Learn

Are you a tourist or a traveller?

Have you ever wondered the reasons why people travel? Why do you travel? Is it a part of your job, are you visiting family, or are you going on holidays? In any case, thousands of people travel everyday for their own personal reasons, but what do they take with them from each travel?

This post is the last one, out of a series of three one-minute films ‘MOVE-EAT-LEARN’. Director Rick Mereki, along with Andrew Lees as an actor and Tim White as a cameraman collaborated in creating these three short films that started as an assignment from a travel agency. They were asked to shoot a very short film around the world, for STA Travel Australia. Their adventure started, and with only 2 cameras available, they travelled 38.000 miles which is approximately two times around the earth. They recorded their discoveries and  experiences and brought back with them almost one terabyte of raw video footage, from which they only kept the best parts to create three 1-minute-clips. The  music of all films is an original and composed by Kelsey James.

The video shown, ‘LEARN,  is exactly what its titles suggests. With this film, the director and his team present their adventures and experiences throughout their travels. The most significant thing about the video, is that they don’t simply present the different countries and locations that they explored, but the new things they tried, experienced and learned. They believe that what is most important about travelling is learning more  about the places you visit. It’s not only about walking around, visiting touristic attractions and following tourist books, but engaging with the people of each country and making the effort to learn more about their lifestyle and culture.

Currently, tourism is an essential figure for modernity and one of the largest industries in the globe as it is an essential element in the structure of the economy of industrially developed countries. In the form of a economic practice, tourism is a commodification of space, place and movement. But it is a cultural practice as well. So why do people travel? Tourism can take many different forms and mean different things to people; economic and cultural practice, visual culture, mediation, ritual  performance, pleasure, identity status, power, wealth, freedom, search for  happiness, search for the authentic sacred. In any case, the meaning of this short film, is that we need to take advantage of our travels, and learn as much as we can from them.

The following quote I included, is one by the director of the short films, Rick Mereki,  after he was asked to give his Top Travel Tip, at one of his interviews from found at the Hostelling Blog.

“Open yourself up to everything and leave all your personal, cultural baggage and your insecurities at the door. The most amazing thing about travelling to a new country is that it allows you to shed the skin of who you are, you can be free to be the kind of person you have always wanted to be. Then open your heart up to everyone and everything and the world will open up in front of you”

Don’t leave everything you saw and experienced behind, take it with you. Don’t be a tourist, be a traveller. Don’t just observe, experience. Don’t just travel, Learn

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MOVE

A form of art that I haven’t written a post so far, is film. Having numerous film classes in my current course, I have become very interested in watching and creating short films such as advertisements, promos, campaigns and documentaries. For that reason, I decided to research a very talented, in my opinion director; Rick Mereki. What made me choose the specific director was his great passion for travel. This post is going to be the first out of  three that I will be posting, all created from Rick Mereki and his travelling experiences, called: MOVE-EAT-LEARN. 

Rick Mereki, along with Andrew Lees as an actor and Tim White as a cameraman collaborated in creating these three short films that started as  an assignment from a travel agency. They were asked to shoot a very short film around the world, for STA Travel Australia. Their adventure started, and with only 2 cameras available, they travelled 38.000 miles which is approximately two times around the earth. They recorded their discoveries and  experiences and brought back with them almost one terabyte of raw video footage, from which they only kept the best parts to create three 1-minute-clips. The  music of the films is an original composed by Kelsey James.

I can’t simply choose what it is that I love about this film, because I would have to say everything. The music makes you feel like a part of the experience, the quick pace of the film makes you fully committed to it and does not let you get your eyes of the screen. Moreover, direction here is excellent. The way one short take follows the next one is directed and filmed in an incredible and detailed way, that makes the effect of the film so successful. In that way, Mereki has managed to present footage from six weeks, and shots from numerous countries just in sixty seconds.

In ‘MOVE’, every single second is precious, plays an significant part of the whole concept and has an different meaning. The concept of MOVE is powerful; showing people that traveling inspires us to do, to dare and to discover what lies beyond the consolations of our comfort zones.

Researching more about Rick Mereki, I was reading on of his interviews online, from the ‘Travel and Leisure’ website, and I was very interested to the following question, that was asking the director ‘What has travel come to mean after visiting so many countries in just six weeks’

The more you travel, the more you become attached and connected to the world as a whole. I think that if a greater number of us spent time outside our comfort zones and immersed in other cultures, even for a little while, it would help reduce the “Us vs. Them” mentality that still exists in the world. People will always naturally base their beliefs and opinions on what is best for their family, their city, their country…but I think travel helps create mindsets that are more global.

What I love in such short but original films is the effect they have on me. The specific film gave me the motivation and inspiration to dare, to want to do something different, to take the time to travel around, discover the beauty of our world and experience it in my own, personal way. 

How did this film make you feel?

Thank you for reading,

Elli