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But, what is the artistry of a film and how does the treatment of film material differ from the practices of artists in other arts?

Film is the means of recording the movement of reality: factual, specific, within time and unique; of reproducing the moment, again and again, instant by instant, in its fluid transformation. When it is masterly made, the filmmaker's conception becomes a living witness of the world that can excite and hold the audience, plunging it into a rushing current of newly created reality. It is then that "film-as-art" is born.

In the creative process of film-making one could find many different ways of treating the material. The majority of films that you can see in theaters on TV are constructed in traditional, narrative or theatrical writing styles which link images through the linear and rigidly logical development of the plot. That sort of conventional way involves arbitrarily forcing sequences into obedience to some abstract notion of order. For "The Freemasons" we chose a much different approach.

The film material of "The Freemasons" was put together in a way which works according to the logic of a person's thought - the stream of consciousness. This was the rationale that dictated the sequence of events and the editing which formed them into a whole. The birth, development of thought and connections between associative ideas in the human mind are subject to laws of their own and sometimes demand forms of expression which are quite different from the patterns of logical speculation.

In our film there are many examples of poetic linking and associative connections both between sequences and inside the scenes themselves. Such examples are: the story about Goethe's death as it connects through his bedroom window to the Buchenwald concentration camp; John Wayne, the movie star ties unexpectedly to Apollo 11 voyage to the Moon; or the glitter of a trombone in the orchestra pit transforms into the poster of the "Magic Flute" opera. These, and many others in the film, follow the inner logic of the thought processes and associative thinking.

Through this kind of poetic connections, feeling is heightened and the spectator is made more active. He or she (the viewer) becomes a participant in the process of discovering meaning in the presented subject, unsupported by ready-made deductions from the material or more than embarrassingly obvious pointers by the director. Complexities of thought, the fundamentally poetic as well as the dramatic fiber of a subject, such as Freemasonry, do not have to be placed into framework of the bluntly cliched and obvious.

The method whereby the filmmaker obliges the audience to build the separate parts into a whole, and to think about them beyond what has been overtly stated, is the only one that puts the audience on a par with the filmmaker in their perception of the film and the subject that was presented. When less than everything has been said about the subject, you still have "room" to think further. We discovered in our research, that this is precisely the case with the Masonic method of teaching as well.

Through ritual, symbolism and allegories, the Freemasons are required to deduce their own conclusions and discover the truth in the deep complexity of their society. As in any art, over simplification of an idea means but one thing: Blasphemy! The best films always possess an inner power that is concentrated within the image and comes across to the audience in the form of feelings. It should induce tension in direct response to the narrative logic which the filmmaker has rooted deeply in the material of his subject, in this case, Freemasonry.

Because of the shortness of time and limited space I am not going to analyze the film from the point of it's historical content (why we chose different story segments or it's particular narrative line) I will instead concentrate on a very specific connotative level of the film.

Because film is a product of culture, it has resonance that goes beyond its most obvious meanings. The image of a gavel in "The Freemasons" for example, is more than what it appears to be. For example, the Masonic connotation of the gavel is as a working tool associated with the three principal officers of the lodge.

In addition to the culturally determined connotations, (for example, a top hat represents the idea of elegance or dress-convention in some solemn ceremonies), film has its own specific connotative ability. The same top hat used in the context of a Masonic film means something completely different. In addition to that, the filmmaker makes some specific choices regarding the images: the gavel and the Worshipful Master are filmed from a certain angle; the camera moves or remains static; the colors are bright or dark; the lighting is from the back or front; the actor is young or old; the shot is held for a long time or briefly, and so on.

These are specific aids to cinematic connotation. To use the old cliché, a picture is worth a thousand words. Our reading of the connotation of a specific shot depends of its having been chosen from a range of other possible shots. The connotative sense we comprehend comes from the shot being compared, not necessarily consciously, with its unrealized companions in the paradigm, or general model, of this type of shot. A shot of Master of the lodge in tails and top hat with a gavel in his hand, for example, conveys a sense that the Master is dignified, serious, elegant and even mysterious. He appears ready for some kind of ceremony, because we consciously or unconsciously compare it with, say, a guy in dirty jeans and greasy hair, which would diminish the importance of the character or the event.

Conversely, when the significance of the Master depends not on the shot compared with other potential shots, but rather on the shot compared with actual shots that precede or follow it, then we can speak of its SYNTAGMATIC connotation; that is, the meaning which adheres to it because it is compared with other shots that we do see. Example: The moving shot of a huge, magnificent pipe organ, dissolves to a shot of the Master taking his hat off, which dissolves to a moving shot of the chaplain and people in tuxedos praying, and so on. This connotes the beautiful, precise and solemn ritual of an elegant Masonic lodge whose members respect spirituality and the tradition of the lodge to which they belong.

These two axis of meaning - the paradigmatic and the syntagmatic - have real value as tools for understanding what a film means. As an art, film depends almost entirely upon these two sets of choices. After a filmmaker has decided what to shoot, the two pressing questions are: how to shoot it (what choices to make: the paradigmatic) and how to edit it (the context of that shot's presentation: the syntagmatic).

Now, the shot of the W. Master will have different meaning for different people.

1. For the non-Masonic viewer, the man in tails with top-hat and apron might connote many associative connections (such as: Leader of a strange cult, president of the eccentric millionaire's club, some British royal family reunion member or character from some forties' movie) and none of which will connect with the "Rising Sun in the East".

2. For the Masonic viewer, on the other hand, with his paradigmatic experiences in the Masonic order, besides his already judgmental associative connections about the excellence of the ritual or dress -code, "Rising Sun" might very well be the metaphor to connect.

Let's return now to our analysis of The Freemasons' symbolism.

First and foremost, the guiding principal for constructing all major elements in the film was number THREE, the sacred number in Masonry. As Allen Roberts wrote in his book "Craft and Its Symbols": " You began your symbolic journey to the Middle Chamber by climbing three steps. These were representative of the three Stationed Officers of the lodge, the Worshipful Master, Senior and Junior Wardens. This assured you that you were not traveling alone. You were being assisted by the Craft everywhere. Then, too, you had God with you. Three is symbolic of Deity. You have become a vital part of the Mystic Tie that is Freemasonry."* Yes, three steps, three degrees, the three Great and three Lesser lights, and so on, they are all the integral parts which form the ritual, symbolic and philosophical structure of Masonry. So, "THE RULE OF THREE" became the guidance in structuring elements on all three levels of film's connotation: 1. THE NARRATIVE; 2. THE SYMBOLIC; and 3. RHYTHMIC.