#Rojda Sekersoz

[raincitygirl76]

And we’re back up to 500 posts to reblog in the queue. You people talk too much! And say too much good stuff!

Okay but the scene where Wille sees Simon for the first time is cinematic excellence and in this essay I will discuss why

My cousin pointed this out to me that when Wilhelm arrives at the church, all our attention is taken up by the arrival of Felice, as she and Wilhelm greet each other.

We barely notice Simon entering the scene as it is Wilhelm's POV, and he doesn't notice Simon, so neither do we. Plus, they purposely placed him behing Felice so he never stands out.

Simon starts singing but he isn't giving his best. Wilhelm's attention is everywhere but not on Simon. In this scene, Simon is continuously going in and out of the camera's focus, sometimes even blurred. The lightening doesn't help either, Simon is clearly not the main subject.

But when the bloke interrupts the choir, that's when Simon starts giving his best and sings out loud in defiance. And that's when magic happens.

Wilhelm notices him properly for the very first time- he's the main subject of the camera and the lightening, he's the main lead now. Wilhelm actually ✨SEES✨ him, and so do we.

And for him Simon is the most beautiful thing he's ever seen at that moment, because just look at this- the angle, the light, his smile- everything just makes him look ethereal.

At that moment, he's the most beautiful thing we've seen too, all because Wille finds him to be. Combined with Omar's otherworldly singing, it's just *chef's kiss*

The cinematography of that whole montage is out of the world, it's so well thought out.

Stuck in my brain, it kept me sane ~

[omar-rudeberg]

Can we just- I LOVE that they LOVE our theories !!!!

[Obvs credit @wilmonsrevolution via @rojda_sekersoz]

[thepermanentrainpress]

The Permanent Rain Press Interview with Rojda Sekersöz. (Watch in HD)

We spoke with Rojda Sekersöz about her work as the conceptual director of Young Royals, casting, bringing life to complex themes and characters in Season 1, collaboration, and advice to aspiring filmmakers.

[raincitygirl76]

Interesting! That said, the YR story was not pitched to Lisa Ambjorn. She (and Rojda Sekersoz*) pitched it to Netflix. Presumably to other networks as well, but Netflix Nordic was the network who greenlit the project.

My understanding is that the pitch as bought evolved a lot from Lisa’s initial idea. She read a non-fiction book exposing hazing, abuses, and upper class omertà at real prestigious boarding schools in Sweden. That gave her the original idea to write a movie or TV show based around a murder at a fictional prestigious boarding school. But then she kept working on it, and eventually turned it into a queer teen romance with class commentary. That, as far as I know, is the version of the pitch that Netflix Nordic bought.

Now, it could be OP is right and there will be a murder revealed in S3. But as far as I know, Lisa jettisoned the murder mystery idea fairly early on in the creative process. That said, show creators and showrunners lie to the media and the fans routinely so as to avoid spoilers. So if there will be a murder, we will likely not find out about it until after we’ve all started watching S3.

* Re: Rojda Sekerkoz, I know she was attached to the project from an early point as the conceptual director. But as to whether she came on board before or after Netflix Nordic bought the pitch I’m not sure. It could’ve been a joint effort from the very start. Or maybe Rojda joining the project was NN’s idea, after they provided the funds. Rojda had more experience in the industry and a bigger name than Lisa at the time. Maybe her experience was deemed necessary by the network.

I also know Rojda was heavily involved in the casting process as the conceptual director. And that Pernilla August was the very first actor attached to the project, long before any of the young uns were cast. Pernilla isn’t very well known in the rest of the world, but her Wikipedia page suggests she’s a pretty big deal in Sweden. Having a “name” actress already attached to the project in a recurring role might have helped NN greenlight it. But I’m speculating. I know Pernilla was attached early, but don’t know for sure if she was attached before NN bought the pitch.

My toxic trait is believing Erik was murdered. There's no one reason for that. Just a hunch.

However, in the first episode of the first season, the social science teacher ranks murder, child abuse and rape as the most heinous crimes ... which sounds like foreshadowing. In the same episode, August brags about the student body at Hilerska being able to literally get away with murder. We also know (ep 2), via Erik even, that the Royal Court isn't very forthcoming with the truth about how people die. And, last, but not least, when pitched to Lisa Ambjörn, the show was initially about a murder at an elite boarding school...

Again, nothing concrete but all this murder talk must mean something...

[raincitygirl76]

True. Also, I think we as a random underestimated how much influence Rojda Sekersoz had on Season 1, especially, and to a lesser extent on Season 2. Rojda wasn’t involved in S3 at all.

I think Lisa Ambjorn is a talented writer, but she’s clearly not a lone genius who was single-handedly responsible for all the good stuff in S1 and S2. She had Rojda, she had the intimacy coordinator Sara Arrhusius, she had Erika Calmeyer, who directed 1.03, 1.05, and 1.06 (Ronda, as well as being the conceptual director for the whole series, directed 1.01, 1.02, and 1.04).

Lisa had a great team in S1, and S1 was excellent. Rojda wasn’t as involved in S2 as she had been in S1, and Erika Calmeyer didn’t return at all for S2. And S2, though better than S3, was more uneven than S1.

Rojda and Sara Arrhusius both left altogether during personnel churn behind the scenes between S2 and S3. In retrospect, I think Lisa’s work was elevated by a team effort. When the team members changed, for whatever reasons, the show’s cohesiveness suffered as well.

I’m not saying every good thing was Rojda and every bad thing is Lisa. I’m just saying Lisa is not the only creative who was heavily involved in writing S1, which was superb. And maybe I should’ve seen the writing on the wall when S2 was less cohesive than S1. But I think I and a lot of other people were buoyed by the happy ending of S2, and decided to overlook some of the patchiness in S2 as a whole. Putting it down to sophomore slump.

And then S3 came out, and Lisa is still talented, but the season was a mess, with a tacked on happy ending. And most of the behind the scenes personnel from the strongest season (S1) were long gone by then. At the risk of sounding like a bitch, it seems like by S3, Lisa had started to believe her own press.

Been catching up on your thoughts and I agree. Making them break up so late in the season made no sense, they needed much more time to be actually able to spend some time apart, grow and then get back together.

It’s really laughable bc they at most spent a week apart and then got back together after the lake scene AND the song and barely even talked about stuff. But they are teenagers so in a sense it makes sense that they would simply ignore stuff.

It was another rushed ending and it’s clear to me that Lisa only had in mind to continue to show her political stance on the monarchy and it pissed me off how every other “couple” had a real and honest conversation while wilmon were either interrupted by third parts or interrupted each other (bc she only can deal with parallels). The lake scene was beautiful but it lacked of something. She put too much in this last season and really thought she could just put bandaids in ep6 but that’s not how it works.

Were we played with s1? I don’t get what happened. That season was perfect with its imperfection and from there it went downhill. Recycling the same things over and over and over again, it’s exhausting.

What other couples had a real and honest conversation? Sargust didn't, Stederika didn't.

[levok]

https://variety.com/2022/film/global/young-royals-rojda-sekersoz-caa-1235439806/

Love that for her ❤️

[raincitygirl76]

Ah, 2.04. Who directed 2.04, by the way? I know Rojda Sekersoz directed 2.01 and 2.02, but I don’t know who directed the other S2 episodes.

This is jealous Simon at the ball, dancing with Marcus while never taking his eyes off Wilhelm for a moment. Jealous Simon is a petty, chaotic little gremlin, and I love him for it.

That isn’t original, the gremlin phrasing. That came originally from @groenendaelfic in the author notes on AO3 to her fic “As Long As We Have Eaxh Other”.

c'mon, look at me

[raincitygirl76]

I can tell that the woman on the far left of the photo above is Lisa Ambjörn, but who's the woman in jeans on the far right? Rojda Sekersoz, perhaps? She not only directed 3 episodes of S1, she was also attached to the project from the very start as the conceptual director. So it would make sense to have a S1 porto photo with Rojda, Lisa, and the stars. But it's not a great shot of her face, so I'm not quite sure it's Rojda.

[raincitygirl76]

@enchantingmel0dy came through. Apparently the showrunner for the first two seasons was Rojda Sekersoz. I already knew Rojda also directed 1.01, 1.02, 1.04, 2.01 and 2.02. She was not involved in S3 at all.

https://deadline.com/2023/12/writers-to-watch-out-for-in-2024-1235679667/#!

Interesting article here, with Lisa Ambjorn profiled along with four British writers who all write in the English language. Making it all the more impressive that she got noticed by Hollywood, since her big hit was all in Swedish.

But in the article it says Lisa was the head writer for the first two seasons of Young Royals, and was promoted to showrunner in Season 3. Which brings me to my question: who was the showrunner in S1 and S2?

[raincitygirl76]

I just thought of something else from 1.01. Shortly after August greets Erik and Wilhelm, Erik kisses August on the cheek. Well, technically ear, but Erik seemed to be aiming for the cheek. All August did was giggle and look delighted.

If August were afraid of Erik being homophobic, you’d expect his body language to stiffen up when Erik goes in for something ambiguously masculine like kissing another hetero man. But Erik in 1.01 seems extremely secure in his masculinity, to the point that he’s doling out kisses in public to his surrogate baby brother, with photographers around.

And August seems very relaxed to be kissed by Erik. If Erik had homophobically taunted him at his initiation, one would expect August to receive kisses from him with ambivalence. Not necessarily refuse the kissing since Erik has higher status than him. But he would be unlikely to giggle about it as though he didn’t have a care in the world.

Incidentally, im assuming Ivar Forsling was aiming for Malte Gardinger’s cheek in that scene, but misjudged the distance and landed on his ear instead. I’m guessing Rojda Sekersoz (director of episode 1.01, and conceptual director of the whole first season) chose to use that take instead of a different one because she liked the spontaneity. I’m just guessing here, but it seems unlikely Ivar was specifically directed to kiss Malte’s ear rather than cheek.

So the scenes of Erik at Hillerska don't make sense to me anymore.

Before S3, he was perceived by a half of the fandom as a Protective Older Brother, and for a good reason. Erik really tried to help Wilhelm, even though he himself didn't have the right answers for the questions Wilhelm was asking.

Back to S1E1. Why did Erik look so happy? Didn't he realize that his little brother was about to go through Forest Ridge initiation? Did he know that Forest Ridge boys excluded SA from the ritual? Or did he consider that experience necessary for Wille? Or was he sure that the students wouldn't do to Wille the same thing Erik did to them? If so, why? August was SAed, and he was a member of the royal family. Why didn't this perspective bother Erik at all?

Considering that it all would be extremely easy to resolve with one short scene, why didn't the creators do it? Erik could simply find a moment to have one-on-one talk with August to tell him "Don't do anything to Wille" or some version of this phrase. It would have let the audience know that something dark was happening in Hillerska and then The Erik Revelation wouldn't come as a complete shock.

Foreshadowing is an essential part of good storytelling. Things just can't come out of nowhere. Was it simply a case of bad writing? Or The Erik Revelation wasn't invented until S2 was shot, that's why there are no clues for it?

[raincitygirl76]

Reblogging again because of the new addition by @margotdanslebois which brings up an important point re consent. And because I have news (not directly) from Rojda Sekersoz about how the Wilmon intimate scene in 1.04 was specifically structured to make consent extra clear. Rojda directed 1.04.

Hmmm, that is actually a good point from @margotdanslebois re: Simon kissing Wilhelm a second time outside the horror movie in 1.02. Anybody want to weigh in? It’s past midnight in my time zone and I desperately need to go to sleep. But perhaps mutuals in other time zones can come up with thoughts on this. Because I LOVE the first kiss(es) scene in 1.02. I want to continue to be able to love it, even if it’s a more complex scene than I thought at first.

Oh, and on the matter of consent, I heard on….someone’s Tumblr, that Rojda Sekersoz (the conceptual director in pre-production and S1, and director of episodes 1.01, 1.02, 1.04, 2.01, and 2.02). Where was I? got lost in parentheses. Point is, Rojda directed 1.04, including the first time scene, and had something interesting to say in an interview about consent.

In the first time scene, we all saw Wilhelm being quite assertive and very much taking the initiative. Apparently that was dreamed up between Rojda and the intimacy coordinator Sara Aarhusis to make it clear Wilhelm was consenting. They were concerned if Wilhelm weren’t as assertive in that scene, the consent could be considered iffy. Because less than 12 hours earlier, Wilhelm had been drunk and high as a kite.

Him taking such an active role in that intimate scene was to make it clear that he had indeed already sobered up enough to give meaningful consent. And that Simon was NOT taking advantage of Wilhelm while he was still in a state of altered consciousness.

I’m so glad YR is the kind of show where the director and the intimacy coordinator realize this is a potential issue, and take steps to mitigate it. Because a lot of shows wouldn’t have thought about it even for five seconds.

As my identified reference about Sara and August, I have a question for you about the end of s1.

When Sara goes to August's room to confront him, they end up kissing. Before I saw S2, I thought Sara was not really consenting, giving the way she looks away. I thought August was taking avantage of her.

Do you think she was "enjoying it" at that time, but maybe was wondering what was happening ?

Thanks for your ask! I’m happy to be your sargust expert.

And now to address your question. It’s an uncomfortable question to answer, but I’ll do my best to answer it all the same. Content note that we’re about to get into discussing consent and other difficult topics related to sexuality.

Generally my read on the situation is: yes, Sara consented. At the same time, she’s conflicted about her feelings for August in that scene, so I think what we’re seeing when she looks away is her struggling with her feelings about her desires.

While we talk a lot about the more positive depictions of sexual behavior in Young Royals, one thing that’s true about the show is that it actually depicts a range of sexual behaviors. Earlier in season 1, we have Simon nervously but happily kissing Wilhelm on movie night, but we also have Felice showing up at August’s room and initiating a hookup not out of desire but out of feelings of anger and insecurity. Felice and August both consent to the latter encounter, but both of them do so while in a negative headspace. Sara’s encounter with August in 1.6 occupies a sort of middle space between these two extremes. This is even evident by how the scene is blocked and directed. Sara showing up at August’s door reminds us of the way Felice shows up, but her first tentative kisses remind us of Simon on movie night. Sara does feel genuine desire—she’s the one who initiates the kissing, at first—but she’s also struggling with that desire and what it means for her understanding of herself, her relationship with her family, etc.

Another piece of important context for the confrontation scene is that both Sara and August are in not the best headspace. August has been grappling with the fact that he betrayed his core value of discretion released the video, and a lot of the buried resentment he feels toward Wilhelm has come to the surface. This is coming on the heels of August barely avoiding being kicked out of Hillerska after not being able to pay his boarding feels. Sara encountered her father in person on Lucia night—something caused by Simon going behind her back—and her house is now being hounded by journalists and her mom is threatening to pull her out of a school where she’s finally made friends. While neither of them is in as awful or traumatic a place as Wilhelm or Simon, for obvious reasons, I don’t imagine either of them has been sleeping well or taking care of themselves. This is likely something that’s cutting down on their usual inhibitions, and their decisions are driven partially by bad mental health/a stress response.

Regardless of the fact that Sara consents, I also think we’re meant to feel uncomfortable in that scene because we know how quickly things could go in a negative direction where Sara’s consent is disregarded. We know August’s views of women are crap. He has a lot more privilege, between the two of them, and he’s physically taller and stronger than Sara. If I recall (I’m trying not to rewatch the scene right now so I don’t accidentally rewatch Young Royals when I need to get work done) we even see him lift Sara up and put her on his desk. In a more idealized/less realistic teen drama, the directors might have tried to turn this into a ~sexy move~ via camera work, lighting, and sound mixing. But here it’s merely a demonstration of physical strength, and one that Sara’s not initially expecting. I don’t think Sara’s feeling threatened or coerced, in that moment, even if she’s surprised and even if all of this physical contact is new to her—I imagine season 2 would have played out very differently if she had felt that way—but I do think that we, as audience members, are supposed to feel the possibility of that threat, and worry for her.

(Something I also have considered in season 2 is the way that Sara is initiating a lot of the physical contact at the beginning of season 2, while also knowing August’s secret. Theoretically she could have blackmailed him into hooking up with her by threatening to go to the police with information. She doesn’t attempt to blackmail him, and August consents to physical contact with her even when he’s surprised by it. But the context in which Sara kisses August in 2.2 is supposed to bring this idea into our head, I think. Maybe. I go back and forth on what the writers want us to think there.)

Another way to think about these scenes, also, is that some sex educators recognize multiple categories of consent. For instance, Angela Chen recognizes four in her book on asexuality. Chen would probably label Sara’s consent in 1.6 as willing, but not enthusiastic. Likewise with August’s consent in 2.2.

Tl;dr consent is a complex topic and different sex educators have different paradigms about consent. Young Royals wholly acknowledges the importance of consent in sexual situations, while also acknowledging that not everyone who consents does so at perfect times, or with pure, uninterrupted feelings of love and desire in their heart. And I think being aware of that makes it easier to interpret scenes like the one above.

Hope this answers your question! There really are a lot of emotional layers to this show.

[raincitygirl76]

Kristina Humle directed 2.03 and 2.04, incidentally.

Rojda Sekersoz directed 2.01 Nd 2.02, while Lisa Farzaneh directed 2.05 and 2.06.

c'mon, look at me

[raincitygirl76]

Seriously, though, who directed Young Royals 2.03, 2.04, 2.05, and 2.06? I dont' know, and IMDB isn't helping me find out.

I know Rojda Sekersoz directed 1.01, 1.02, 1.04, 2.01, and 2.02. I know Erika Calmeyer directed 1.03, 1.05, and 1.06, but didn't return for S2. Who directed 2.03, 2.04, 2.05, and 2.06?

Does anybody know?

c'mon, look at me