Berlin 2020 Filmmaking Workshop: Framing Urban Memory Via Short Films

A one-week workshop for individuals interested in filming architecture and the city. Between 16 and 20 March at ZK/U in Berlin, we will benefit from feature and short films to discuss urban architecture, and to re-produce Berlin through filming. The target of the workshop is to make a short film within the boundaries of the city. As a Berliner, or an outsider to the city, participants will be making a film in and about Berlin within the theme of “Urban Memory.” The workshop is open to all, and film experience is not required.

This is a full-time workshop. Please contact Gul Kacmaz Erk (g.kacmaz@qub.ac.uk) if you have any questions. Please send her an email including your name, profession + organization, or area of study + school, email address and phone number, and a brief explanation why you would like to attend the workshop and whether or not you have past experience (up to 100 words).

Here is more infromation on the workshop:

This is a one‐week practice-based workshop open to all who are interested in the relationship between architecture and cinema. No filmmaking experience is required. The target of the workshop is to make a short film not longer than 3 minutes within the boundaries of the city of Berlin. As part of the CACity (Cinema and Architecture in the City) Research Group activities, founded in 2014 at Queen’s University Belfast, and in partnership with ZK/U (Centre for Art and Urbanism), architecture and film specialist Dr Gul Kacmaz Erk has devised Berlin 2020 for individuals interested in filming architecture and the city, in collaboration with filmmaker Paddy Cahill and architectural historian Christopher S. Wilson.

Film makes use of design variables such as light, colour, movement, texture, pattern, and scale as a significant aspect of its narrative. Form, space, time, context, nature, sound, text, fabric and other design elements are all included in the core of a film. So how can we benefit from filmmaking to express our ideas on architecture and the city? Can film be a bridge between architects/artists /intellectuals and the public? With these questions in mind, we will discuss films about architecture and the city, and re‐produce Berlin through film. In doing so, we intend to develop an awareness of the relationship between cinema and architecture in the city.

Whether you are a Berlin inhabitant or a visitor to the city, you will be making a short film in and about Berlin within the theme of Urban Memory. The theme may include concepts such as adaptation, construction, cityscape, conservation, context, demolition, forgetting, mutation, place, present/absent, recalling, recovery, relocation, remembrance, time, transformation, transition, urban sites, urban wounds, and undesirable past, all of which will be explored throughout the workshop in relation to the films screened and produced. In this workshop, theory and practice are brought together. A theoretical basis on the relationship of film and urban architecture will be provided through discussion. We will explore the world of cinema to portray our ideas about cities and the built environment.

The participants are expected to familiarise themselves with the software of their choice before the workshop. This could be as simple as iMovie (Mac), Movie Maker (PC) or the more professional Final Cut Pro. They are also encouraged to submit their short films to a film festival, such as Architecture Film Festival Rotterdam (www.affr.nl/en/film-submisson) and/or Istanbul International Architecture and Urban Film Festival (www.archfilmfest.org).

Theme: Urban Memory

Outcome: One short film per group (maximum 3 minutes long)

Collaboration: CACity, Belfast, UK and ZK/U, Berlin, Germany

Venue: ZK/U Centre for Art and Urbanism, Siemensstraße 27, 10551 Berlin, Germany

Duration: 5 days (16-20 March 2020) Workshop meetings are scheduled for 10 am - 1 pm each day. Lunch (provided) will follow. Participants will also need to work on their films at other times, so please be prepared to spend the whole week with us! Please see Process and Timetable for details.

Tutor: Gül Kacmaz Erk, Architect, Belfast

Co-tutors: Paddy Cahill, Filmmaker, Dublin, and Christopher S. Wilson, Architecural Historian, Florida

CACity website: https://www.cacity.org/workshop

Number of participants: 20 (open to all who is 18 or older)

Group work: Expected. Participants will work in pairs.

Film experience: Not required (but welcome). Participants are encouraged to familiarise themselves with the editing software they intend to use (such as iMovie for Mac or Windows Movie Maker). One week before the workshop, we will send you editing tutorials to practice.

Language: English

FAQs

Are there minimum age requirements to enter the event?

18+