...We are in the business of making pictures here, not films! Your chracters talk to much and don't do enough, kid...

But it's not all just fun and games, with wild running around shenanigans and alcohol consumption loosening our tongues so that we could/would/should possibly/maybe/eventually speak our broken German to some unsuspecting native speaker.

No, no...we are making movies.

Last week our group made a little short film dealing with "object" and the zone of interaction with the object. We chose a washing machine. You can watch the video here:



We started off by shooting a series of disjointed shots that we were going to assemble together much like a jigsaw puzzle. But then I realized that we were missing the simple beauty of the master shot. The master shot is nice because you can still assemble your film like a jigsaw puzzle, only you use the master shot much like you would the cover to the box in which the puzzle came.

And let me tell you, it makes things so much easier in editing.

The day after we shot, the group gathered around my computer so that I could walk them through the video capture process. Later on that night we started constructing the timeline of our little short. We took the master shot and laid it down first. We then took several close-ups and medium shots and positioned them at their proper places. A few snips here and there, and we were done. We added a "burglar" out take for a bit of humor, and that was that. We had no real ending for the short, because laundry is a cyclical process...one in which you are making some clothes dirty while cleaning the rest of your clothes.

Lately, our minds have turned to our larger final project. It has morphed into something quite different than what we had originally considered. On the second night I was here, I came up with this idea of doing a love story set in Berlin. I pitched it to a few people, co-wrote the script with Kelly, and then started to think about how daunting the task would be. The other people in my group had similar thoughts, culminating in Sean's very practical question (which I'm paraphrasing here): How do you make a love story set in Berlin, about Berlin, when you haven't been to Berlin?

I sent the script to Eric and Jason. Eric had some very good, practical advise and then suggested that we consider making a film about making a film. This would allow us to still use bits of the script as written. We could still shoot certain parts of the script. Then we would comment on the film, the script, etc. It was a good idea, but it turned out only to be a jumping off point for what we are doing now.

I have had mixed feelings about this trip so far. I am in an amazing city, but at times my timidity or insecurities keep me from exploring and meeting people. It's all my fault, I know. But sometimes it's hard to get motivated. There are causes for that which I probably won't share here... But then I wonder, are they causes? Or are they excuses?

On the other hand, I have been feeling a very solid connection with my creative center. The fleeting blips of inspiration that I get in Seattle are becoming more and more frequent here in Berlin, Berlin. We shot some footage at Alexanderplatz that I'm intending to use for an abstract video coupled with an abstract audio piece that I created for a DXArts class last year. I have also started putting together our final project in my head. I'm interested to see what other people have in mind for it. Sean was going to sketch out an outline for structure this weekend.

It sounds silly and nerdy to say this, but I'm really excited because I keep thinking about transitions and sound bridges and cross cutting. I think I'm going to make something really good within the next couple of years. I can feel the electricity building and I'm starting to feel that warm tightness developing in my chest that either happens when I create or I fall in love.

Maybe I'm falling in love with creativity?