Production Journal Nummer Eins!

First of all, I am extremely excited about this whole project. I am also a bit intimidated by the endeavor, especially the editing. This is all new to me, as I have never made a film. I've written critiques, sequence analyses, and have theorized to death, but actual production has always eluded me. Working in a group is also something new and reminds me that film work is truly collaborative, no matter how much I would just like to do the whole thing myself. I think each member of my group feels the same way, considering that all of us have strong personalities and different artistic drives. The main challenge so far has been generating a shared perspective on the real goal of our film. What do we want this film to really show regarding Berlin? Will it reach any conclusions or will its meaning(s) be ambiguous or multiple? How accessible will our film be to the audience? This last question hinges on our ability to convey feeling/mood through editing. What a task! But if we can pull it off, it would be incredibly rewarding. I have always had a bit of a complex about my perceived lack of creative/artistic abilities. Writing analyses of brilliant films and works of literature and then trying to compose something just as brilliant on my own has always been an endeavor doomed to fail. So I do not set out here to make something "brilliant" (but if it turns out to be, that would be good too.)
The focus for the film is mood fluctuation through movement with various modes of transportation--walking, biking, and train. Telling the story of our experiences of Berlin will require clever editing, suggestive shots, and music. The absence of voice-over narration and dialogue is a welcome challenge, and I hope these chosen omissions will allow for more variations in audience reception. Rather than literally telling the spectator what the image should mean, we will merely suggest one to them through camera and editing work. Also, dialogue can sometimes sound cheesy with amateur actors such as myself and the other members of my group. The "progression" of the film will go something like this, and I will try to be as clear as possible, because this could get confusing if I am not careful. Start with a shot that evokes mood #1. Go on to 2, 3, and 4. The tempo of the transitions will change depending on the chosen group of images (1, 2, 3, and 4.) After the first set is over, go back to mood #1 with a different image. The cycle goes on. In order to key in the spectator to the repetition of moods going on here, we could use one specific image coinciding with each mood that would be spliced in during every cycle. Believe me, it's much easier to explain with a drawing. Everyone in the group seems to be pretty excited about this concept, so I hope that it will come into fruition.
Berlin is an inspiring locale to create dynamic art work, as the city itself seems to embody the very concept of dynamism. Construction is never ending, evinced by countless cranes, either tearing down or building up. Almost every text that we have read for class has mentioned that Berlin is always in a state of becoming as opposed to being. This concept would be interesting to explore through film because of the medium's temporal aspect; the ability to "capture" something in time or give the impression of time as moving either very slowly or incredibly fast. Keeping the possibilities for temporal manipulation in mind, constructing a film whose primary subject is mood fluctuation becomes more complex. The sense of time as fleeting (through something like time lapse) could either evoke a teleological progression or a nostalgia for what is lost, covered up, or destroyed during that time, depending on the subject position of the spectator. For example, if the camera is mounted on the tripod in my backpack, and it is recording while I am riding my bike through the city, a reversal of the direction of the camera (pointing backwards or forwards) could evoke vastly different moods. Pointing backwards in slow motion could evoke nostalgia, while pointing forwards in fast motion could generate a sense of exciting progression. Instead of having an on screen conversation or a voice over about "nostalgia" or "progression," I think the use of concepts like the one outlined above could be an interesting way of commenting on Berlin's dynamism; its ability to generate two opposite moods simultaneously.
So far, we have gotten a fair amount of footage, but not nearly enough. This is to be expected so early on in the game, but I think during this next week we really need to get on the ball and start going to specific locations that we have discussed and get some filming done. I have begun working a bit with FinalCut, which is not quite as intimidating as I originally thought, just very time consuming. I understand now how important the audio track is in film, not just video. The potential for manipulations in just the audio is staggering! It makes me a bit more excited for our mini project dealing with sound. We are meeting tonight to get next week's schedule solidified.