimated to our surroundings and neighborhood.
We had plenty of readings for this week, including the long reading for Thorsten’s class by Barbara Kirschenblatt-Gimblett called “Exhibiting Jews”. This text went into great detail about the ways in which Jewish peoples and culture was portrayed at different Worlds’ Fairs in the nineteenth century and into the twentieth century. I felt a little bit like the article was a bit drawn out, but I just tend to favor texts in which the author manages to make his point in a short and concise manner. Thorsten seems like a really nice guy and I’m glad he is our teacher for this part of the class. I feel like he really cracks down on us as a class, however. Perhaps making sure we are always busy with some kind of coursework!
In his excursion last Friday, he took us around to Rosenstraße and what most closely resembles Berlin’s Jewish quarter, which is around the Hackescher Markt area of the city near Alexanderplatz. We finished off the rainy tour with a visit to the Neue Synagogue, which stood as more of a memorial to the once complete synagogue before the time of the Third Reich. I was surprised because I had expected it to be synagogue that was in use by people today.
In Eric’s class, we watched the film Kuhle Wampe oder Wem gehört die Welt?. I was excited to see this film because I had done one of the readings for class that week (which was about the film Kuhle Wampe) early so I already knew about the controversy that surrounded the release of that film. I also have never seen a Brecht film (or at least, I don’t think so) and was interested to see how the characters and situations were portrayed. For a film of this nature, I was impressed with the way in which the film was done and thought the subject matter was particularly interesting. I do not know very much about Germany in the period of the Weimar Republic, so I liked watching how people lived and worked (or tried to work) in the film.
My film group decided to film our short assignment this week, which is the “Point of View” from a beer bottle’s opening. Wednesday night we filmed the very end of the short film (the part when Ed falls and the bottle breaks all over the floor) because none of us really felt energetic enough to host a believable party scene that evening. We broke a beer bottle, and when Ed “fell” with the camera, Joel threw the pieces of bottle out into the camera’s view. The next evening, we were determined to film the party scene—now or never! We got out the music, empty beer bottles, and invited everyone to come on over and have a party with us. Since most of the film consists of Josh holding the camera like a bottle and walking around the party, I was really hoping that the other participants in our party scene wouldn’t really notice we were filming and continue to act natural to get the most authentic “party feeling” for the shot. This halfway worked out—most people acted pretty normal, and a few people who had just walked into the apartment (like Christopher) didn’t know we were filming and we got a few really authentic lines from him to use. (“Where’s the party??!?!?!”)
Next week, we are going to edit the film to completion to get ready to show to the class, because our due date for showing this film has been moved up to next Friday.
We had plenty of readings for this week, including the long reading for Thorsten’s class by Barbara Kirschenblatt-Gimblett called “Exhibiting Jews”. This text went into great detail about the ways in which Jewish peoples and culture was portrayed at different Worlds’ Fairs in the nineteenth century and into the twentieth century. I felt a little bit like the article was a bit drawn out, but I just tend to favor texts in which the author manages to make his point in a short and concise manner. Thorsten seems like a really nice guy and I’m glad he is our teacher for this part of the class. I feel like he really cracks down on us as a class, however. Perhaps making sure we are always busy with some kind of coursework!
In his excursion last Friday, he took us around to Rosenstraße and what most closely resembles Berlin’s Jewish quarter, which is around the Hackescher Markt area of the city near Alexanderplatz. We finished off the rainy tour with a visit to the Neue Synagogue, which stood as more of a memorial to the once complete synagogue before the time of the Third Reich. I was surprised because I had expected it to be synagogue that was in use by people today.
In Eric’s class, we watched the film Kuhle Wampe oder Wem gehört die Welt?. I was excited to see this film because I had done one of the readings for class that week (which was about the film Kuhle Wampe) early so I already knew about the controversy that surrounded the release of that film. I also have never seen a Brecht film (or at least, I don’t think so) and was interested to see how the characters and situations were portrayed. For a film of this nature, I was impressed with the way in which the film was done and thought the subject matter was particularly interesting. I do not know very much about Germany in the period of the Weimar Republic, so I liked watching how people lived and worked (or tried to work) in the film.
My film group decided to film our short assignment this week, which is the “Point of View” from a beer bottle’s opening. Wednesday night we filmed the very end of the short film (the part when Ed falls and the bottle breaks all over the floor) because none of us really felt energetic enough to host a believable party scene that evening. We broke a beer bottle, and when Ed “fell” with the camera, Joel threw the pieces of bottle out into the camera’s view. The next evening, we were determined to film the party scene—now or never! We got out the music, empty beer bottles, and invited everyone to come on over and have a party with us. Since most of the film consists of Josh holding the camera like a bottle and walking around the party, I was really hoping that the other participants in our party scene wouldn’t really notice we were filming and continue to act natural to get the most authentic “party feeling” for the shot. This halfway worked out—most people acted pretty normal, and a few people who had just walked into the apartment (like Christopher) didn’t know we were filming and we got a few really authentic lines from him to use. (“Where’s the party??!?!?!”)
Next week, we are going to edit the film to completion to get ready to show to the class, because our due date for showing this film has been moved up to next Friday.
Sunday, October 7, 2007
week one & two
this is the beginning of week three in berlin (already!) and i cannot believe i have already completed two weeks of class.
week one of classes was a short one, as it was only for three days out of the first week, but the classes really got me thinking fast about what i wanted to film and how the classes were going to work. we were immediately assigned a fair amount of reading for week one, including the first chapter of brian ladd's book, "ghosts of berlin", which i really have liked reading so far. it is really interesting to me to read so indepth about certain monuments, buildings, or historic places here in berlin while actually being in berlin. one of the first school nights here, nathan finished his chapter in brian ladd and proclaimed that he wanted to go hang out just under the brandenburg tor. i had not finished this chapter yet and was confused why he would feel like doing this so late at night, but after having read the interesting history of this gate, i too felt like going to the gate just to simply be around it and reflect on its long, interesting history.
the other readings for week one i thought were an interesting supplement to the ladd readings, although some were very dry reads and hard to grasp certain concepts the first time around.
before the week was over, we were also put into four groups of four students that would become our "film groups" for the rest of the quarter. i was a little nervous about this because although i have been trying to think all summer long about what i wanted my film to be about, there was no one single idea that stood out above the others to me. i was feeling pretty open about the subject, only that i had hoped to make a historical fiction film instead of a documentary.
i was grouped with josh t, ed, and joel and we had our first group meeting that weekend. i was pleased to find out that each of us were equally open about the subject of our film and no one person was really enforcing their idea on the rest of the group. at the end of the meeting, we had settled on the idea of four seperate stories about one's experience or impressions of berlin that we will somehow tie together by the end of the film. our group's inspiration was mostly drawn from various tarantino films such as pulp fiction and four rooms which both involve different characters' stories that actually tie together in the middle and end of the movie, to the viewer's surprise. although each of these four stories will be of very different film styles and subject matter from the last, we will manage to tie them together in unsuspecting ways. i feel that as of now we each have a very equal role in the film and it will be interesting and challenging to help eachother film each story and ... what i am dreading.... the actual editing of our films because i myself have zero editing experience.
week two went a bit more smoothly in that we all knew where our classes were and how to get there, and more time could be focused on thinking about our films and doing readings instead of running errands around the city. i feel that each coming week will allow more time for our classwork, which will be good and very necessary.
in terms of readings this week, they were very similar to week one's (another brian ladd chapter plus e-reserves) but this was the first week that we had readings assigned for thorsten's class, which was held in the judisches museum this wednesday rather than in humboldt because of german unity day. most places in the city including the university were closed to commemorate this holiday. i thought it was awesome to hold class in the judisches museum because just last august, nathan and i traveled to berlin for a few days and visited this really great museum. it would be funny to know then that one year later, i would actually be sitting in an upstairs room of that museum for a class! life is sure interesting sometimes.
so far, i have really enjoyed thorsten's classes because the memory of the city is a subject that i am interested in and feel that i have a background in as well. (i have taken a very similar class last winter quarter-- german 293 contemporary culture, as well as a modern european survey history class-- hist 113 which dealt with a lot of the same questions) i liked the kinds of readings he assigned for us because this is the kind of material i am used to reading and am very interested in.
this week in eric's class, we watched a film titled berlin: symphony of a big city which i thought was generally enjoyable and very creative. even though we were told not to focus to much on the score of the film, i cannot help but to consider how important it is to the film and how much more poignant it makes the images to the viewer.
we were also assigned our group assignment's this last friday. our group chose the "point of view" film assignment in which we are to film from a person or thing's point of view somewhere in berlin. initially, our group chose to film from the point of view of the opening of a beer bottle at a party, so essentially this would mean filming straight up in the air and there would have to be a lot of action at the party to make this an interesting piece. i am a little bit concerned that we would get enough lighting in our apartments to make it look good, but i suppose this will be worked out. we are planning to film very soon, this next week at the absolute latest because we are to present our film the last friday of october. (it feels weird not to spell it "oktober" now.)
in terms of my experience with speaking german for the past few weeks, i feel some days really proud of myself and accomplished, and other days kind of embarrassed and not very smart. i guess i am kind of hard on myself because i consider it a failure when an interaction i am attempting in german turns over to english, which it sometimes does. however i get really excited with a transaction is successful in german. today for example, a man on the street asked me for the time in a way that i have not learned yet so i was not exactly sure what he wanted, but turns out i guessed correctly of what he was asking me and there was a successful transaction. this probably sounds a little bit pathetic to a german speaker, but any little progress that i can make is a big deal to me when it comes to learning the language.
week one of classes was a short one, as it was only for three days out of the first week, but the classes really got me thinking fast about what i wanted to film and how the classes were going to work. we were immediately assigned a fair amount of reading for week one, including the first chapter of brian ladd's book, "ghosts of berlin", which i really have liked reading so far. it is really interesting to me to read so indepth about certain monuments, buildings, or historic places here in berlin while actually being in berlin. one of the first school nights here, nathan finished his chapter in brian ladd and proclaimed that he wanted to go hang out just under the brandenburg tor. i had not finished this chapter yet and was confused why he would feel like doing this so late at night, but after having read the interesting history of this gate, i too felt like going to the gate just to simply be around it and reflect on its long, interesting history.
the other readings for week one i thought were an interesting supplement to the ladd readings, although some were very dry reads and hard to grasp certain concepts the first time around.
before the week was over, we were also put into four groups of four students that would become our "film groups" for the rest of the quarter. i was a little nervous about this because although i have been trying to think all summer long about what i wanted my film to be about, there was no one single idea that stood out above the others to me. i was feeling pretty open about the subject, only that i had hoped to make a historical fiction film instead of a documentary.
i was grouped with josh t, ed, and joel and we had our first group meeting that weekend. i was pleased to find out that each of us were equally open about the subject of our film and no one person was really enforcing their idea on the rest of the group. at the end of the meeting, we had settled on the idea of four seperate stories about one's experience or impressions of berlin that we will somehow tie together by the end of the film. our group's inspiration was mostly drawn from various tarantino films such as pulp fiction and four rooms which both involve different characters' stories that actually tie together in the middle and end of the movie, to the viewer's surprise. although each of these four stories will be of very different film styles and subject matter from the last, we will manage to tie them together in unsuspecting ways. i feel that as of now we each have a very equal role in the film and it will be interesting and challenging to help eachother film each story and ... what i am dreading.... the actual editing of our films because i myself have zero editing experience.
week two went a bit more smoothly in that we all knew where our classes were and how to get there, and more time could be focused on thinking about our films and doing readings instead of running errands around the city. i feel that each coming week will allow more time for our classwork, which will be good and very necessary.
in terms of readings this week, they were very similar to week one's (another brian ladd chapter plus e-reserves) but this was the first week that we had readings assigned for thorsten's class, which was held in the judisches museum this wednesday rather than in humboldt because of german unity day. most places in the city including the university were closed to commemorate this holiday. i thought it was awesome to hold class in the judisches museum because just last august, nathan and i traveled to berlin for a few days and visited this really great museum. it would be funny to know then that one year later, i would actually be sitting in an upstairs room of that museum for a class! life is sure interesting sometimes.
so far, i have really enjoyed thorsten's classes because the memory of the city is a subject that i am interested in and feel that i have a background in as well. (i have taken a very similar class last winter quarter-- german 293 contemporary culture, as well as a modern european survey history class-- hist 113 which dealt with a lot of the same questions) i liked the kinds of readings he assigned for us because this is the kind of material i am used to reading and am very interested in.
this week in eric's class, we watched a film titled berlin: symphony of a big city which i thought was generally enjoyable and very creative. even though we were told not to focus to much on the score of the film, i cannot help but to consider how important it is to the film and how much more poignant it makes the images to the viewer.
we were also assigned our group assignment's this last friday. our group chose the "point of view" film assignment in which we are to film from a person or thing's point of view somewhere in berlin. initially, our group chose to film from the point of view of the opening of a beer bottle at a party, so essentially this would mean filming straight up in the air and there would have to be a lot of action at the party to make this an interesting piece. i am a little bit concerned that we would get enough lighting in our apartments to make it look good, but i suppose this will be worked out. we are planning to film very soon, this next week at the absolute latest because we are to present our film the last friday of october. (it feels weird not to spell it "oktober" now.)
in terms of my experience with speaking german for the past few weeks, i feel some days really proud of myself and accomplished, and other days kind of embarrassed and not very smart. i guess i am kind of hard on myself because i consider it a failure when an interaction i am attempting in german turns over to english, which it sometimes does. however i get really excited with a transaction is successful in german. today for example, a man on the street asked me for the time in a way that i have not learned yet so i was not exactly sure what he wanted, but turns out i guessed correctly of what he was asking me and there was a successful transaction. this probably sounds a little bit pathetic to a german speaker, but any little progress that i can make is a big deal to me when it comes to learning the language.
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