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.