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!!!