Sunday, 15 November 2015

#PorteOuverte #ViveLaFrance


The atrocious and inhumane attack on Paris on Friday the 13th of November is still hard to comprehend. Destruction and terror such as this is the stuff of nightmares.
There are no words I can find to describe what happened on Friday.
The only thing I can tell you is that it is times like this that we need to come together as a species. 
Do not point ignorant blame at religions you know little about.
Terrorism has no religion and no race.
Do not cast hate at the many because of the actions of the few.

Please remember that over a hundred hearts stopped beating in Paris on Friday, do not use their deaths to excuse your own ignorance. Be considerate.

PRO-SEX FEMINISM and why it's AWESOME.



Female sexuality has always been a touchy subject even since the 60's when sex became "kind of okay". But there seems to be no logical reasoning behind it. Male sexuality is so deeply engrained into our culture that we have naked women on the front page of magazines, ready for young boys to see so they know exactly what to expect from women in their adult years.

Second wave feminism in the 1970's challenged these ideas surrounding female sexuality. Women were protesting for abortions, and in 1974 The Pill became readily available for young single women in Britain. Feminist writers such as Angela Carter appeared in the mid to late seventies publishing works explicitly exploring female sexuality; in such work we would see female characters who wanted to be dominated, menstruation was discussed like the norm that it is, and females actually enjoying sex.

In the 1980's sex-positive or pro-sex feminism became widely recognised following many protests against sex work, pornography and BDSM by some feminist organisations. Pro-sex feminism is the belief in the sexual liberation of women, following on from what was discussed in the late 70's.

Sex Work
Many feminist organisations disagree with sex workers such as strippers, exotic dancers and prostitutes. Sex-positive feminists believe that both men and women can have positive experiences in the sex work environment, providing that environment is not linked to abuse or trafficking. It is generally accepted by pro-sex feminists to not stigmatise or discriminate against sex workers, male or female.

Pornography
A lot of feminists find pornography to be sexually discriminatory to women, and a lot of women forbid their husbands or boyfriends to watch it as well as campaign to make pornography illegal. However pro-sex feminists believe that criminalising pornography violates female freedom of speech. There is nothing specifically degrading to women about pornography, and it is watched and enjoyed by men as well as women across the world. Also, professional pornography (as opposed to home-videos and revenge-porn) involve actors who have consented to be in the film.

BDSM
BDSM is the practice of bondage and sadomasochism and, like pornography, is enjoyed by both men and women all over the world. The mantra of the BDSM community is "safe, sane, consensual", meaning that true BDSM has to involve consent. With that said, discriminating against women who have chosen that lifestyle from themselves is more demeaning to their sexuality than the practice itself. Some feminists view BDSM as glorifying misogyny and rape, however roles in BDSM are not fixed to gender - males can be the submissive and females can be the dominant.

Overall, the sex-positive view of feminism is the one that will push the movement forwards. By restricting female sexuality and the exploration of this sexuality, is effectively pushing feminism back to pre-second wave. As a movement and as a community, man or woman, feminists should strive to move forwards towards complete equality. With the complete disregard for female sexual liberation from members of our own community, there is no hope.

Wednesday, 4 November 2015

Twelve Twenty Three

Cinematography in my latest short film “Twelve, Twenty Three.”


"The last thing I saw was my alarm clock flashing 12:23 before she pushed her long rotting nails through my chest, her other hand muffling my screams. I sat bolt upright, relieved it was only a dream, but as I saw my alarm clock read 12:22, I heard my closet door creak open."


The story for Twelve Twenty Three came from a series of two sentence horror stories posted on Buzzfeed. We decided to use this incredibly short story because it gave us an interesting narrative idea, yet it left us a lot of room to expand. To make the narrative flow better on screen, I decided to show time passing throughout the day leading up to the male character's death, and this is shown through the use of a flashback. The watch is shown in multiple shots to show how time has passed. Throughout the day he notices a few suspicious things, foreshadowing the event that the viewer already knows is coming. 

"In 'Friday the Thirteenth' and 'Halloween' the director uses a subjective camera in the stabbing scenes, which, essentially, makes the viewer the killer. The camera moves in on the screaming, pleading victim."
I took inspiration from these scenes in 'Friday the Thirteenth' and 'Halloween' for the shot of the male character in the bed when the female antagonist appears. The use of a shot from his POV as she slowly moves towards him like a shadow again subverts the horror genre gender stereotypes. 

 ^ click me  to watch!^

Tuesday, 7 July 2015

My Favourite Game of Thrones Characters (Season 4) SPOILERS

Those who know me, know I am utterly obsessed with Game of Thrones. I'm currently up to season four, so thought I would share a few of my favourite characters and what I like about them. There are loads of really interesting characters (and some utter arseholes) in Game of Thrones, so here are my top five favourite characters! WITH SPOILERS!

5. Tyrion Lannister
Tyrion is awesome, and Peter Dinklage does a wonderful job of portraying him. Despite being a Lannister, he's not as inherently evil as his father, nephew and sister (and Jaime has his moments.) In season four he's accused of murdering Joffrey, and held prisoner before being brought in front of the King's Court including Cersei and Tywin. (I haven't got as far as hearing the results of his trial yet!)
So far he's proved himself as being kind and caring, the way he looked after Sansa following Catelyn and Robb's deaths, despite them both not wanting to marry each other. He was always the first person to tell Joffrey he was being an arsehole...

4. Daenerys Targaryen
Daenerys is a fierce teenage queen who has been travelling across the East freeing slaves with her army of Dothraki, Unsullied and her three dragons. She's already lost her husband and son, and is on her way to Westeros to claim her rightful place on the Iron Throne after building up a big enough army to cross the narrow sea. I love Daenerys because she transformed from being a timid young girl controlled by her brother, to being a kick-ass Khaleesi with an army ten-thousand strong following her.  She knows what she wants and what is rightfully hers, it's just taking her a long time to get there.... (four series on and she's still not crossed the narrow sea)
3. Jon Snow
I love Jon Snow. I actually adore him. He's beautiful, he's noble, he cares about the family that never really truly accepted him. He struggled having to accept that Catelyn never loved him, and his bastard label makes life pretty tough for him. He had to travel with the wildlings to learn their plan of attack, and ended up falling in love with a wildling girl. And now he must lead the defence of Castle Black...

2. Theon Greyjoy (Reek)
I hated Theon at first. And I mean I literally hated him. When Ramsey Snow first captured him I felt he had it coming for sacking Winterfell, but then everything took a very dark turn and I feel so sorry for him. He has been castrated, and has become Ramsey's slave, a completely broken man now. His father even gets sent his severed penis and does nothing about it... Alfie Allen needs to win all the awards for his portrayal of Reek, and I mean that. It's so powerful to watch. The scene where his sister comes to rescue him was just too hard to watch...
1. Sansa Stark
My favourite Game of Thrones character from season four (and probably seasons two and three as well, with her father being my favourite from the first season - I just love Starks...) and she will probably continue to be my favourite for the next seasons. She's beautiful and she's strong, and she has the same loyalty that all of the Starks have. She was made to be engaged to Joffrey, and even after he wrongly killed her father she was still loyal to him even though it killed her to be. Now Joffrey's dead she's free to leave Kings Landing, and is whisked away by creepy Littlefinger to her crazy-arse Aunt and cousin in the Eerie. I know that Sansa will do some seriously awesome things in the next season, and I'm hoping that she gets some revenge on the Lannisters (an Arya-Sansa kill squad would be perfect.)

Once I catch up with season five I will do my favourite characters from that season too! They might change. I'm hoping we get introduced to some cool new ones or maybe some minor characters get a change in the spotlight. 

Thanks for reading! 

TOTD: All Time Low - Something's Gotta Give

Tune of the Day: 07/07/15 All Time Low - Something's Gotta Give
I was completely obsessed with All Time Low when I was in school, and I've loved this song since it was released. It's like I'm 15 all over again!
Follow link on photo to music video!

Sunday, 28 June 2015

Why You Should Watch: Game of Thrones [SPOILER FREE]


Game of Thrones very quickly became my favourite TV show of all time. I'd never even seen the first episode or knew remotely what it was about until March, when the first episode was screened to me in a lecture on cinematic television. I instantly became hooked and, if you've never seen it before, you will too.

The first episode gives you everything you can expect from the series as a whole: picturesque landscapes, amazing characters, breasts, incest and cliff-hangers. One of those doesn't sound as appealing as the others, but that's part of the show: the shock factor. There are some gruesome elements in GOT, lots of gorey battles and disgusting deaths. I've never been one for gore, but its just excusable in this show...

Wiki Summary for 'Winter is Coming': King Robert Baratheon majestically arrives in Winterfell, the home of his old and trusted friend, Eddard Stark, Warden of the North, with an important offer.

On the eastern continent, the exiled Princess Daenerys Targaryen marries Khal Drogo, a warlord of the Dothraki with tens of thousands of warriors at his command. Her brother, Viserys, callously plans to win Drogo's allegiance with the marriage, so that he may return home to Westeros and reclaim the Iron Throne, which was seized by force from his father by Robert.

In the frozen lands, beyond the Wall, the wildlings are on the move to the alarm of the Night's Watch. But something else is stirring even farther north.

Click on Jon Snow (swooon) to watch the first episode.

TOTD: Scroobius Pip vs. Dan le Sac - You Will See Me

Tune of the day: 28/06
Scroobius Pip vs. Dan le Sac - You Will See Me

This song made me have a really weird kind of epiphany. Warning: it will make you feel really weird. It brought a lot of feelings to the surface, and, I did cry a little! 
You have been warned!
Also, the video is amazing!
Click photo for link.
Copyright © 2014 Emily Rose