Week Four

Over the weekend, we went on our first class excursion to Koldenhof. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from the trip, whether I’d like the country over the city. But, I found it was incomparable. Both are such different worlds, and each have it’s own charm. Besides the canoeing, I was most looking forward to meeting the German students. Although only one was able to come, it was so cool to meet him and his teacher, and talk about film production. It’s really cool that in such a small town, they still have this opportunity to work with film and editing.
This week in class, to contrast with Kuhle Wampe, we watched Rosalini’s Germany Year Zero. Not to be confused with Italian Neo-Realism (although I did see some similarities), we learned that this film has been categorized as a Rubble Film, characteristic of the Post-World War II era because it focused on life after the war and on life that kept living in the rubble of war’s destruction.
I’ve seen several Rosalini films before, and perhaps that’s why there were some hints of neo-realism, but I’ve never seen a rubble film before. It’s such an interesting idea, to literally use the rubble left over from bombings as a backdrop for a film.
Again, this week, our film changed even more. So, from the previous week, we decided to instead of shooting a fiction film, it would be more of a making-of documentary so that we could still use some of our beloved scripted scenes. After getting back from Koldenhof, we decided to have another group meeting so we could get our ideas straightened out. At the meeting, we got a little side-tracked when Josh announced that he was giving up soda (more importantly, Pepsi) for the rest of the trip. We were having the meeting in me and Josh’s apartment, and Nate some other people were there using the internet and hanging out. When they heard this, it launched into a whole gambling idea. Could Josh really give up Pepsi? They started setting up the stakes and everything. If Josh gave into the urge to drink Pepsi, he had to drink a beer. No, if Josh gave in, he has to talk to a girl we pick out. Wait! What if we film that? That could work in our film—meeting people in Berlin! We could challenge him to meet people and film it. Oh, but wait! Epiphany! Epiphany! (Thanks to Sean). Why can’t we all meet people? We should all do it.
And, thus, ladies and gentlemen, we have the film project update up until now. The rough idea entails us getting to know the German people and by doing so, we get to know the city. All of us have a similar goal in wanting to meet people from the city and this project to help push us to achieve that goal. It really needs some developing, but I think it could work after we refine it a bit.