Bioluminescence is sort of like the night mode of the natural world. It involves chemical reactions generating light in living creatures. Here is a Ctenophore: The header is Panellus stipticus fungus. While the firefly may be the quintessential bioluminescent life … Continue reading Night Thread of Bioluminescence (02/11)
You’ve heard the phrase “For All Mankind”? Well one of mankind is Captain Pete Yablonsky. Distinguished by his bright orange space suit, Yablonsky works as a docking officer for Starbase Command. And as well all know, space operations don’t work … Continue reading Day Thread of Pete Yablonsky (02/10)
If you are reading this, then some sort of ‘launch’ event–presumably a real trailer for this year’s 4thcoming movie The Fantastic Four: First Steps–has already occurred, having been advertised to debut at 7AM Eastern, or four hours earlier than the … Continue reading The ‘Fantastic Fourth’ of February Day Thread
Argentina’s Aconcagua has the distinction of being the highest mountain peak outside of Asia, thus the highest in the Americas, as well as in the western and southern hemispheres. It reaches 22,838 feet, or 6,961 meters, in elevation. Located in … Continue reading Day Thread of Highest Peaks: Aconcagua, Argentina (02/02)
So concludes the 30 Days of fictional settings–thanks to everyone who participated–and here’s a free space for spare thoughts: Were any obvious categories left out? Do you have a particular setting of any sort that you’d like to discuss a … Continue reading 30 Day Fictional Settings Challenge: Epilogue
Sometimes dinosaurs hang out at the salad bar with humans, and sometimes they’re conscripted into war between humans and aliens: Have a good Thursday 🦖 Continue reading Day Thread of Dino-Rider T Rex (01/30)
Actual cities, the most densely populated zones in our word, are obvious choices for story settings. Filming in them comes with some practical challenges attached, given how much IRL activity there is to accommodate; nonetheless, the film industry makes it … Continue reading 30 Day Fictional Settings Challenge, Day 30: Real Cities
One type of imaginary world that overlaps in a literal sense with the real world is the theme park. Disneyland, its many spinoffs and its competitors create spaces in which visitors can take a brief vacation to another sort of … Continue reading 30 Day Fictional Settings Challenge, Day 29: Theme Parks
Because I miscalculated and needed an extra category, let’s take a day to discuss games that are played without a screen (or at least, without a screen as part of the game itself). From basic board games such as Monopoly, … Continue reading 30 Day Fictional Settings Challenge, Day 28: Tabletop & Board Games
Human culture has been deeply wrapped up in the changing of the natural seasons since time immemorial. Especially in regions farther from the Equator, which see distinct variation between hotter and colder temperatures, we often find our experiences closely associated … Continue reading 30 Day Fictional Settings Challenge, Day 27: The Seasons
Back to life, back to (fictional) reality. Today’s topic is essentially, nature. That is, wilderness filming locations off the grid of human infrastructure; let’s say loosely, no evidence of “civilization” other than maybe a road or path. What is your … Continue reading 30 Day Fictional Settings Challenge, Day 26: Natural Settings
Let’s get right to the main prompt for today: What is your favorite fictional non-Earth planet? Real Bonus: What is your favorite portrayal of a real planet or place somewhere in the universe other than Earth? Speculative Bonus: Is there … Continue reading 30 Day Fictional Settings Challenge, Day 25: Other Planets
Dreams are as old as sleep, mystifying or otherwise affecting us in uniquely vivid yet often fleeting ways. Naturally, fiction can make use of the dream as a sort of sub-medium. Cinema in particular has at times elevated the portrayal … Continue reading 30 Day Fictional Settings Challenge, Day 24: Dream Sequences
Sometimes, a new setting for a story is created not by traveling to a different place in the prevailing reality, but rather by exploring how that reality might differ in another timeline or parallel universe. This can be directly tied … Continue reading 30 Day Fictional Settings Challenge, Day 23: Alternate Realities
There’s certainly some creative crossover between animated film and other mediums such as comics and video games: portrayal of environments via artwork rather than photography. Animation, like games in particular, spans a vast continuum of quality, from relatively cheap cartoons … Continue reading 30 Day Fictional Settings Challenge, Day 22: Animation
You’ve heard the expression “Let’s get cozy”? Well today’s theme gets coz-zay, thoroughly and consistently: settings that are, simply, comfortable. They don’t have to involve a fireplace, but that is a go-to element. What is your favorite example in fiction … Continue reading 30 Day Fictional Settings Challenge, Day 21: Cozy Places
Video game level design deserves way more than one day, given the breadth of what is out there, but I suppose that previous challenges have afforded lots of discussion space for the medium, so for this month, today will be … Continue reading 30 Day Fictional Settings Challenge, Day 20: Game Levels
Beyond the physical or contextual nature of a story’s setting, the penciling, inking and coloring styles of comic artists contribute immensely to readers’ perception of place. What is your favorite example of artwork creating a setting on the pages of … Continue reading 30 Day Fictional Settings Challenge, Day 19: Comics & Graphic Novels
Similar to songs, novels describe places using words, rather than images (cover art and music videos notwithstanding). Though a picture, they say, is worth many words, books have many, many words, and the benefit of leaving at least the final … Continue reading 30 Day Fictional Settings Challenge, Day 18: From the Written Page
There is a real art to creating environments within the spatial and rotational constraints of a stage production. Whether electively skewing towards the minimalist end of the spectrum, or filling the stage with as much opulent detail as possible, there … Continue reading 30 Day Fictional Settings Challenge, Day 17: Stage/Musical Sets
Song lyrics, in addition to often focusing on emotions, interpersonal relationships and general storytelling, also sometimes describe places, either real or fictional, even nameless in some cases. The main prompt for today is: What song comes first, or best, to … Continue reading 30 Day Fictional Settings Challenge, Day 16: Places In Song
