Week 9 Continued

How do we create a film that truly takes place in Berlin, such that the story and setting intertwine in a manner that they are complementary to each other? How can we use the external world as a backdrop to demonstrate the internal world? In asking these questions, we present ourselves with the challenge of defining a context for our characters and story through its setting, or in other words, the challenge of creating place.

There are many symbols of Berlin, such as the Brandenburg Gate, the Siegesäule, or the Fernsehturn, that create a greater context for the story but may not portray the more subtle aspects of context we are striving for. Therefore, it is functional to consider everyday locations in Berlin and examine these surroundings in order to find meaning in them as they relate to aspects of our experiences in and coming to know and understand Berlin.

We are essentially playing with time and space in order to achieve our goals of conveying the city of Berlin as we experienced it. Most peoples’ lives can become fairly localized to a few areas within a city, but ours happen to have been broadened to a larger area as a result of wanting to explore our new and unfamiliar surroundings. The setting for our story will attempt to encompass all of Berlin, thus location sequences may be geographically awkward to those familiar with Berlin. That is, the camera and characters will seem to jump around the city as we utilize geographic creativity. Our purpose in this is not to create confusion, but rather to use architecture, site significance, and atmosphere to create place. Our choice of setting locations are unique in that the meaning of these attributes prevail over the implications of it particular location in the city. In using such techniques, we are paralleling different layers of time, in which aspects of the developing relationship between the characters are drawn in comparison to the more familiar aspect of Berlin’s history.

Take, for example, a relatively abandoned church that was bombed during a time generally repressed by Germans. A neglected playground accompanies it in its shadows. Stirring up or discussing each other’s past may cause disturbances.

As we begin to understand the Berlin of our generation, referred to as “Generation Berlin,” we learn though that they are relatively disconnected to Berlin’s bitter past. Members of this generation may be inattentive to older buildings and their significance. An old central library, riddled with bullet holes, could be used by our Berlin character to prepare for the future rather than to confront the past. Generation Berlin live their day-to-day lives unconcerned with and unaffected by reminders of shameful cruelties of the German past that previous generations may not be able to pass by without reflection. Particular locations of new construction, or crossing a particular street where others had died attempting to cross in the past, may have lost their meaning.

This new generation has constantly been associated with the quote, “Berlin will never have an identity, because it is always striving to become.” Where most people may discuss their ambitions with each other in an arbitrary café setting over coffee, this film may benefit from a backdrop of a university or a construction site as they walk through the city during this particular discussion. Similarly, we have experienced modern Berlin culture by exploring the city via every open door, and maybe even attempting to involve ourselves in what we find.

Some locations may function differently in order to demonstrate aspects of the relationship that pertain to more simple cultural interactions between the two characters rather than to their development. Culture hubs of Berlin, where both locals and foreigners can enjoy themselves, serve the purpose of displaying that of Berlin which transcends any conjectured divisions across the city. By using culture hubs prevalent throughout Berlin, a certain area of the city is prevented from being discerned in the scene, functioning in conveying a unified culture of Berlin. Use of repetitive setting types, but at different locations throughout the city, may play with space to enhance this sense of a unified Berlin.

We use backdrop to create our own city, that is, our own perspective of Berlin based on our memories ad experiences. In response to the question of reason behind choosing Schönhauser corner as a setting for his movie, Wolfgang Kohlhaase simply stated that it was the most obvious place to shoot. It was cultural center, aesthetically pleasing, and not in rubble like most of the city. Most importantly though, was that the setting wasn’t too strong or overpowering for the story.

With this in mind, we are forced to reevaluate the settings of our bookend scenes that we had originally chosen. The meeting scene takes place in a garden, of which its former and prevalent use as a hunting ground is evident in the sculptures that our American character passes by. In addition, we see the Siegesäule, erected in celebration of Germany’s unification. Do these frames of reference put forth unintended implications? Are they too strong for the scene? Also, it seems rather unlikely that a Berlin local would go all the way to the center of Tiergarten for some casual reading. An alternative park bench setting would be a quiet, non-touristy, neighborhood location in which background architecture may subtly represent Berlin.

Again, is our use of Brandenburg Gate for the departure scene too strong, and/or cliché, of a setting? And still yet, even if we were to change the angle in order to juxtapose the construction site cranes with a symbol of the past as a means of suggesting that they simply did not notice being at Brandenburg Gate and that it was merely coincidental? This is a bit far-fetched though, and considering its precise location within the city we now realize that this would not be a considered place of departure in modern day Berlin. Technology has developed means of transportation, such as the U bahn, which is a much more likely point of departure. The U bahn is a part of Berlin that we have used everyday and will be engrained into our memory, of which any particular sound or resemblance will spark association. This part of Berlin will also most likely be the location of our last memory in Berlin.

We must find ourselves fortunate to have had the opportunity to film in this saved city, where so many other filmmakers did not have the same freedoms to film where and what we want that we have enjoyed. We can take pleasure in the moment during a walk along the grave of the structure that symbolized a time of oppression. Our film though, will capture that moment and preserve it throughout time as a memory capsule containing our experiences here in Berlin. It is important that through place that we create in our backdrop, we properly convey the Berlin that we have come to know and will always remember.