Entry Two: Week III.

today i had an excllent day of filming with chris h. we met up at heinrich-heine strasse in the morning, filmed a few u-bahn arrivals and departures° and eventually made it to potsdamer platz and got some cool shots in the holocaust memorial blocks. we both were totally into the mood that the blocks create. it reminded me of thorsten's teaching on negative monuments or monuments that don't necessarily celebrate, but remind and initiate dialogue. this holocaust memorial is totally an abstarct piece made up of stone blocks of varying size arranged in a grid. the grid sinks down into the earth and different elevations roll throughout the memorial. so, together the stones form a disorienting labirynth, but individually they imitate gravestones. there is a very simplistic and beautiful anonymity to the memorial -- as no specific individuals are memorialized -- and a resonating darkness that reminds the spectator of one of the most outlandish crinmes against humanity. in one respect, the memorial comments on the confusion, pain, and loss of an entire people/nation and in another respect, is for every individual life destroyed in the holocaust.

heavvvvy.
(i was rather prturbedto see the memorial is frequented by hide-and-seek players. is that appropriate?).

chris and i got really arty with our camera work, using the looming clouds as a backdrop to our shots within the memorial. i hope we will be able to use the footage to embody loneliness or isolation, but since we haven't really nailed down what our goals are as far as what feelings we'd like to explore in our film, that could change. i think i need to talk to my group.

°i have this really great idea to show a train coming into the station at normal speed and then, with a time-sapce jolt -- thawck! -- bring the speed of the picture way down so that the train is moving in slow motion. i think this will have a cool effect in emphasizing the movement and speed of the shot, even slowed down.