Andreas EYE Moodboard

Initially I wanted to shoot all footage for my project (see below) over the winter vacation to being able to do the editing in January. I organized the locations, made appointments for the shoot, and rented the equipment, but was not able to pick up my equipment from the studio on Saturday, the 22nd of December before leaving to Germany. The building was closed and the security staff already on holidays. I intended to shoot most of it in Germany and had to cancel the shootings. I'm still on it to arrange everything newly to maybe shoot in January, but I don't know if it's possible for everyone. I'm trying to find a solution for that.

As a backup plan I edited another completely different short film. Basically it is about the german actress Hildegard Knef that became most famous after second world war. In my film she is recalling her career with its ups and downs (for example she once was invited to Hollywood, but would've had to change her name and pretend she's austrian).

Der geschenkte Gaul (working title)

Synopsis

In this short film the German actress/singer Hildegard Knef silently recalls her career with its turbulent ups and downs. Knef became most famous after World War II. During the Battle of Berlin she dressed as a soldier to stay with her love. After being captured by the Soviets she was able to escape the prison camp and return to Berlin. Her two best known film roles were in ‘Die Mörder sind unter uns’ and ‘Die Sünderin’, in which she performed a brief nude scene, which caused a big scandal in Germany. She even was invited to Hollywood, but would've had to change her name to Gilda Christian and pretend she's Austrian, but she refused this offer. Even though, some English-language films credit her as Hildegard Neff or Hildegarde Neff. 1955 Knef was playing an important role in the American musical ‘Silk Stockings’ by Cole Porter. After taking a break from acting, she started a successful singing career in which she released 23 Albums. Hildegard Knef died 1 February 2002 at the age of 76.

Logline

In this short film german actress/singer Hildegard Knef silently recalls the past of her turbulent post-war film career that was riddled with scandals.

Visuality

In order to stay in the overall topic of the disobedient narrative/non-linear narrative, the video shall not be too literal in its visuality. The turbulent career is being transferred through the acting (mimic, gestures).

Credits

Creative Direction & Cinematography: Andreas Drosdz
Actress: Victoria Voss
Costume & Make-Up: Charlotte Labenz
Cinematography: Andreas Drosdz
Additional Art Direction: Johanna Rafalski

Based on the theatre play »So oder so – Hildegard Knef« by Mona-Julia Sabaschus

Special thanks to the Stadtheater Ingolstadt

Bibliography

KNEF, Hildegard, 1970. Der geschenkte Gaul. Bertelsmann. Gütersloh

1) individual presentation

What are you planning to make?

Work in progress

How is the moving image becoming its sense? Where does this sense end? And if it ends, what is beyond this end? This exercise is trying to find the „modest“ or „appropriate“ amount of communication. It shall remove decoration, accessories and digression or even add all these redundancies to find the essence of the disobedient narrative.

20. November 2018:

The term of brevitas has been explored a lot in verbal/written communication extensively (see my research on that here) Also in product design, architecture (baroque vs minimalist design) or visual communication there has been big research on the topic of reduction vs excess. I want to explore „brevitas“ in moving image and bring it into a series of semiotics.

How is it related to non-linear?

It will be non-linear.

Literature suggestions from Steve

“brevity”, including the ideas of redundancy, economy &c

Michal Hobart and Zachary Schiffman: Information Ages

(p 90-111 covers Aquinas and the glosser and summa as forms of abbreviation. They were methods which helped deal with medieval information overload. )

Claude Shannon and Warren Weaver: The Mathematical Theory of Communication.(redundancy, information as measurable unit)

James W. Carey: A Cultural Approach to Communication AND Technology and Ideology. The case of the telegraph (1989)

In the first of these texts Carey outlines two views of communication:


1) the transmission model of communication is associated with imparting, sending, transmitting, giving, passing along and is historically linked to modes of transportation. There was an equivalence, until the telegraph came along, of the movement of information and the movement of goods and people, which was linked to the building of infrastructures and the maintenance of the same. Transmission of messages over distance was “for the purposes of control”. As the pragmatist Dewy had made clear (in 1916), transport and communications had been linked since the time of the Egyptians. Rapid transportation allowed distribution of information. (Electronic) telegraphy offers not only the “modification of matter but the transmission of thought”. For Carey (and Dewey) religious undercurrent is central to the transmission model.

2) the ritual model of communication centres on sharing, participation, association and fellowship (the values of social media, incidentally), possession of a common faith or belief; community, consensus, communion. The ritual model does not emphasise the extension of messages in space but the maintenance of a society in time.It is not about imparting information but representing shared beliefs (this view helps us understand the development of media over the years- see Fox News or Infowars, for example). Furthermore the prayer, the chant, the ceremony ensures the construction and maintenance of an ordered, meaningful world. The control and maintenance of human action is central to the ritual model.

References

Narrative inspiration:

Quentin Dupieux – WRONG (sundance teaser)

Visual inspiration for minimalism and excess:

Jonas Lindström – ES WAR GUT ABER DAS IST BESSER

Jonas Lindström – MMOTHS – EVA

metahaven – POSESSED Trailer

metahaven – THE SPRAWL (Propaganda about Propaganda) Trailer

Starting points

Research on the topic As much as necessary - as less as possible in relation to modern media reception. In terms of creating the visuals I would just start doing asap to create imagery that can be talked about. Feedback is essential.

2) collaboration

Possible