In this blog post I will discuss how I will create the world and setting and how the theme will affect the story. This is the fourth blog post to read in this production dossier.
Setting and Themes
Robert McKee identified ‘Four Dimensions of Setting’ (McKee, 1998) The period: the story’s place in time, duration: the story’s length in time, location: the story’s place in space, and level of conflict: the story’s place in the hierarchy of human struggles. I decided to follow these four dimensions when building my world.
Period: The modern day in a fantasy land, they are in a different time-scale to us. Slightly based around Medieval ideas, crafting, blacksmithing, monarchy etc.
Duration: The main story takes place over 5 years but the disease spread 2 years before Ren was born. This means the disease has plagued the island for 21 years.
Location: My story is based on a small fictional fantasy island named Astana. Astana is a split into two islands by the ‘River Lone’. The main city is called ‘Aysgarth’ and is placed in the centre of the island. The northern section of Astana is cold and has a similar landscape to Scotland but the south side is a lot warmer.
Level of Conflict: Themes of revenge and death are very prominent in my story which are both relatable and particularly painful human struggles. There is also a theme of government conspiracy which will intrigue the curious. All of these themes are reflected in the conflicts of the story, whether it is betrayal, secrecy or illness. McKee split conflict into 3 separate types, Inner: the characters personal thoughts and beliefs, Personal: the relationships between friends and family, and Extra-Personal: which relates to society as a whole.(McKee, 1998) I believe that my story touches on all of these conflict types at at least some point in the story.
World Building
When deciding what the map was going to look like, I had to decide on what the actual island landscape would look like itself. Astana is a very natural island covered in forests and mountains. It is also split by a giant river running all the way through it. I designed it like this to show the divide between Ren’s home and Adisa’s home, to show how far apart their worlds are and how they meet perfectly halfway, which is symbolic of their personal relationship. I imagine Astana to be a very similar setting to somewhere in Europe, such as Scotland, Ireland or the Nordic countries. I believe I will be able to create this effect with my art when I start to draw up backgrounds and scenery.
References:
McKee, R. (1998) Story: Substance, Structure and The Principles of Screenwriting. Methuen Publishing Ltd