Dieselpunk + Steampunk Culture
How Dieselpunks can learn from Dystopian Futurist Movie "Children of Men"
Hello everyone. I come here to share a thought I once had. It came to me after watching the movie "Children of Men", which I consider to be THE greatest movie of the 21st century, so far. In short, the movie is set during 2027, and ever since 2009 the whole human race has become infertile. No more babies.
Here's a short trailer:
Anyway, after watching a special commentary of the movie, I came across very interesting ideas for people who wish to create their very own dieselpunk worlds. Here is the commentary (watching until 2 minutes in should be enough to get the point across):
As you will hear, one of the commentators explains why he thought this futuristic movie was so realistic. It was because the movie sougt to focus more on the advances of technology as "background" rather than making it the central theme. Extrapolating this to the dieselpunk subgenre simply means that artists (those who wish for, naturally) should attempt to make the futuristic development more of a background level rather than making it the whole central theme. This entails to place the characters acting the same way people acted back in the diesel era (20s-40s), not forgetting of course a certain rogue/punk element, which would make the end result feel a lot more integrated and realistic rather than utopian and overdone with science fiction.
This is of course just an opinion, but i'm anxious to see what others think. And if you do get a chance to watch the movie, don't miss it.
Tags: Children of Men, dieselpunk, dystopian
Views: 18
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Larry on -
"Extrapolating this to the dieselpunk subgenre simply means that artists (those who wish for, naturally) should attempt to make the futuristic development more of a background level rather than making it the whole central theme. This entails to place the characters acting the same way people acted back in the diesel era (20s-40s), not forgetting of course a certain rogue/punk element, which would make the end result feel a lot more integrated and realistic rather than utopian and overdone with science fiction."
Very interesting thoughts. I think you're onto something very important.
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Permalink Reply by Tome Wilson on -
This is similar to the statements happening in the "Fallacy of steampunk as a genre" thread.
A good story shouldn't rely on the setting or the genre to be a good story.
If you can rename your characters and throw them in any time period, then you know you have a good story that will pass the test of time.
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Permalink Reply by IRON CROSS on -
children of men was a fantastic movie the destopian future worked because the story worked. Although a world without children was like a world with out hope I liked how the charaters looked to goverment religion or hate to give them somthing to live for but it comes back to the story was good and the world was thought through we all need to be part of somthing grater then ourselves
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Permalink Reply by Wels on -
I have this movie on DVD, and I love the way of filming. You feel like you're in the middle of it, like an extra character that is never talked to. It really sucks you in!
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Permalink Reply by Dreia M on -
Tome Wilson said:This is similar to the statements happening in the "Fallacy of steampunk as a genre" thread.
A good story shouldn't rely on the setting or the genre to be a good story.
If you can rename your characters and throw them in any time period, then you know you have a good story that will pass the test of time.
This.
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Permalink Reply by Twizard on -
Actually I think another successful application of this principle in a somewhat Dieselpunk genre is the new series Caprica on on the Si Fi Channel. Technology enables the story but is not the focus of it. Its more about how the characters respond to the situation enabled by technology. It gets almost Shakespearean at times in my opinion.
Dreia M said:
Tome Wilson said:This is similar to the statements happening in the "Fallacy of steampunk as a genre" thread.
A good story shouldn't rely on the setting or the genre to be a good story.
If you can rename your characters and throw them in any time period, then you know you have a good story that will pass the test of time.
This.
© 2012 Created by Tome Wilson.
