Setting the Scene

Setting the Scene

As I begin to picture getting it all started up here, I imagine introducing some of the characters in ways that will reflect them.

There is so much about Greek or Roman or Norse gods that you can guess who they are by what they are wearing or holding but in my sci fi world "Loosely based on my culture".  I wonder how to set up the characters so they are recognizable to everyone.  It is very fun and challenging and I am enjoying it immensely!

We dont have gods like the Greek or Norse kind, ours are more "Spirits" then god as thought of by Westerners.  So, I wonder if I will need to remind the audience of that often and how to do it...

In this world I am creating, everything is tied together into a complete whole.  There are hierarchies like any structure would have but that does not necessarily mean the same in our world as the Western one.  I have "the 4"  a mysterious group who "rule" everything but are rarely seen.  In my novels it is easy to set up and explain but how to do that in film?  Especially when they don't even appear in the film itself!  They are the off-stage directors and technicians is a good way to explain it.

I was thinking of scenes to introduce them...  I haven't named them yet, as they have many and it depends on who you are to them too.   Think of it as a major corporation, with the CEO, VP's and their staff, except to save money they also do the cooking for their own lunches, type their own reports, have friends to talk with and others you talk to to ask for a report, and then they go out and they dance and maybe one person serves the drinks because they are skilled and it saves them a ton of money this way, one runs the dj music and another does the dishes and then they go home and are part of a big family.  All these roles seem normal when thought of in this way, so will that translate to these characters too?  You might meet the CEO when they are cooking lunch and not realize they are also the big boss...

So I picture introducing the 4 and to show their differing personalities too...  One seems very "queenly", a woman who has power and knows she has power so has nothing to prove to anyone about it, it just is.  Her meeting area is sort of a boudoir area, I guess is a good way to describe it.  It is her personal area, a reflection of her tastes and her love of steampunk.  Gears run along one wall and her "throne" has a steampunk button she regally pushes and the side table next to your chair opens and a glass of ice water raises to the table.

Then it shows the "behind the scenes" where you are in a steamy dank nether realm area and a big purple light flashes and a siren wails a moment and everyone rushes to man the sort of slave paddles you picture in old ships, slaves rowing image...  The camera pans up the wall with clunks and gear sounds to another room where more "slaves" are frantically rushing to chip off of the glacier bottom showing in their roof to remind them this takes place in Alaska...  They put that into a sort of suction tube you would see in a bank drive up window and more gear sounds behind walls as the camera raises to the next level up with more frantic people crafting the blown glass cups and then up to the next level where dozens of slaves of a better class it seems are rushing to put it together prettily and then set it on the thing that raises it to the table beside you...

Then it goes back to you (first person view so it is you interviewing/meeting "Her" ) and she can seem to read your mind...  she answers as if you asked the question "why all that when you can do it much easier?"  Here I want to show the humor of the series...  where she agrees to let them all go "free" as you call it...  so it shows them all getting fired suddenly and for no reason except you said to do it...  so now they are upset at you and wanting to know where you live, etc.  hehe...  I want to try to find scenes like one from Legend where the "goblin" says "Mortal world turned to ice, this be goblin paradise"  or the one from Harry Potter where the spider says to them "you entered of your own free will..." to show that when they dont have a "purpose" they get bored and the realm we live in gets affected (effected??  infected??  darn, where is my editor when I need her???)  hehe... 

Darn, not sure that quite captured the vision in my head...  got distracted trying to picture going to my funders to explain I want all this scenery, costumes, etc. for bits that are hardly in the trilogy of terror films "but are in the tv series spin offs..."  hehe...

hugs and take care!