The Role Model For Your 20's

As you grow up most people want to be like their parents when they grow up. I know I did. My Dad is a Police Officer and I remember telling all of my friends about this. To the point that I would make up stories that he would take me on police chases to impress the other kids in the playground ! And my Mum, well I though she was the greatest Mum ever, and of course I still believe this, so I wanted to be a mum as good as her while fighting crime just like my Dad. Even my big brother was a role model. I thought he was one of the smartest coolest people ever. Everything he did I wanted to do, he was great at computer games and sometimes he would even let me be Tails when he played Sonic ( though this often resulted in my flying off screen and my brother having to take the controller off me to get through the difficult bits) .

As you get older you realise that there are so many people you can look up and admire and want to emulate. Of course my family are still and always will be a huge influence on my life. But I have other people I also look up to. For years these people were celebrities, that seem to live on another planet that no one could get access too. But as the internet expanded and grew and Social Media loomed out and grabbed every-bodies attentions I started to realise that there were other great people in the world and some just as close to home as family. 

There are two people that I really look up to, and they are both people I know personally. Girls I have had drinks with, gone shopping with, talk about boyfriends with and talked about what we want for the future, and then I have seen them take their dreams and run with it and it is truly inspiring. 

Stephanie Ellen Model

The first is a girl who I met when I was about 16, Stephanie and me had a similar friendship group and a we shared similar interest and our worlds collided. I remember at the time she had mentioned modelling a couple of times, but at the time I just thought that it was one of those interest you have as a teen but it will probably never happen. 

One of Stephanie Ellen's early modelling work

But Stephanie did take no for an answer and she made it happen for her self. To be honest it is really impressive. I remember her first sharing her photos online, and I thought to myself " Oh they are pretty, but she probably won't keep it up for long" not because she wasn't any good, she is very good, but still being a model is one of the dream careers that so few achieve; but still the photos kept rolling in and they were getting better and better, and she wasn't slowing down. She was doing all this while studying Law and it was so impressive. Then at the start of this year, she quit her job and now is a full time model. 

She is always making bookings, and it seems she is often fully booked. It's just so awesome to watch someone go from talking about a dream job on a bench in your home town to seeing someone grow, peruse and and work hard to get to where wanted to be. 

The work she makes now 

Find her page here

Sarah Cook - Film Writer 

The second person is a girl I went to Uni with, Cookie is a brilliant and passionate girl who is incredibly friendly and fun to be around. I met her in my first year and we shared an interest in music and were both taking some of the same classes and I thought she was pretty cool from the get go. In our third year we had to choose between a dissertation or a creative project, and Cookie decided to take the creative option. I remember talking about her project, a website dedicated to her love of film and thought it sounded pretty good, and it made me wish I had come up with her idea rather then taking the dissertation option. 

 She created it and wrote frequently on it  for the duration of our third year honing her writing technique and growing in confidence, and after we graduated she kept up her website,and he hasn't stopped working on it. Every day she mentions what she's been working on, editing and interview and review and it is amazing what she has achieved. She started getting press passes to interview stars of films, she would get spots on the red carpet at film premiers and this year she was sat with other media big shots at the BAFTA announcements. 

It was because of her that I decided to start my blog. And her perseverance is what encourages me to write when I don't feel like it, or when I have sometimes felt like this is all a waste of time. Because I am able to see someone who I know grab on to future that she wants for herself and MAKE it happen its just so amazing. She is currently writing a film and that seems to be getting some real momentum behind it. 

Cookie's Short film 

I feel so often we are quick to put people down. If someone says to us that they want to reach for the star we would roll our eyes and think " yeah what ever". People are so quick to think you have your head in the clouds of idealistic wishes. If someone says they want to be a model or a writer they will say y "but what's your real job going to be?"I remember when both of these girls started out I thought to myself, "yeah nice idea but it it won't last" because that's what people do, rather then offer our support and encouragement they instead wait for them to fail and say told you so. Where as maybe if we said, "you would be great at that !" or " What you are doing is really impressive" or " I believe in you" more people would reach their dreams.

What has been so great about seeing people you know climb the ladder of success is you can see the hard work they have put in. It would be an insult to Cookie and Stephanie to say this has just fallen into their lap. They really have worked for everything they have got. You here celebrities say that all the time, but it hard to believe because they just seem to appear from no where and get paid incredible amounts of money and seem to live a blessed life. I don't doubt they worked hard but it seems so much more impressive when you can see each step of some ones dream becoming a reality. 

I hope both of these girls continue their amazing work, and inspire others to give their dreams a chance. Hard work really does pay off and I must say both of these girls seem so happy with their lives and I hope one day I will be able to look back on my hard work and see how far I have come.

Rella Xx

Warm Bodies: The Movie

So after yet another break away from the blogging world I am back. I was recently away in Scotland visiting family for my Mum's 50th Birthday, while I was away some pretty exciting life decisions were made which I will write about in a personal post soon. So keep tuned in if you are interested!

So Warm Bodies the film! This was another film I went to see as a Birthday Celebration in Leicester Square and I saw in the Empire Cinema which is a lovely little cinema and I my absolute favourite cinema which shows current releases. It reminds me a lot of the cinema I grew up with which was a wonderful independent Cinema in Surrey, and it both cinemas carry the vibe that going to the cinema is a real event, a big day out. It has beautiful red velvet seats which are really comfortable, and the Cinema I feel is reasonable priced for a London cinema. 

So this film is a really fun film. It is pretty funny from the get go, bumbling zombies trying to carry out the pre zombie lives makes for amusing views, it is sort of like if toddlers were given adult bodies. We are introduced to R, the protagonist setting the scene which is pretty similar to the book. Few years past an out break happened turning people into Zombies, the humans have made a safe area and send out scouts to collect supplies from the surrounding city, where they can be attack by Zombies who hunt in feeding packs. Though they spend most of their time in the Airport. 

Nicholas Holt plays R, and I think he is a great actor who always nails the roles he is given, and I am surprised we don't see him more often. A lot of the film is narrated by R, and his internal monologue since he has trouble making is Zombie body say what he wants. Holt facial expressions and movements really help to bring humour to these moments and make R such a loveable lead that you really end up routing for. 

One of the main difference between Book R and Movie R is this sense of humour, there definitely are funny moments in the book, but I wouldn't call it a comedy book, R is very deep and conflicted about his situation, he doesn't feel like he can accept his fate, he is trapped and he can't express himself. Movie R is far more comical, and also a lot younger, in the book he is described as wearing a smart shirt as if he was going to work when he became a Zombie, while in the Movie he is more of a teenage/ young adult age wearing a hoodie which is how R's best friend M (Rod Corrdry) is described in the book, it is as if M and R have switched bodies for the Movie. 

Also not surprisingly the story is sped up quite a bit for the film. R has fairly good verbal skills when he first meets Julie (Teresa Palmer), and also Julie is far more comfortable around R then she is in the book, she is intrigued by him, but she is still scared and wants to escape him, until she can start to see the change in him. Also Julie is upset with R in the book about him killing and eating her boyfriend, which you know is perfectly understandable,  where as in the film she seems to get over that fairly quickly. 

The main difference for me though is the book is far more intense. Both Julie when she is in the airport with R and when R sneaks into the compound to find Julie they are in real danger. Also the ending is far more tense in the book, with Julies father Grigio ( John Malkovich), meeting a fairly grisly end, after exposing himself to be a very unkind and unjust leader.

For me this is not a true adaptation of the boo, but it certainly is a fun one. Would I wanted to have seen a deep soul searching Zombie film in the a climactic ending ? Probably not, it would have made for an odd viewing, but it works really well as a book, where you can seem attitudes and character slowly change and evolve with each chapter, and I don't think that sort of character development always translate to the screen very well. 

And I feel the comedy route for this film was far better fitting, and made for great viewing. My main criticism for the film would be how the role of Nora was down played in the film, she really helped Julie and R in the book, but in the film she became a quirky best friend, though she was played brilliantly by Analiegh Tipton, I also really liked how in the book R was always very unhappy with his Zombie life while M was far more content with what his life, and this conflict of interests in the film.

I would recommend this film, it is very unique and very funny, but it doesn't quite hit the nail on the head in terms of an adaptation but I do like what they have done with it none the less.

Rella Xx

The Book: Warm Bodies

Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion, I didn't know this book existed until after the film came out in 2012. Which I went to see for my birthday. So as a result I was always thinking back to the film while reading it. The film

 ( which I will write about in a few days) was a comic zombie romance film. This book takes a different approach. 

Now this is a book I never would have picked up with out the film being made, for one simple reason...It's about Zombies. Zombies are one thing I find truly terrifying, I have only ever read one other book about Zombies, World War Z, and I found that difficult to get through as it freaked me out a bit. Even comedies about them such as Shaun Of The Dead are fairly frightening for me. But I liked how the film told this story and I felt I needed to make myself read it. 

So the book is set in America after an outbreak of a virus that has turned a large amount of the population into these Zombie like infected people who fed on the living to stop their bodies breaking down and decomposing. 

There are two main differences between a regular Zombie story and this, 

One: It is set in a world where it has been a few years since this Zombie break out and the humans and Zombies have established lives, so there is no waking up and realising half the world is dead, and trying to get to safety which is a story we have all read before. 

Two: This book is written from the Zombies point of view. 

Our protagonist R is a young man with thoughts feelings and dreams the only problem is that he's a zombie. He can't remember his old life before he became infected. He doesn't know how old he is or what he use to do he can only guess on his past based on this shirt a tie but he has no hard facts, all he know is his name began with R. He lives in an airport where many zombies have gathered and he follows a mundane life. He gets a zombie wife and some children, which are just children who are also infected and wander about the airport, and he hangs out with his best friend, who can often be found in the toilets attempting to have sex with other zombies. 

The infected remember aspect of life before such as marriage and sex and they try to mimic this, and R collects relic of life before small trinkets of everyday life, but he just can't accept that this is  it, that he will be cold dead and hunting the living. Then one day he meets Julie, who for reason unknown to him he saves her. After eating her boyfriends brain and he catches glimpses of his life with Julie he realises that that is what he wants. Warmth and kindness and love and life. 

Julie although scared for her life realises that this is something more to R then meets the eye, she can see there is something that sets him apart from the others. The more time they spend together the more R begins to change, his speech improves, his desire to hunt humans fades and life begins to return to him. Between them they may have found the cure to end the era of the zombies.

This is a great book with a balance of comedy romance and insight to life. I found it to be a really fun and interesting read, and even with my fear of Zombies I was able to read this one with out too much issue. these is a very clear Romeo and Juliet theme running through out the book, two lover that can't be together, the threat of death and even their names R and Julie echo that of the tragic Marion even managed to sneak in a balcony scene. 

I really enjoyed this book, it was an interesting read, and is has a good few twist and turns to keep the story from going stagnate. It's got a bit of everything romance zombies fear and hope it is a very unique story and I am surprised I hadn't heard about it before, if you haven't read this book I would definitely say to add it to your list of must reads. 

Rella Xx