September on Film | Zafira

Hi!

I'm back with another post in my film series! I'm quite aware it's mid October, well pretty much past mid at this point but I've been insanely busy at college but I've finally found a little bit of time to show you a couple of snaps I took during the month of September!

All I can remember from September was the stress of being back at college, writing my personal statement and catching up with all my amazing friends. It's weird how fast college has gone, this is my last year and I want to treasure every moment possible.

This is Britt, she smells nice.

 I'm currently trying to jazz my room up a bit. It looks quite plain so I stuck pretty much all my film shots up on my walls and it looked quite cute. I think I'll probably end up getting some fairy lights too just to complete that ever so 'Tumblr' look.

This is Cherie and Sanjida. They make college that little bit more bearable.

Here's a snap of Cherie looking cute as per usual.

Lydia and Jazmine having waay too much fun in the art department.

Another cat one. We've become particularly close over the past few days. I often find that when I come home, he/she is waiting for me outside my window.

My mum likes buying fresh flowers every week.

I'm Asian of course my house contains at least one chili plant.

We have a little bit of a jungle theme going on in our living room, it's very nice and relaxing.

Sparkly macaroons are apparently a thing?

Me in the only shirt I seem to own. I don't even look like myself in this it's strange.

I took this on the way home from college. I spend too much of my life sat on a bus.

Since I had experimented a lot this month, a lot of my shots were pretty much under exposed but it's all good, I've got a fresh roll and I'm excited to shoot again. I think I'm going to merge October and November together so get ready for a nice chunky post!

Remember to follow me on all my social media to stay updated and to see some cool behind the scenes and extra shots!

Movies That Changed My Perspective on Life | Zafira

I'm a huge movie person. I'll pretty much watch anything, same with TV series but I think I'll save that for another blog post. As you can tell, photography is kind of my thing but cinematography is also something I've always had a keen interest in. It's like photography but it moves. I love it.

I don't know what it is but recently, I've had a thing for movies that make you rethink your entire life. Maybe it's because I'm in such a fast paced changing era of my life where every decision I make seems to affect me in someway or another or maybe it's just because I want a new perspective on life in general.

Here are a few of the movies that 'shook' me and made me want to change who I am.

1. American History X

For anyone that knows me irl, then you'd know I think skinhead culture is so fascinating. It's strange that it was even a thing but I still think it was quite cool minus the whole racism thing. Anyway, this is sort of on the same lines of This is England for those of you have seen that. It's set in America and is focused on the character of Derek who was a very popular neo-Nazi skinhead and how he tries to prevent his brother from following in the same footsteps as him. I don't really know why this affected me so much. I think maybe it's because I have a younger brother too and I don't want to do anything that reflects onto him badly. It's also made me appreciate my family so much more, I'd do anything for family if it was the best for all of us in the end.

2. The Matrix

This summer I wanted to watch all of the 'classic' movies and the Matrix was one of them. I sat and watched it until about 4am with family and it just messed with my head so much. I'm a huge conspiracy theory fan. Sometimes I'll sit on YouTube all day and watch one conspiracy theory after the other. Obviously, I don't believe most of them because they're just so wtf most of the time but they're still very entertaining to watch. Anyway, my main point here is the Simulation Theory. It's all about how reality today is all fake and we and life around us is nothing about a simulation (you can read more about it here PUT A LINK IN). It really messes with your head, and for a 2nd year college student running on little to 0 hours of sleep, it was probably not a good idea to watch this movie or read about the theory. In the Matrix, a computer programmer by day and hacker by night begins to question his reality once he is contacted by a group of rebels. It's literally the weirdest concept ever. Even the CEO of Tesla, a well known company, heavily believes in this theory. It's a such a good movie, just strange.

3. When Marnie Was There

Oh.My.God. This movie made me bawl my eyes out. I'm not a crier. I don't cry at any movies ever or anything really but this was so sad. A young tomboy gets sent to live with relatives in the countryside and becomes obsessed with this old mansion. The story unravels as you get more into the movie but the last 10 mins or so are the most shocking and upsetting. I don't really want to say much about it because I think it's better if you just watch it and feel all the feels. It just made me feel so sad and appreciative of everything really.

4. Her

This is such a hipster/indie movie but it made me feel so lonely after watching it. It's set in the future and the writer Theo starts a strange and unusual relationship with his operating system. Firstly, it's filmed so beautifully. In some scenes you can truly see the isolation that Theodore is feeling just by certain scenes. I love love love movies where they focus on small things like this, it makes watching not only an 'entertaining' experience but a pretty beautiful one too. The operating system is voiced by Scarlett Johanssen and it's so weird how real the operating system seems. It almost feels like she's a real person. The audience connects with the operating system 'Sam' just as much as Theo does. It's such a good movie and I've watched it so so so many times. I consider myself an independent person much like Theo, like I'm not one to get out much or to spend a considerable amount of time with friends so in some ways, I can sort of understand where Theo's loneliness and isolation comes from.

5. Every Wes Anderson Movie Ever

I love love love love love love love love Wes Anderson, I think I've watched all of his movies except from 2 maybe? I'm huge fan. I think the amount attention to detail is insanely beautiful. Some scenes are so so pleasing to the eye. The colours, the symmetry and the 60/70s vibes to every movie he makes is what drew me in. His movie ideas are so original, I think my absolute favourites are The Darjeeling Limited, The Royal Tennebaums and The Grand Budapest Hotel. All such amazingly filmed and constructed movies. I feel like movies like this are quite good if you have like artist's block or photographer's block or anything along those lines. You feel incredibly inspired. I think the first Wes Anderson movie I watched was Moonrise Kingdom and I remember all I wanted to do was paint and go out take pictures and that's what I did for about 3 weeks straight. I had never felt so inspired before.

JUST LOOK AT THAT PINK

6. Whiplash

I don't know why it took me so long to get around to watching this but it was so amazing. It's based on the character of Andrew who is a young drummer and he gets chosen to be mentored by a mentor who pushes musicians beyond their limits to realise their potential. I quite like Miles Teller in movies because he's quite a natural actor and pretty quirky too which I like. In this however, his character is a bit more serious which was very different. I watched this pretty late at night and you know when you have those really deep thoughts at like 3am? Well they got pretty deep after watching this. I think when it comes to my potential, I usually stop at what feels comfortable, if whatever it is I'm doing becomes harder than I would like then I just give it. But maybe it's time to change that. The mentor of Andrew pushes him so hard and at the end he becomes an amazing drummer just like he had always wanted. So, I think it's time for me to cross my boundaries and maybe after watching this, you should try to too?

7. American Psycho

Everyone that knows me knows that I've become so obsessed with this film and the book too. It's not very healthy. I'm actually writing about this for my A Level English Literature coursework and even writing about the subject manner of this book and now movie is so gruesome. American Psycho is based on the character of Patrick Bateman who is very wealthy businessman based in New York who has an alternative ego where he's basically the most psychotic and craziest serial killer I've ever seen. The movie itself is nowhere as graphic and violent as the stuff in the book but it's still pretty unsettling. Patrick Bateman looks and seems like a trust worthy man. After all, he's wealthy, well dressed and is well groomed but I think this heavily enhances how you should never judge a book by it's cover. (Christian Bale is Patrick Bateman btw 😉)

"I'm into murders and executions mostly."

8. American Honey

This I literally watched yesterday. I think I found the trailer on the A24 channel which I've become to love because the trailers of movies they upload are so original and just so beautifully filmed. American Honey is an amazing coming of age movie about Star, a teenage girl who joins a a travelling magazine crew where she begins to travel around the US, party and makes new friends. When I first watched the trailer, I was  blown away by the cinematography. It's what made me want to watch it in the first place and I was not disappointed. Some scenes filmed of the American South are breath taking. It's insanely beautiful. I liked how the whole movie was focused on Star. We become so close to her and see everything from her perspective and overall get to see her find out who she is. Also Shia Labeouf is in it who's character is amazing in this and fun fact of the day, Shia is the only 'professional' actor in this. The main actress Sasha Lane was spotted by Andrea Arnold, the director of the movie, whilst she was in Florida for spring break. This definitely made me want to be more adventurous. The character of Star is so free spirited, fearless and wild. She embraces life.

If you like blog posts like this about movies and TV series let me know because I love writing about this stuff!

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