In this week's folio response, I have developed a bullet point under the scenario of "What if everything outside Melbourne was an empty desert?.", as well as an analysis of my concerns about writing. I think it is a great time to identify the issues in the early stage (week 2) and improve as the course progress.
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Weekly response
As part of this week's response to Animated Narrative, I have extended the scenario of "What if everything outside Melbourne was an empty desert?". During the brainstorming period, I have pictured a Dystopia society where natural resources become limited as the government tightens its control. From the central tension "Everything outside Melbourne was an empty desert", I have been thinking about its impact on social, economic and cultural influence towards this imaginary world, and also the potential outcome of our social structures shaped by this scenario.
The future of the dystopia can be unfolded as an interactive game, where the player experiences their surrounding from the first-person point of view. It can be further developed into a VR experience, where environment crafting would be an essential part of the project, in order to provide an immersive experience to the players.
One of the games that inspired me most is The Unspoken by Insomniac Games on Oculus VR. The world setting inside The Unspoken describes a world where magic is real across the modern city as a hidden secret. The player has the ability to interact and influence the environment as spellcasters. The idea of developing scenarios based on reality is what has been attractive to me about this project.
The Unspoken by Insomniac Games: https://insomniac.games/game/the-unspoken/
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What if everything outside Melbourne was an empty desert?
- city running highly controlled by gov/organisation (dictator)
- water becomes the most valuable source
- food shortage based on population
- birth rate is highly controlled
- law enforcement may use “casting out of city” as one of the ultimate punishments
- People in the desert may find it difficult to survive, but some people did and form tribes
- Stories, tales and art would heavily focus on desert and its mystery, since It is the new unknown territory for human
- The imbalanced development of city centre and suburbs is extended in a dramatic scale
- The imbalance of wealth and poverty is extended in a dramatic scale too
- Fashion changes as clothes that protect from wind, sunlight and sandstorm become more popular
- Daily schedule changes as climate changes – daily activities halt near noon, while night hours become the new busy hours.
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Concerns about writing
Writing has always been a massive challenge for me in terms of communication and expression of ideas, as I have always preferred presenting my ideas focused heavily on visual. However, I have realised that through careful thinking, writing, in general, has created an ideal space to tackle and refine ideas. On the other hand, it can communicate different aspects, for example, the sound effect, much more efficiently.
I realised that there are mainly two aspects that concern me when it comes to writing: 1. I found myself unable to communicate all my ideas at once; Some ideas coming from sci-fi and fantasy scenario are so vast and complex, that expressing them feel like a flood breaking out. 2. Communicating abstract concepts have been especially hard for me due to the regular and limited word choice and the concern of making grammar mistake in English as a second language in writing.
In order to address these issues, I combined what I learned both inside and outside class. After learning the bullet point technique to start writing in the early stage, I found it quite useful to unpack complex ideas. At the same time, I found the story-telling in DnD quite fascinating after I joined the MAGI Table Top club. One thing I learned through the gameplay is that in order to create a massive, imaginary world, it might be more efficient to build the world around one central tension. In each world of DnD, there is always one central conflict/tension that affects every other aspect in the world. For example, it can be as simple as "Water evaporates five times as fast than our expectations.", but it can have a significant influence on the social, economic and cultural influence in the world-building process. The method of listing central conflicts and expand writing is by far my favourite way of writing because it does not generate as much pressure and allows opportunities to create freely. As for language concerns, I think practising might still be the best solution. After talking and exchanging ideas with Alvin, who is also in studio 1 and had film production experience, I was recommended using Thesaurus as an additional tool for this issue.
In week 3 - 5, I am planning to write short treatment and storyboard based on weekly WIKI premise.
