Week Two

It does not seem quite possible that I have been living in Berlin for two weeks, but here I am. I think I am still in a little bit of culture shock, but I’m not as homesick as I was last week. I think it has helped to get to know people better and being able to fill the days with work and exploring the city. I’ve decided that Berlin is definitely one of those places that you can’t help but fall in love with it, the more you learn about it.
Last week I did not get a chance to talk about the film groups. I will be working with Josh Huffines, D’ung and Sean and I am especially excited to teach others in my group with the experience I have. We sort of decided on rough roles for everyone. I will be working in the writing and directing departments and working with Sean with the pre-production stuff. And, we all expressed interest in learning more about editing, so when it comes time for that, we will get together for a big editing party! Over the weekend, we had our first group meeting and hopefully we worked out all the kinks. We mainly had organization and communication problems and trying to find times that worked for all of us. I think next time, we just need to be a little clearer with each other and also be willing to be a little more flexible in scheduling and making time for project.
This week, in class, I sort of had a re-realization about how important images are in the learning and memory processes. I was talking with Chris McCarter about the readings we had this week and we agreed that being here while learning about its history makes the readings a million times more interesting because we can connect the reading to places that we pass by everyday. The film this week was Ruttman’s Berlin: Symphony of a Big City. I was a little apprehensive to see this film. In one of my previous film classes, we watched Man with a Movie Camera, which I personally found uninteresting. Perhaps I have grown as a cinema student, but I was pleasantly surprised that I enjoyed the Berlin symphony film. I think the way it was edited and juxtaposed captured my interest a little more.
This weeks class work was interesting, but I was much more involved and engrossed in the Object film project and writing the script for the final film project before Josh went off to the UK. The work paid off though, because I feel like we’ve prepared really well. We decided to make the Object project about the laundry machine and, although it sounds kind of weird, but I am really excited about shooting. And, I’m pretty satisfied with the script. I think the dialogue could use some work, but the important thing is that it’s done and ready for the next step. I’m really looking forward to the read through, because I think that will help make the dialogue sound more natural or rather naturally awkward (since the character is supposed to be slightly awkward). We’re working through it and I really, really love the shots that we’ve set up already too.