Shirerithian cinematography

Shirerithian cinematography, the science of creating motion-pictures as practised within the Imperial Republic, commonly refers to the art, process, or job of filming movies. As such it forms an integral part of the empire's information and indoctrination apparatus.

The Imperial Government's Office of Information created an elaborate system of indoctrination, especially during the Sxiro-Jingdaoese Confrontation which made use of the maturing technologies of the 17th century, including cinema. Under the Dravot-Zinkgraven Stewardships the regime had courted the masses by the means of slogans that were aimed directly at the instincts and emotions of the people, especially with regards to stirring up an atavistic hatred of those inhuman forces which Nationalist-Humanism deemed an existential threat to the survival of humanity on Micras. The regime valued the cinema for its potential in disseminating essential messages concerning loyalty, sacrifice, and an aversion to chthonic corruption, to mass audiences at a memetic level by overt narrative messaging and subliminal techniques. The interest that Steward Liv Dravot and her successor Burgrave Zinkgraven took in the cinema was not only the result of a personal fascination. The use of film for propaganda had been planned by the Imperial Government as early as 1652, when the Crypteia first established a film department, and the Shirerithian closed-network intranet was designed from its inception to carry indoctrination and entertainment media.

History

Prior to the Auspicious Occasion (1651) the largest media enterprise in Shireroth had been the "Elwynnese Commons", a state backed collection of production studios and broadcasters backed by the Vanic monarchy in subjugated Elwynn via the quite preposterous resources funnelled into the (some absurd bastardisation of a Norse name, I'll have to check), a body established solely for the purpose of aggrandising the royal cult around the person of King Noah.

Themes

Across a variety of genres, as diverse as to include horror films, noir-procedurals, and bawdy comedies about wretched foreigners, consistent themes emerge from Shirerithian movies namely:

1. Consorting with the Other will always end badly;
2. The Other is alien for a reason;
3. Life is a remorseless and horrific struggle for survival, only solidarity with kin and obedience of authority can guarantee safety;
4. Corruption is insidious;
5. Justice is foreordained, remorseless, and unavoidable.

Notable films

Title	Director	Producer / Studio	Year of Release	Synopsis	Poster
The Deeds of Noah	Gorem Vidalis	Orbis Humanitatis Studios	1655	Rape, incest, murder, blasphemy, and terrible poetry abounds in this blood and mead soaked romp through the reign of Elwynn's first, last, and only, King.	.
A Lich Walks the Night Alone	.	.	.	The last Lich in Malarboria exists in solitude, haunted by the destruction of the undying realms and sickened by the infestation of her ancestral lands by the living. Her only contact with the world of the revived humanity comes from luring drunken and lonely men back to her secluded den where she rips out and devours their hearts before dumping their corpses into the underground cesspit that serves as her "putrefact". Imperial exterminators and Malarboria's scarcely tolerated Coven of the Sun race against time and each other to catch the deathless creature before she kills again.	.
Corruption in the Flesh	.	.	.	.	.
Confessions of a Jing	.	.	.	.	.
Redemption in Blood	.	.	.	.	.
Horrors in the Ice: Tales from Hyperborea & Llaeng	.	.	.	.	.
Slap the Jing!	.	.	.	.	.
Sanct Survival	.	.	.	.	.
Salvation in the Stars	.	.	.	.	.
The Abyss Below	.	.	.	.	.
Resist and Obey	.	.	.	.	.
Splice: the Musical	.	.	.	A lowly geneticist seeks to emulate the techniques of the Deep Singers, only to realise the extent of his mistake when he succeeds.	.
The Traitor	.	.	.	An account of the myriad treacheries and deceptions of Flavian Ventaro, how his negligence occasioned the disgrace and disbandment of his legion, how his apprehension by agents of the divine law was thwarted by the intervention of a Diabolus ex Machina, and how the way of his descent to Balgurd was sealed by his taking sanctuary with the Kalgachi who castrated him and sold him to a Jingdaoese flight-engineer as a catamite. A warning for all traitors hereafter who might be tempted to evade justice by slipping beyond the bounds of the Imperial Republic.	.
Kaiser Ari: Bathe in Blood	.	.	.	.	.
Barghest the Shuck	.	.	.	A daemonic dog terrorises the peasantry and burghers of Lichport. Law-abiding, gods-fearing, denizens and citizens alike are powerless to resist its relentless pursuit and all-devouring maw. Only a small band of investigators offers any hope of rescue from the dreadful curse that has fallen upon the land.	.