Hi, me again, I have new updates about my production design and future plans to creating a consistent background design and keeping elements appearing in the film consistent with the content I am aiming at producing. The background is extremely important in establishing consistency of the dystopia as there can be no items that indicate that the film is occurring at any time in the past or rather our present. For example, I am making sure that no cellular devices are seen in my film, as well as pop culture references that would not make sense for a fictional future society. Having a Beyonce album playing or a One Direction poster on a wall would not properly align with the dystopia I am attempting in creating on screen! So this being said I want to make sure that everything is consistent in my film, but as I conducted research on how best to do this, I came across many stereotypes of the genre and I wanted to challenge these conventions. Often it is said that the future is extremely grim, I am sticking true to this convention, however, I am going against the idea that a dystopian society should consist of people wearing stereotypical post apocalyptic outfits, covered in tattoos, and living underground. Often dystopian films are created by White individuals and often portray White people. Often the issues of minorities are not brought up, simply because often times, the modern world often seems apocalyptic for people of color. The chaos of daily discrimination and racism is a reality for many, and often people can even find themselves dying as a result of hate crimes and racially motivated violence.
     Due to the present violence minorities face, often dystopia is not even thought of, due to the fact that the present is bad enough already. However, I wanted to portray the possibilities of what the future could be if this violence continues against people of color in the United States. There is a racial divide in this country that often goes unacknowledged and brushed off due to its commonality. This being said I want my background to consist of elements that are consistent with the dystopian theme and also of those relating to the culture of the characters portrayed on screen. For example I am going to include newspapers and images of past issues such as the Civil Rights Movement as well as different genocides such as the Sikh genocide, and affairs happening between North and South Korea. I want my characters to have depth and a backstory, and the way to achieve this is to show that racial tensions stemmed from somewhere and that this future societal race war may be dramatized, but is it really that far fetched?

Queenan, J. (2015, March 19). From Insurgent to Blade Runner: Why is the future on film always so grim? Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/mar/19/dystopian-films-blade-runner-insurgent-future-grim