Editing Triumph of the Will (section)

==Production==
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-R99035, Adolf Hitler und Leni Riefenstahl crop.jpg|thumb|Hitler congratulates Riefenstahl in 1934]]

Riefenstahl, a popular German actress, had directed her first film called ''[[Das blaue Licht]]'' (''The Blue Light'') in 1932.{{sfn|Rother|2003|p=35}} Hitler was impressed with ''Das blaue Licht'', and in 1933 asked her to direct a film about the Nazis' annual [[Nuremberg Rally]], which became ''[[Der Sieg des Glaubens]]'' (''The Victory of Faith'').{{sfn|Rother|2003|p=51}} Hitler chose Riefenstahl as he wanted the film as "artistically satisfying"<ref>{{cite journal|last=Starkman|first=R|year=1998|page=23|title=Mother of All Spectacles: Ray Müller's "The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl"|journal=Film Quarterly|volume=51|number=2 Winter, 1997–1998|publisher=University of California|jstor=3697138|doi=10.2307/3697138}}{{subscription required | date= April 2012}}</ref> as possible to appeal to a non-political audience, but he also believed that propaganda must admit no element of doubt.<ref name="PS2">{{cite book|chapter=War Propaganda|last=Hitler|first=Adolph|title=Primary Sources 2: Interwar and World War II|year=2000|editor1-last=Marwick|editor1-first=A|editor2-last=Simpson|editor2-first=W|publisher=Milton Keynes, The Open University|pages=79–82|isbn=0-7492-8559-1}}</ref>

''The Victory of Faith'' faced numerous technical problems, including a lack of preparation (Riefenstahl reported having just a few days) and Hitler's apparent unease at being filmed.{{sfn|Rother|2003|p=55}} Though the film apparently did well at the box office, it later became a serious embarrassment to the Nazis after SA Leader [[Ernst Röhm]], who had a prominent role in the film, was executed during the Night of the Long Knives. All references to Röhm were ordered to be erased from German history, which included the destruction of all copies of ''The Victory of Faith''. It was considered a [[lost film]] until a copy turned up in the 1980s in the [[German Democratic Republic]]'s film archives.<ref name="Leni Riefenstahl: A Life">{{cite book|last1=Trimborn|first1=Jürgen|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ql_FeGlS2oIC&q=%22Der%20Sieg%20des%20Glaubens%22&pg=PP142|title=Leni Riefenstahl: A Life|date=2008|publisher=Farrar, Straus and Giroux|isbn=978-1-4668-2164-4|language=en|access-date=12 April 2020}}</ref>

In April 1934, Riefenstahl was commissioned by Hitler to create a successor film to ''The Victory of Faith''.{{sfn|Rother|2003|p=61}} Riefenstahl however, remained focused on production of her own film ''[[Tiefland (film)|Tiefland]]'' (which was released only in 1954), while fellow director [[Walter Ruttmann]] worked on the party film. Ruttmann's ideals departed significantly from ''The Victory of Faith'' and sought to reorient the focus of the film onto the history of the Nazi movement rather than Hitler himself.{{sfn|Rother|2003|p=62}} Hitler visited the studio on 6 December 1934 and permanently removed Ruttmann from the project, leaving Riefenstahl in sole control of what would become ''Triumph des Willens'' (''Triumph of the Will'').{{sfn|Rother|2003|p=63}} Riefenstahl claimed that she attempted to avoid doing the film by committing to ''Tiefland'' and having Ruttmann doing it instead.{{sfn|Niven|2018|p=72}}

===Filming===
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-2004-0312-503, Nürnberg, Reichsparteitag, Marsch der Wehrmacht.jpg|thumb|Riefenstahl and her film crew in front of Hitler's car during a parade in Nuremberg]]

The film follows a design similar to ''The Victory of Faith'', with the city of Nuremberg scenes, even to the shot of a cat, included in the city driving sequence in both films.{{sfn|Rother|2003|p=58}} [[Herbert Windt]] reused much of his musical score from Victory of Faith, in {{lang|de|Triumph des Willens}}, which he also scored.

Riefenstahl's staff had sixteen cameramen, who all had an assistant of their own, using thirty cameras and four complete sound-equipment trucks. 120 assistants worked on the film.{{sfn|Welch|1983|pp=125}} Riefenstahl shot an estimated 61 hours of footage to create the two hour film.<ref>{{cite news |title=A perfect eye for mythology of the Nazis |url=https://www.smh.com.au/national/a-perfect-eye-for-mythology-of-the-nazis-20030913-gdhdsq.html |access-date=10 September 2022 |work=The Sydney Morning Herald |date=13 September 2003 |language=en}}</ref>

Riefenstahl shot ''Triumph of the Will'' on a nominal budget of roughly 280,000&nbsp;RM (approximately US$110,000 in 1934, $1.54&nbsp;m in 2015).<ref>{{cite web|last1=Barsam|first1=Richard|title=Filmguide to Triumph of the Will|url=https://web.stanford.edu/class/ihum42/filmguide.pdf|access-date=28 February 2015}}</ref> However Hans Saupert, chief of staff for [[Franz Xaver Schwarz]], claimed that the actual cost of the film was 1 million RM. Riefenstahl claimed that the film was financed by her own efforts and a distribution agreement with Ufa, but she received a large amount of financial support from the Nazis directly and indirectly through construction projects for the rally. While being interrogated after World War II, she admitted to having a Reich Party Account, and she was reimbursed by the Nazis for all expenditures.{{sfn|Niven|2018|pp=72-73}}

Extensive preparations were facilitated by the cooperation of party members, the military, and high-ranking Nazis like Goebbels. In 1975, [[Susan Sontag]] claimed that "The Rally was planned not only as a spectacular mass meeting, but as a spectacular propaganda film."<ref name="Sontag_1975">{{cite magazine | first=Susan | last=Sontag | author-link=Susan Sontag | title=Fascinating Fascism | magazine=[[The New York Review of Books]] | date=6 February 1975 | url=http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/1975/feb/06/fascinating-fascism/?pagination=false}}</ref> Goebbels wanted film propaganda to be done using subtle methods, but ''Triumph of the Will'', which was the opposite of this belief, was produced against Goebbels' wishes.{{sfn|Welch|1983|pp=125}}

[[Albert Speer]], Hitler's personal architect, designed the set in Nuremberg and did most of the coordination for the event. Pits were dug in front of the speakers' platform so Riefenstahl could get the camera angles she wanted, and tracks were laid so that her cameramen could get traveling shots of the crowd. When the audio from rough cuts was not up to par, major party leaders and high-ranking public officials reenacted their speeches in a studio for her.<ref>{{Cite book | last = Berenbaum | first = Michael | author-link = Berenbaum | title = The World Must Know: The History of the Holocaust as Told in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum | publisher = United States Holocaust Memorial Museum | year = 2007 | location = Washington, D.C. | pages = 24–25 | isbn = 978-0-316-09134-3}}</ref>

===Editing===
Riefenstahl was visited by high-ranking Nazis during the editing process. Hitler suggested the title ''Triumph of the Will'' in September 1934. Goebbels came on 5 December, Hitler and [[Julius Schaub]] on 6 December, and Hess on 7 December. She started with 130,000 metres of film and reduced it to 3,000 metres by March 1935. The final product was almost twice as long as ''Victory of Faith''.{{sfn|Niven|2018|pp=76-78}}

[[Walter von Reichenau]] visited Riefenstahl in December 1934 to see the footage she shot of the military. He was disappointed that Riefenstahl was not going to include the footage in the final film due to the poor quality caused by bad weather during the military exercises. She later produced ''[[Day of Freedom: Our Armed Forces]]'' which focused on the military at the 1935 Nuremberg Rally.{{sfn|Niven|2018|pp=82-83}}