Somewhere in these three works lies my vision for this script and consequently my inspiration.
Many people would like to think that "true" artists pick ideas from the air, but realistically an artist is always picking up on ideas, thoughts, etc, from different works. When I worked in theatre, it was fascinating to watch the process and research for a person designing lights or sound because they'd create what's called a design morgue. A design morgue includes pictures that serve as an inspiration for the design of, say, a set or scenery. They come from historical photos, from art work, from...other shows. All creative personnel do this.
I remember having to come up with a design morgue for Principles of Design for my project "Margaritaville" where my classmates and I had to come up with a designed project inspired by Jimmy Buffet's "Margaritaville." I decided to make my project look like a "war zone" because of the inherent theme of depression underscoring "Margaritaville" so I designed a war plagued beach. Putting together my design morgue, I included both photos of war beaches from the Pacific Theater in WWII as well as different artistic works I thought was relevant, in particular Erwin Kirchner.
Getting off that experience, I think writing a script of significant magnitude, especially a speculative fiction script, requires an equal amount of design morgue work. One of the things I mentioned in my preliminary script post was that I wanted to walk on world building.
The idea of the location for my script initially was depicting a wasteland, depicting a landscape akin to Russia...so I had it take place in Russia with a Russian actor. If I'm doing this spec pilot script seriously, however, having it take place in Russia is asinine because no television network will buy a script that takes place in Russia with Russian characters.
I decided to change it to the United States, but how to depict a war and a war fraught wasteland. The first piece of my design morgue started: the new Civil War.
This of course smells of "Hunger Games," but really it isn't about fragmented states as much as it is about two sides. As a Southerner I decided to not make it a North-South thing, but a East-West thing. How could a civil war happen?
The idea that came to mind for my mental morgue was the Chilean Military Coup of 1973. I think my trip to South America played a part in my use of their history. I created this world where a Socialist President is elected, like Salvador Allende. How could a Socialist President be elected in the US? I came up with the idea of a Democrat alienating voters by a scandal and a moderate Socialist taking his place, through extensive negotiation with urban Democrats and Latino voters.
To depict the events that would lead to this theoretical president's overthrow I wrote a series of fake articles giving glimpses into the moments that would lead to the military overthrowing the fictional president. I also depicted events leading to the secession of West Coast states, which I named as the "Pacific Coalition" or "Pacifica," including California, Nevada, Arizona, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington.
The idea of the show was that it would take primarily in the Western part of the United States, post-war. The US defeated Pacifica. Now they are imposing strict penalties on their technology usage and creation. This would help with my wasteland.
A great show should hinder on characters, and I wanted to keep a dynamic pair relationship like I had in my first script. I decided to change a crucial element in the protagonist. Rather than keeping the protagonist Russian and male, I change the protagonist into American and female.
I think the show aims to depict the desperation of this protagonist through such a Sisyphusian task; finding and taking down robots that she once help design and control. The robots, giant robots, are almost God-like. I want to show someone in a crisis, someone idealistic but in need for survival, how someone can transform into banal subjugation.
The pieces of my design morgue correlating with the character come from Hannah Arendt's work with "The Banality of Evil," as well as strong female protagonists. "Ghost in the Shell" comes to mind because of this. "Ghost in the Shell" is easily my favorite science fiction show, far superior to "Star Trek," "Battlestar Galactica," and it would be influential in my vision for the show. In particular, the character "Major Kusanagi" is one of the greatest female protagonists in televison, animated or not.
So how does "Children of Men" and "Firefly" come into play? I think I want to combine the wasteland depiction of "Children of Men," one with a political landscape laid to waste, with the Western aesthetic of "Firefly."
A while ago I wrote a story about an astronaut who in space grows to hate silence. I'd like to use that character trait in this character, the idea of silence being a proxy for a void in the character. I think having a landscape in the Western areas would induce such anxiety with silence. Plus, it allows me to play with the verisimilitude of giant robots hiding. The Western United States has less civilization, therefore more places to hide.
I truly think "Children of Men" deserves to be a benchmark in action films. Unlike "Iron Man 3," and other films, "Children of Men" gets away with using long shots, stillness, that creates a dynamic to the action. Yet, I think I'm growing ahead of myself in looking towards that film as I'm primarily concentrated with the script.
One more piece of my design morgue is how I aim to depict the military's grown power during this time. Reading Dwight D. Eisenhower's "Farewell Address," I can't help but feel how prescient he was.
"In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.
We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together."
Eisenhower talked about how necessary security but liberty are with each other. There's a sphere of military omnipotence that exists in the United States now, that the military are above citizens. Most of the military personnel don't believe this, but there are several civilians that do. I often wonder what we are leading ourselves into with our continued struggle to balance security with liberty. I saw the consequences of security over liberty in South America, where thousands were arrested and detained while many were killed over the extremes of security measures against terrorism and leftism in nations like Chile, Argentina, and Brazil.
I have in mind a nation primarily dominated by the military, with a dominance predicated on curbing technology usage and ownership. More importantly, I want to depict a landscape that has come to meet Eisenhower's fears. Eisenhower seemed to warn against the emergence of a Laconian mentality, a belief of Spartan superiority over Athenian.
Hence I came up with a show title: "Against Sparta." I don't known if it will last.
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