In this blog post I will fit my own world into Robert McKee’s writings on setting. I initially did all my work on paper and will attach the photos of my work at the bottom of this post. I found this activity really useful in defining my world, it complimented the class we had the other day where we brainstormed ideas. For me, McKee’s writings and that class really helped me get the ball rolling.

McKee Intro: A stories setting is four dimensional – period, duration, location, level of conflict.

Period: Is the story’s place in time. 

Contemporary Victoria 2017. This period is significant because I want to critique the society in which we live. Contemporary Australian society prides itself on being a culture of free, independent thinkers, but all to often people fall into the trap of believing what society tells them too. What inspired this idea, was the other day at Uni, someone was complaining aggressively about Malcolm Turnbull, I honestly inquired ‘Why don’t you like him?’ And they replied ‘I just don’t’. This encounter led me to question how many opinions do I and others hold that are based off nothing. Society often demonstrates its inability to answer the question ‘Why’. By creating a flaw, collectivist society in 2o17 I can critique this.

Duration: Is the stories length through time

My story will be told in two parts. It concerns itself with two characters who sleep together one Saturday night. I will tell the story of the woman night previous to her meeting the man at the Casino the previous night and the story of the man the morning after. I will explore a relatively small amount of time, maybe two hours each way.

Location: Is the stories physical dimension. It is the stories place in space. 

On the coast far away from any major cities. There is a great physical distance between this town an the city. This leads tot he town being somewhat isolated from mass culture, so instead they create their own.

Once an industrial beach town where trade was going strong and tourism was booming. Some years before my story takes place a new coastal highway is built that by-passes the town. Tourists and workmen stop coming and what is left is the locals, as a consequence of this exit the town becomes insular and self indulged.

It is a regular Australian seaside town: A pier, supermarket, fish and ship store, pub. Just out of town 500 metres down the main stretch lies an old, grey casino, where the locals go every night. This Casino, that plays the same music every night, is the heart of the town. At the very opposite end of the main stretch, near the beach, their is a broken down ferries wheel. Behind the supermarket their is a race track from grey-hounds. The Ferris Wheel and Casino book end the town. Next to the Ferris Wheel their is an unused mini-gold place, all the statues are rotted due to salt, water has destroyed the astro-turf.

Level of Conflict

The People

• Insular
• Dress Similar
• They believe their community is more significant than the individuals that comprise it. You serve the community never yourself. Never put yourself above the greater good of the community. A less extreme version of fight club, 1984, hot fuzz. Its a collectivist culture, but more deeply grounded in reality.
• Drink a lot
• Smoke a lot
• Listen to the same music
• Hate change

VS

The Man from Out of Town

• Wears different clothes
• Isn’t part of the community
• Doesn’t drink or smoke
• Doesn’t value community
• Likes variety
• Doesn’t swear
• Is in conflict with the community
• Will he abide by his own morals or be absorbed by the ethics of the community

VS

The Weather 

• Freezing Cold
• Windy
• Dangerous Surf
• Polluted/Trash everywhere/chip wrappers floating in the creek flowing to the sea.

The Man VS Himself

• He’s come to this town on holiday after getting divorced and needs to decide where to take his life. He could change himself and be absorbed into this collectivist culture to change to change his life or he could stay true to himself in the face of adversity and challenge the society and leave.

POSSIBILITIES AND LIMITATIONS OF THE SETTING

(World Rules)

• The people in my world are bored, “lower class” people. This means they are going to be doing certain activities (not others). They are likely too: Roam the streets looking for fun/action, ride bicycles and scooters, carry around portable speakers listening to bland, tasteless music, stray/untamed dos accompany them. They won’t read books, they will gamble, for them physical/sensual pleasures are the most common.
• Cold, people behave very differently in the cold than they do in the heat.
• No real depth of thought shown by the citizen. Their will be no ‘rogue
  philosopher amongst them, once you’re a part of that society you forfeit a part of yourself. It encompasses you, no exemption from the collectivist culture.