Our reading from Screenplays: How to Write and Sell Them by Craig Batty has inspired me to apply the questioning of the author to my own construction of world. This is part two of four, in which I dissect my ideas and develop answers to Batty’s questions in Theming the world.

Does the world demand a type of understanding that translates into an obvious theme?

The World of Ink is one in which there are multitudes of meaning to almost everything. As discussed in my pitch, everything that happens in this world is slow and deliberate as the constant threat of wearing your mistakes for life causes people to think before they act. Due to this behaviour, The World of Ink demands that an audience think about how the consequences of a reality such as the one presented. My aim is for people to think to themselves, what would their ink show? Would they want it to be any different? The World of Ink asks many questions and the themes developing from these would involve relationships, loneliness, deceptive perception of a person and a dystopian-like world. The overall feel of the screenplay (so far) comes across as inspired by science fiction but primarily a drama.

Which themes are already prevalent in the world, and which are denied?

I am currently unsure of how to ask this question, but will endeavour to learn what exactly it is asking as soon as possible!

How might theme and meaning be woven into the world through characters, action, visual motifs and dialogue – and then communicated out again, to the audience?

In the World of Ink visual motifs play a huge role. One person may read somebody else’s ink to mean one thing, while another reads a completely different meaning to it. The audience will see the symbols and make their own assumptions before seeing a character’s interpretation or back story of the ink, thus allowing the underlying theme of deceptive perception to be emphasised.

That’s all from the think tank for now.