Arts & International Affairs: Volume 3, Issue 1, Spring 2018 | Page 39

ARTS & INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS
If I were to advise other filmmakers regarding similar circumstances, counterintuitively
the best way to inform a plan for a shoot like this is to begin at the end. When you have
experience constructing event-led narratives at the editing stage, you develop a better
understanding of the footage that is needed on location. One way to look at it is as a
painter would his palette: a clear vision of the piece will illuminate how you reach that
end result. The key word in any filmmaking practice is sequence. This means a beginning,
a middle and an end�or context, content and conclusion. This should be at the forefront
of one’s mind in deciding what to shoot and when.
The project was most interesting from an anthropological perspective. As the week progressed,
I observed how the social experiment evolved in this communally inhabited
space. I wondered what aims and objectives this makeshift community would conjure up
in such a short space of time. In my mind, the answers eventually became the questions
that the group posed to themselves.
In conclusion to this particular project, I would cite Paolo Freire’s method of pedagogy,
in which the components of an event become reciprocal in the sharing of knowledge
both collectively and individually. The participants attending the programme contributed
to a discussion, while I took part in observing and affecting the outcome that has
now been edited and transformed into shared knowledge in the form of films, which can
perpetuate the experience to others.
Day 1: Highs and Lows
Terms such as highbrow and lowbrow culture are used to distinguish taste in art and participation
in such activities. It is important to recognise how various art forms fit into each
category, but also how they interact or are excluded from one another in cultural programming
and writing. Highs and lows can equally stand for exclusion and inclusion of any sort�for
example, social, political, sexual�in and through art. In other words, what sorts or arts and
cultural artefacts obtain high versus low standing, and what are the connections between these
highs and lows and society?
Zach Marschall summarises the first day of in-person deliberations in Edinburgh on
the theme “Highs and Lows,” reflecting on participants’ experiences and their attendance
at the opera “Don Giovanni” the night before.
Highs and Lows Film by Guy Gotto (password: aia37)
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