final.post.

WEEK TWELVE

Well here I am at the final week of the program. Is it too cliche to say that I can't believe it's already over? I have about a week left in Berlin with no real obligations except getting home. I want to spend my last days here just enjoying myself and maybe seeing some things that I didn't yet get a chance to. My experiences here in Berlin have far exceeded my expectations at the start of the program and I feel that I have changed quite a bit since I have been here.

This week has comprised of finishing the film and the final viewing of all the films. It feels great to be finished with our film and I have to say that I am very pleased with how it turned out. After seeing the whole film put together, I think I am most proud of how strong of a theme our film possesses and how it continues that theme throughout. As for the other films, I was so impressed not only by each of the films themselves but also with the diversity of our films. I feel that each film approached Berlin from a very different angle, angles that I would have never thought to portray. It was really interesting to see how different people chose to tell their story, especially those films that had four separate stories to them. The film about ping pong in Berlin was a great contrast to some of the other films because it was more of a documentary and thus had an actual, tangible subject. I was also impressed by some of their footage; it mustn't have been easy getting good footage in some of those bars as well as dealing with owners and pong players. I also really enjoyed the "movie about a movie that was never made." I thought that each of the narratives was unique in its own way and had a very different style to it. Put together, I feel that each of the parts combined to create all aspects of creating a film, from the writing and inspiration behind a film to the film mechanics and photography of a film. I felt that our film was definitely different from the rest of the films. I think that our film was the least serious of the films and also the most fictional. I also felt that our film had the strongest sense of one cohesive story. I find this a bit ironic, seeing as at the very beginning our group did not really want to create a fictional story, but a fictional documentary. However, I think that it turned out to be a nice balance between a fictional story and a kind of documentary.

Looking back on the film course, I can't help but think about the variety of films that we watched and how different they all are. Beginning with the pre-war films was such a contrast to the later post-war rubble films. Following the rubble films came the propaganda films of the 1960s and 1970s, leading to films touching on the newly emerging view of Berlin as a multinational city. Each of the films brought up different issues and also styles or methods of filming. Class discussions following the films were extremely valuable in helping to dissect the complex issues embedded in the films as well as hear others' interpretations of the films. One of my favorite films in the course was Lola Rennt. Not only did I enjoy this film so much but I think it has such an significance to modern Berlin culture. The fact that Lola can run throughout the city, from east to west, is something unique to 1990s Berlin. The character Lola herself is such a great personification of this new Berlin, someone who is independent, strong, and in control of her actions. This film inspired our film group to take our film to a whole new level. I think our film attempts to convey a similar feeling of movement and intense emotion.

Well, here is where this production journal meets its final words. Lastly, I would like to thank our University of Washington professor Eric Ames, our teacher and guide Thorsten Wagner, and assistants Jason and Dana Immertreu for guiding us through an amazing program in Berlin. Berlin, someday we will meet again...
ENDE.