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.