Shirerithian cinematography: Difference between revisions

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*Novasolum Studios, patrons: [[shire:ESB Group|ESB Group]]
*Novasolum Studios, patrons: [[shire:ESB Group|ESB Group]]
*Orbis Humanitatis, patrons: [[Nationalist & Humanist Party]], [[shire:House of Osman|House of Osman]]
*Orbis Humanitatis, patrons: [[Nationalist & Humanist Party]], [[shire:House of Osman|House of Osman]]
*Silver Era Studios, patrons: Safir community in Shireroth
*Silver Era Studios, patrons: the safir community in Shireroth


===Distributors===
===Distributors===

Revision as of 23:07, 17 March 2018

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 Elwynns Konungurs Hirð, a body established[1] 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.

Censorship

A certification from the Office of Information is vital if a film is to entertain even the faintest hope of a general release.

Film censorship is the responsibility of the Office of Information, although typically the censors tend to work collaboratively with the established film studios rather than in an adversarial manner, preferring to guide film projects towards ticking off the key themes favoured by the ruling powers of the Imperial Republic. Nonetheless, certification by the OI remains an essential step for securing a film's lucrative general release.

There remain three key points where the censors will intervene:

  1. Criticism of the Imperial Republic, the Imperial Forces, the Kaiser or Kalirion Dynasty;
  2. Glamorisation of heresy, including gnosticism, Vanic dogma, and the daemonic;
  3. Favourable or insufficiently critical portrayals of Jings, Pallisicans, and Bassarids.

Studios, distributors & persons of note

Studios

Distributors

Directors

  • Lucile Blavatsky (Novasolum Studios), prodigious talent, addicted to prescription medications and lithe gymnasts;
  • Tristam Havroc (Silver Era Studios), temperamental and stubborn perfectionist, cursed by a persecution complex;
  • Mortis Herne (Novasolum Studios), pretentious churner of horror-flicks;
  • Gorem Vidalis (Orbis Humanitatis Studios), notorious doyen of the cinematic scene, owns a casting-bed, a horribly racist snob even by Shirerithian standards.

Screenwriters

Actors & actresses

It should be noted that the "big three" studios maintain a system whereby actors and actresses are bound to the studios under long term contracts. Accordingly the creative talent in Shireroth does not enjoy the same level of independence or big-name recognition enjoyed by "stars" of the cinema in other countries.

  • Novasolum Studios
    • Giles Drothak
    • Victor Kern
    • Viviene Maurice

Notable films

Title Director Producer / Studio Year of Release Synopsis / Notes 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 . . 1655 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 . . 1655 After a silly altercation with the local squire, the son of a publican in rural Ran runs away with an Octalune caravan to begin a new life in the west. As they cross out of Shireroth into the ungoverned lands it becomes apparent that they have joined a migration by all manner of uncanny creatures. The boy falls for the charms of a girl with cold hands and lizard eyes. Initiated into the Octalune "tribe" he is charged with only one rule that he must always obey - never enter the sealed wagon that leads their innumerable caravan. Tragedy ensues when the boy forgets this stricture. .
Confessions of a Jing . . 1656 Screenplay based upon the interrogation transcript of a Shaowei (Lieutenant-Colonel) captured on the island of Diwangdao after a failed attempt at leading a suicide charge against the island's liberators during the War of Lost Brothers. The story follows the Jing through his childhood and young adulthood as the cumulative effects of a lifetime of corrupting propaganda strips away his humanity and leaves him a mere "biological-automation", unthinking and uncaring of the hopeless situation he subsequently found himself in defending an untenable position. .
Redemption in Blood . . 1656 The story of Rakesh Ackbar and the struggle for control of Amarr's oil reserves in the early 1500s between the Brookshirian feudal magnates and the ambitious young Babkhi prospector. .
Horrors in the Ice: Tales from Hyperborea & Llaeng . . 1656 Inspired by ancient travellers tales, thirteen short stories are given the celluloid treatment, each offering glimpses of an ancient evil that remains obscured from view amidst the ice and fog that swirls throughout the "lands of the pale ghosts". .
Slap the Jing! . . 1656 A raucous celebration of ethnic stereotyping accompanied by jolly melodies. .
Sanct Survival . . 1656 An Industrial Archaeology Survey Team from an unnamed corporation explores the sunken wreck of an old habitation dome. What they find turns their understanding of the old maritime freesteader community on its head, and begins hunting them down one by one. .
Salvation in the Stars Tristam Havroc Silver Era Studios
Exec. Producer Melira Arvin
1656 Far in the future the survival of humanity depends upon a deal with the safir, but can they be trusted? An eclectic team of scientists, mathematicians, biologists and anthropologists are sent to find out. One of them however harbours a secret agenda that could imperil the mission, and the future of all life as we know it.

The film was novel for the extent of Sxiro-Safirian cooperation, with the director taking unusual pains to research the safir culture to establish verisimilitude. After approaching Melira Arvin, a safir formerly in Imperial service, to assist as a consultant, the safir community in Shireroth ended up being sufficiently intrigued in the project as to buy a stake in the studio.

The film production became notorious for the clash of wills between Director Tristam Havroc and Executive Producer Melira Arvin, who objected vehemently to the film's infamous twist ending. Eventually Director and Producer Cuts were produced and submitted to audience testing. The Director's cut is still available on the black market.
.
The Abyss Below . . 1657 The mystery of what became of the Minarborian submarine fleet is resolved by an unsettling discovery in the depths of the Eastern Ocean. Natopian technology and Shirerithian firepower combine to fight against the rise of a seemingly unstoppable ancient evil. .
Resist and Obey . . 1657 An adaptation of the famous page-turner by recently rehabilitated novelist Cyril Clunge, author of The Hunt for Green Harvestfall, Resist and Obey depicts a world in the near future where the MTO and USSO have combined to launch a surprise attack on the Imperial Republic. Aided by liberal and Ketherist traitors within the invaders succeed in fomenting a campaign of civil disobedience, delegitimising the Kalirion dynasty and paving the way for intervention by an assortment of foreign powers under the guise of a peacekeeping mission. Only a ragtag band of plucky teenagers from Oleslaad, led by a very-special ordinary girl and mentored by a drunken ex-tribune, continue to fight the good fight. Quite improbably they succeed in restoring feudalism across the entire continent by dint of a daring raid on Raynor's Keep. Go Walruses! .
Splice: the Musical . . 1657 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 Lucile Blavatsky Novasolum Studios 1658 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 . . 1658 This Kaiser believed himself to be a dolphin and used to bathe in blood - a lot of blood. Not for the fainthearted or easily shocked .
Barghest the Shuck Mortis Herne Novasolum Studios 1658 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. Barghest the Shuck.png
Automatthæus . . 1658 An ambitious engineer with a new vision for the optimal organisation of society comes unstuck when the roots of a forgotten peach tree clog the outflow of the drainage system, giving rise to a cascade of unforeseen catastrophes, and cumulatively imperilling the lofty utopia that was his life's work. .