The Final Week

The group is working hard to get the movie almost up to standards. We have been filming and editing like crazy. This week my group when to the bar Zimit und Zunder. Here we came across a gold mine. There were about 4 Germans sitting around and playing ping pong. They invited us to play and eventually at the end of the night we got our last interview with Jana. The interview was so helpful because it was in the last week and a half of the due date. It gave us some more really good material and answered the question of why people play Ping pong in Berlin. We got the answer that Germans play ping pong mostly in the East because there is nothing else to do in the east. This definitely makes sense now that we think about it. There really was nothing for kids to do, so people started picking up ping pong and playing it in basements and with friends. One of the main ideas in Goodbye Lenin was that the son would make some of his own movies to fool his mom. The movies would be about the GDR and how they have allowed more open regulations in their country. The boy got so into making the movies about the GDR that he said he started recreating the GDR in his movies, to his ideals of what he wanted to GDR to be. I think that is interesting because he makes movies that reflect how he sees Berlin. We have been making movies to describe Berlin through a camera lens. It’s similar because he also captures and shows his interpretation of what Berlin is to him.

The final week was so intense, with late night hours of editing every night. I feel so far that our movie has a lot more editing techniques in it than most people. We spent most of our time on our movie working on editing fine things in the movie. On the downfall, so much time was spent on editing the small things in the video. Since we didn’t have long segments of filming, we had to do so much cutting and pasting in the movie to create many clips of playing ping pong in clubs and bars. I generally provided many idea’s and opinions on my movie, to direct it into what I saw. It turned out beautify, with humor, ridiculousness, and information. The overall hardest part of the movie was thinking about how we can create a structure for the middle of the movie. We had an idea for the beginning, but didn’t come up with how we were to structure the mass of the movie until about two weeks ago. When we started putting things together and seeing what it looked like, it started to be clearer in everybody’s minds. I gave the idea to put in the single one man interviews as an excellent way to both provide our point of view, and to transitions all the scenes from ping pong to us. IT was a pivotal point in designing our movie because it allowed us to do much more than what we originally thought.

Week 10

Our movie now has a base, and we stated and now are finishing up the intro to our movie. Every time we all get together we think of ideas of new ways to go about the movie. This week we went out and filmed the scene to introduce us into the movie. I mentioned the idea… “hey, why don’t we do a shot where one person is doing something, then turns, sees the camera, and nods and smiles.” The idea is based off of something like Full House, where they do the intro. We revised that idea to make it a serious face at the end, and then superimpose text over the scene, giving our information. Once we all agreed with this we hit the streets of Berlin. Specifically Eberswalder Strasse and the surrounding area.

We decided to shoot 4 different scenes with us each doing something different. We are definitely going for a comedy feel here with the movie, and I believe the shots we got are ridiculous, but still serious, which will make for a funny laugh. In class we talked about the effects of humor in portraying a touchy subject that could be borderline offensive, and how humor can make people come together over an issue and laugh. By no means is our movie even possibly offensive, but we are still going for the humorous touch because I feel specifically that comedy is the best environment to work in. As some people are doing their movie on more serious issues, they need to have straight faces during their film, while we can enjoy every moment of filming. I have also noticed, as well as the rest of my group, that when we finally get out there all together and film some of these ridiculous scenes, it actually brings us closer together. We realize that this filming is fun, and we generally have a good time. In the movie “Ich Chef, Du Turnschuhe” we saw how in this comedy movie, which took place 3 block from our apartment, even when Kutlucan has lost everything in the movie he still wound up with a positive playful attitude when he acquired Leo the boy. It demonstrates how laughing makes people happy, under all circumstances.

The thing we are having problems with as a group is still finding the ping pong clubs where the very skilled people practice and play. Nathan called a ping pong club and asked if we can go there, and the guy on the other end of the phone just laughed and said “go to this place…I think it’s called Mr. Pong,” of course referring to Dr. Pong. So we are still having a little trouble in that realm of acquiring footage. On the bright note, I thought of an excellent idea which will tie the segments of our movie together without any hassle. I thought, instead of trying to do voiceovers or anything like that, why don’t we do tiny segments where one person is sitting in the frame in a chair, and says a little monologue about that they are thinking during this time. It is very clique, but it works perfectly in our movie. So I proposed the idea, and it went over very well. This movie is coming together very well.

The 8th Week

“Tykwer…Let’s talk about Run Lola Run.” The last week of our audio movie production and let me tell you, it came together very well. Once we realized what sounds we wanted, all the noises were slotted in place and the peace came out just as we wanted it to. Nathan had the great idea of chopping off some sounds in a couple parts of the film, such as the jacket zipper, the door opening, and running down the stairs. This gave it more of a rushed busy feeling. Overall the film turned out great and it was a complete rendition of our morning routine.

As for the production of our main movie, we have come across many downfalls and disappointments, but we finally are at a decent beginning. The shots we are taking mostly are at Dr. Pong’s and we have a slight mix between a packed night and a decent night. As well, we also have obtained some shots of some pretty skilled ping pong players at another bar. They were a party of 4 and they came to the bar to hang out. Other than that, the bar was empty. With these shot we got, people were doing trick shots and the games started to become quite aggressive. As well as video shots, we have picked up another contact. One of the guys at the bar has claimed to give us a chance to film at a ping pong club where they practice. That would provide some excellent footage of some advanced skill levels, but we had not gotten through to him yet, so we’re still waiting to do that. Over all, it’s been a good filming week. Nathan and Jessica went to Serene again on the Wednesday, and got some film of some ping pong action and maybe even an interview. On Friday I went to Dr. Pong’s and got some really good footage of a packed night there. I tried to shoot from different perspectives, including a shot from the player’s point of view. For the most part, we have not found the fast paced intensity that we’re looking for in the game. We are not going to the right places were ping pong is serious; we are only getting a picture of the relaxed ping pong Friday night.

Our next step is to get the most intensity out of the sport. It needs to be hardcore and loud. We are looking for scenes were the players are standing 5 feet from the table, smacking the ball like it is racquet ball or something. Kind of like “Lola Rennt.” I actually bought the soundtrack to that movie, so perhaps we can even throw in a track from that movie to make it kind of like the Amsterdam film festival and create our own version to the songs. The music is what makes that movie as intense as it is. Just as we talked about in class, the way that movie keeps going is that the music very rarely stops. Something such as intense Forest Gump style ping pong against a wall would be great to that soundtrack. But…it’s got to be fast! Matter of fact…what about playing ping pong, one man vs. the Berlin wall. Like how in the scene in Forest Gump, when he was practicing on a wall with two balls and two paddles. We could try to do something like that on the Berlin Wall. That would have a little bit of speedy pace, a little bit of intensity, and a little bit of Berlin’s most well known iconic structure. Interesting Idea! Perhaps as well, we could even make a parody of “Run Lola Run” with the music, but incorporate Ping pong, because “Run Lola Run” is a great tool to define Berlin. Oh how the Idea’s keep on coming. They are just actually all coming to me wile I write this.

Week 7

We finally get out and try to get some filming accomplished. The bar we read about and choose is called Serene. Its interior paint is read, but it’s some kind of tiny dance club/lounge. The walls have naked women posted on them and there is no ping pong table in site. In fact, we were the only ones there with an exception of 4 women sitting together at the bar. Once again we have been had by the blasted internet. Nathan does a little bit of chit chatting with the bar tender and we find out some crucial information. The club opens up on Wednesday and there is a ping pong match. This actually does a decent job of bringing in the locals for some ping pong. There is supposed to be between 10 to 30 people to arrive and smash some balls Wednesday night. The bar tender also said that he will round up his cronies to come Next Wednesday and make a big scene. Then, we decide to roll on over to a little more Dr. Pong’s (where the pong meets the P.H.D). We play around a little bit but it’s kind of a dead night so we don’t even pull out the camera. It’s another week of crushed hopes, but…at least we have next Wednesday to look forward to.

I actually just came back from Holland. There I was inspired by a new idea. Wile I was in Amsterdam for the first night, my Dutch friend and his friends came over from den Haag to hang out with me and show me around. As I was following them, they were giving me kind of a tour of Amsterdam, wile we were looking for our first stop. That night, I followed my friends around all threw the city as we went to many different areas, partying at all the best spots. As I follow them around, I observe what they do through the process of before party, party, and post party, and thought to myself…we need to do that with the movie. For example, as the night went on you could notice some habits they demonstrated. To relate it to my movie, I’m thinking the process of pre competition, and post competition attitudes and habits. We could follow one man around right before a competition, of course shoot the highlights of it, then, do a segment of attitudes after the game. The only downfall to this would be to try and follow one person around for a couple minutes without turning the attention to him instead of Ping pong. But if we did manage to get a shot like that, it would show how Germans play their sports, and the preparation needed for a sport as small as Tisch Tennis.

The movie that we watched in class this week, “die Mauer”, was a documentary about happy people who was celebrating the deconstruction of the Berlin wall. When Jürgen Böttcher filmed the movie, he showed the excitement in everybody’s face. He showed how people were trying profiting off of the wall, how everybody was trying to get their own piece of the wall, and how everybody was celebrating on top of the wall. One thing about that movie that I think stands out is that it is generally a very quiet movie. He never played music or adds his own editing material. All of the shots usually just emphasize one sound at a time. For example, he would show a person or two chipping at the wall for about 5 minutes. The only thing that was producing noise was the chisel. When the people were acknowledged, they generally only spoke when they were asked something and only responded with short answers (sometimes even just a word). I wonder if that is a Berlin type of attitude, or if it was intended.

I am curious to see how people will respond with our movie when we interview them. I believe it will be kind of small answers and most people will be kind of shy, so I’m excited to get to interview some people and check out their response. Unlike “die Mauer” we are going to put some music in our movie to try to create an emphasis of our scenes. For example, on fast paced ping pong scenes, we will obviously have some faced paced music to build some suspense. Music will be a key element to this movie because there are some ping pong environments that are super laid back and are there just to have a good time. There are other bars were people will go to train and build their skill, which obviously means the games are a little more intense. Music will dramatically separate that type of environment for the observers.

Week 6

As week 6 rolls around, we still only remain in the planning phases of our movie production. Jessica and myself decided we were going to go online, find some places where there are ping pong tables and go check them out. All was well…until we decided to check travel to the bars. Apparently the webpage which references 6 or 7 different places with ping pong tables had incorrect information, or at least a lack of information. When Jessica and myself arrived to the first place, we walked in, and to our surprise it was nothing like the web page has described, definitely with no pong table. Our next stop was conveniently across the street. As we roll up to the building we notice that there is a line coming out of the door. Naturally we get excited, but…once again, to our surprise we find out that there is a concert being held there that night. “Awww man.” That night we wound up empty handed on our quest to explore this so called cult sport. I hit the internet looking once again for some new places, but I still noticed that different sites were referencing these places, so I don’t know what to expect now. On the other hand...foosball is even more abundant and played in extremes in almost every bar.

The movie idea is still lacking a little bit of structure. Since our film doesn’t have a story line, it’s going to be kind of difficult to predict how it will look until we start getting some footage. We have some film of some structures and images so far, and a little bit of people playing Tisch Tennis. But it hasn’t been slotted together yet, so its still just a clump of individual movies with no way to tie them. There is a good question in our presence however. How do we tie in footage of buildings, movement, and people and put it in all together? Perhaps we could have a scene of people have a ping pong battle on the top of a train going towards the Reichstag. Extreme!!! But not likely. My group wants to put iconic images in the beginning, and transition it to extremely fast paced ping pong scenes. This transition will go from a still photo to extreme speed, and I’m kind of curious of how well we could transition it so that it is smooth, and still creative.

As we saw in “Wings of desire,” they went from iconic scenes of Berlin, to the beginning of the story which introduced he characters. When the characters were introduced, they spent most of their time sitting on the iconic monument known as the victory column. This was a good transition from City images to people, since both thing were main elements in the movie. As we could see the angles always went back to this monument almost like it was their home base. This shows that the icon plays a huge role in the movie, for more of a purpose than just identifying that it is Berlin. I think we’re going to have a problem with the tie in that case. This is because our images are only for identifying the city as Berlin and nothing more. So it’s going to be difficult to show solid Imaged, then go to characters and documentary material without a rigid cut. I’m worried because we will never go back to these first images during the movie. So it will be kind of tacky at the beginning,

Week 5

Ahh, the ideas just keep flowing! I got a couple more for some pretty entertaining movie scenes. We finally are on track and we are going out and about to see what the world provides. Last night my cohorts and I went out to find a night of cultic like pong action, preferably in an underground bar, and to our surprise we wound up with a bust. A night gone to waste wile chasing the never ending game of a ping pong documentary. I know there’s something out there, but where is it??? You can not always trust the internet; they can be faulty on their research! Once we find out who goes where, we’ll be in good shape. I am suspecting that Berlin ping pong is just underground. We need to go there and find it. Some new ideas popped into my head recently, with the intro, some interviews, and just some random things that happen. Here, I can not keep spilling out my ideas; if so than we wont have anything for our movie. So I’ll just talk about the hardship we’ve faced.

Cold weather!!! This is our worst nightmare when were looking to shoot outdoor ping pong tables. Though there are some troopers that rough out the cold, the majority of tables are like ghost towns. So far, our internets sources for indoor clubs are flawed, and outdoor pong is very scarce. I am interested to see how much time will go into transportation to check out as many venues and club playing spaces as we can. I think the hardest part will be getting the time to run back and fourth across Berlin to look for available play settings. Another one of our downfalls is that we are not good enough to get into the finals. Haha…or to even stay in a tournament. It looks like Dr. Pong’s is going to be our home for the next few weeks.

Last week I was stuck in an elevator with 5 of my friends for about 45 minutes, which game me time to contemplate about the movie and Berlin in general. This inspired my new theory. Some people in the group say we need iconic photo shots to signify Berlin, but, Berlin is more than those iconic scenes. Berlin is the place where elevators break down. Berlin is the place where Ping pong is played on Saturday night. Berlin, is the place where alternative teens are looking for new ways to spend their time. Perhaps its good to have iconic shots of monuments, but then again isn’t that pretty cliché? Berlin in space is also a part of time. Its like in the movie with Wolfgang Kohlhaase and how important is it to portray space. We understand that he gave the characters parts which expressed the space of divided Berlin. It’s obvious that the movie is about how Berlin is split. There was not one monument shown to let the viewer know that its Berlin, and you still know it’s Berlin. We have to represent Berlin in our film, but are space is not through characters, or not through iconic images, it is through the overall lifestyle and culture and the underground sport of ping pong. Our mission is to express Berlin, through a movie, not through slides. With that, I have a feeling it will turn out very well, with or without the slides, and when we start getting into it, it will inspire us all to take up a small ball sport.

Production Week 4

Alas!!! We finally take out our camera and try to capture scenes of the pong in action. It started with Koldenhof. When we got there the first thing we did was set foot for a ping pong table, and sure enough, definitely not to our surprise out in the middle of nowhere was a ping pong table. A little battered, but it would do. There wasn’t just a table; this thing came equipped with some 10 year old local boys to test our hand eye coordination with. As inspiring as the shot was, we picked up our camera and let it roll. I thought: ”aww man, local pong, with local kids, in the countryside. This game really has swept the nation.” It was Nathan and I vs. the trash talking 10 year olds. It was definitely camera worthy. I think it will do in our training section. This was the beginning of our lengthily hours of film production. Though the place is not exactly Berlin…by any means, it still shows the effect of how this little niche of a game has become a wide recreational past time.

To the books! Now comes the time where we look for the places in Berlin to film. We have a general idea. When Thortsten mentioned that we could go on to the 20^th floor of the Technical University, we didn’t hesitate to capture our high rise panning shot. The only problem here is that I think we are going to want to get a night shot, which I think describes Berlin a little more since it’s known for its night life. With the city lights, and the proper music, we have a perfect opening. We just need to go back when it gets dark enough to film the night wile the café is open. Our next goal is to get the parks. We wish to capture most parks with random tables. Then do a collage of some sort with the pictures, to show how far spread ping pong is in German culture. We have not done this yet, but we are going to take film of some Pong clubs and some people who are intensely into the sport. We plan to film in sort of a documentary style, which means that we don’t need characters or anybody to put on a role. This is unfortunate in the aspect that role characterization allows you to portray a message. Whether it’s clear or a little subliminal, using a script and characters allows you to have full control of what you want to portray. Like the film by Wolfgang Kohlhaase. He mainly uses characterization to portray his message to the audience. Our film will be just asking people about their contribution to the culture of table tennis and getting their response. Though this is just straight forward and clear cut, I know I can be creative with basic interviews. Ping pong will never again be this interesting!!!

Week 3

Through weeks of brainstorming, my group and I have finally thought about what are movie topic is going to be and we have thought about some filming techniques for some pretty entertaining scenes. The initial idea was sparked on by a life changing event I attended. It took place in the legendary Dr. Pong’s. I was informed of this place by an Australian named Steve, who, in fact was pretty good at Pong. When I arrived I noticed how this sport has turned into a subculture of Berlin. Ping pong is much larger than I thought. This bar had a rotating ping pong elimination rule, which was a great opportunity to see how many people got “into” the game. Some people would go up, and miss the ball (Me), and some people would take it so seriously as to spike the ball so that the unskilled would be eliminated. There was even a regular, who wore a glove on his paddle hand. I realized that we could go somewhere with this and I proposed the Idea to my group. After we all agreed that it was going to be a solid choice, we started thinking about how we should capture Berlin in our movie, how we are going to relate Tish tennis to Berlin, and how we are going to include some local players.

The first thing that came to mind was some panning shots of the Berlin city, then to some views of tables around the park areas. Mainly so that everybody can get an idea of what Berlin looks like in the perspective of a ping pong player. We kind of got the panning idea from the ruble film we watched by Roberto Russolini. At the beginning of his film, he showed a portion of disaster stricken Berlin through a panning shot. So you get kind of a sense of the area around you. I think that concept of place works well. We are planning on going to a high place to capture Berlin with a pan shot. I don’t think we are going to use repetition in our film though. We’ll start with the big shot, and then go into the specific topic of table tennis.

One of are hardest challenges that lie ahead of us is the structure for the beginning of the movie. We are going to do a documentary type movie, but show the struggle and hardship in getting into the niche. What’s going to be interesting is finding the history in what makes Ping Pong so big, why they have entire bars dedicated to it, and why these people would rather play it on a Saturday night rather than go to a lounge, a bar, or a club.

The most interesting thing, and hardest concept to try to grasp through a camera is really exploring space in Berlin. Anybody can take film of one thing, but what will make it obvious that it’s Berlin. Everybody plays ping pong, but how are we going to capture Berlin, and make it noticeable that it’s Berlin throughout the film. We talk about Berlin though different levels, about how the city’s developed through oppression, disaster, and whatever else that clouded this city from the beginning of the century. It will also be interesting to see how Berlin has evolved from the beginning of the century thought small things like ping pong, which I imagine just kind of let the youth forget about the problems around them, hang out in a basement, and have something exciting to do.

Our film should open up the world of table tennis for our class. This should be explore how something so small has made an impact in a culture that is so diverse and so much its own.

Production Log Week 2

As the flashing police lights caught my attention, made my way to approached the scene. Cop cars were blocking off the one way traffic at Unter den Linden. For 3 or 4 intersections, there was a bare street. No cars, no people, and it happened right in the middle of the busiest area of Berlin, Friedrichstrasse. As I stood reflecting and appreciating this beauty of a random pace at a random time in the city center, I thought to myself, how can this empty road convey such a euphoric setting? There is something lethargic about watching time slow down, metaphorically speaking in a sense because of how the hustle of the city no longer took place on that road, instead, it surrounded it. There lies a deserted road, nobodies crossing it, it’s just empty. Still… everything outside of the boundaries of the road filled the air with the theatric chaos of hundreds of individual minds doing their own thing, with an array of sounds accompanying them.

This could relate to Walter Ruttmann’s short audio film that we saw in class, where he describes the city, through the sounds that are produced in the city. All the sounds compose a kind of rhythmic piece. This movie is important because as our group is going to be doing our mini presentation on the city through audio capture, this film directly connects to our prospective work. We all hear Ruttmann blend sounds, sometimes in an un-syncopated way, and sometimes in a matter that creates a musical rhythm. It appeared that he captured the general elements of the city that take place on an everyday basis. What I think I want to incorporate into my movie is the capture sounds at a specific point of time in Berlin.

This idea of course was inspired from the empty stretch of Unter den Linden. We all know the city elements, cars, traffic, airplanes, horns, and general chatter of a large mass of people. I want to portray the city in a little more specific approach. Perhaps pick out sounds that you know you would only see in Berlin. For instance: the sounds of scrapping the meat off of the brick in a Donor Kabap stand, or the sounds of the loud foreigners in the very quiet bus atmosphere. Perhaps the noise of a dog being walked on Sunday, since Sunday if generally the day everybody walks there dog, or…even the Hungarian women with their “speak English?”

As for the street on Unter den Linden. I feel it would very appropriate to have the general city sounds in the area (keep in mind it is the busiest area for foot traffic) build up to become loud and aggressive, and then just go into silence for a couple seconds. I believe that would do justice in replicating the emotions I felt as I stood on the corner. These are all just ideas, but it’s another approach of just capturing the noise of the car driving past. I feel that this idea will expose a little more of some of Berlin’s character. And at the same time, do it in a way that is similar to Walter Ruttmann and his short audio fil, but takes at a more creative stance with the sounds. What’s going to be hard is acquiring the sounds, through timing, positioning, etc, so it suits our needs. Another difficulty that lies ahead will also be arranging the noise in a rhythmic way, so the final product sounds almost musical.

Production Log Week 1

My first impression of Berlin was very powerful. I noticed very quickly, that it was a mix between modern architectural innovation, old historic buildings, and industrial buildings and housing. During my first week here, I was walking around the city at night with my roommate Joel. We were just looking at the cityscapes and exploring the surrounding neighborhood. I was walking down the sidewalk of an area in Prinzlauerberg, which was illuminated by a strand of red lights on the awning of a bar patio. A man was pacing in our direction from the other side of the sidewalk. He was walking his dog late at night, along the lights that were the only illumination. It reminded me of the cliché` walk of loneliness that is portrayed in many movies. I thought that even though you are so far away in another country, in a city known for its active night life, there will always be somebody traveling by themselves, somebody who acts as they are the outcast, perhaps preferring to be alone. This is a prime example of a night walker, description as a flaeur in Schlör’s article “Night-Walking”.

He mentions that the night walker takes part in his stroll, without any certainty of what is going to happen. It is somebody who goes out and has absolutely no plan, just enjoying watching the people and the surroundings. It’s these people that know the city and how it changes, people who like to be independent and not share their time with others. It’s completely observable that there are people out in the night, who just like to stroll in the brisk cold. Though I was not looking for anything specific, I was still exploring with a friend, which causes attentive observation skills to be hindered by a distraction. The man alone could have been depressed, could have been encased in his our sorrow, or perhaps he was just satisfying the urge to observe the surrounding. The beauty about walking alone is that one person can not tell what the singe flaneur’s intentions and emotions are. I figured that that could run a good scene in the movie, since our movie topic is based on outcasts. I think the lonely walk amongst the city lights would be a great description of the isolation of social inequality, and could be a very good introduction to our movie. Maybe use it as the opening scene.

As we sat around the table for the first time, my group and I threw around the various ideas about what topic to do our movie on. We thought about some of the major topics, such as the holocaust, and the current segregation of Turks in Berlin. But recalling on the time that I have spent in the past 5 days viewing the current German culture, I came to a realization. My thought started as this simple question, what makes some of the women here in Germany want to take part in a style of fashion where they shave their head, or at least one side of their head? As we thought about it, we started kicking around the idea about German conformity, and how Berlin has always been the forefront of nonconformity. We decided on our topic, history of nonconformity within German youth. The next question is where to start. Referring back to the walk in the night scene, since the night walkers are alone, we could film a part where a nonconformist such as a punk rocker or somebody else is walking alone in the dark. This can metaphorically show that the nonconformist community is alone, and thy take pride in being different from the rest.

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Tschüss!