This is an essay (and hence a massive wall of text) I wrote because... well I was bored. Anyway, I wanted to publish it somewhere since it's a shame to let a few hours work go to waste; if you're making a game or film which features a desolate location you might be interested in reading this.
Desolation
In media, desolation is a powerful tool. It gives atmosphere with a single word, doing in eight letters what it can take a sentence, paragraph or even a page to do otherwise. In videogames it makes the player feel alone, with luck it will affect their perception of events and alter their actions as they play. In films it gives as excuse for the characters to act irrationally and cautiously.
For example: the moors were desolate is short and concise; this allows the reader to understand what the author is telling then and move on with the story. In many situations this increases atmosphere by not lingering too long on why exactly the moors are desolate and boring the reader. In books this works well but in films and videogames knowledge of precisely what makes a place desolate is required to successfully create the feeling on screen. But what is it, exactly, that makes a place desolate? The dictionary.com definition of ?desolate? is as follows:
?adjective
1.
barren or laid waste; devastated: a treeless, desolate landscape.
2.
deprived or destitute of inhabitants; deserted; uninhabited.
3.
solitary; lonely: a desolate place.
4.
having the feeling of being abandoned by friends or by hope; forlorn.
5.
dreary; dismal; gloomy: desolate prospects.
(Note that this is only concerning the adjective; the verb is used in a different context and is not considered in this essay)
Simply put, this definition means the location has neither inhabitants nor other regular landmarks such as trees or houses. It is, for all extents and purposes, empty. However, an empty room within a house is not a desolate location and it is this difference that this essay will explore. The difference is summed up quite nicely in point four in the above definition: ?having the feeling of being abandoned by friends or by hope; forlorn.?
The empty room in a house is not, in itself, desolate because of its direct connection to humanity (it?s within a lived-in house). However, the house itself could be desolate if it was on top of a hill and run down; for a perfect example think of the Mansion in Tim Burton?s Edward Scissorhands. This example is perfect for this essay because there is a very clear line separating desolation and non-desolation: in the garden the flowers bloom and the hedges are carved into beautiful sculptures but when the setting changes to just inside the front door the mansion is desolate. So what changes as the camera moves through the door? (I?m aware that in the film the camera doesn?t physically move through the door, a cut shot is used for maximum impact on the viewer, but it is within this split second of the cut that the setting becomes desolate which is close to the same thing.) Several things change:
1. Location
2. Setting (these two words are basically interchangeable, however it?s the definitions I?ve assigned to them in this essay that are importent)
3. Sound
Location is the basic place in the fictitious world which is desolate. For maximum impact on a viewer/player this must change so they may ?enter? the desolate place. In the example of Edward Scissorhands it is the mansion that is desolate: the garden outside does not become desolate. In the example I will be creating below the desolate place will be the car park, while the staircase is not. Location also describes what other parts of the world a viewer/player may see.
Setting is the largest consideration and concerns the specifics of the location: materials used to construct it, amount of dirt, light levels, props, etc. Technically it also includes sound, however I have considered sound separately here as it is dynamic while many points of the setting can be considered ?hard? rules.
Sound is.. well it?s the sound in the setting. The noise that the viewer/player can hear. Specifically to creating a feeling of desolation it concerns the ambient noise and noise filters but not the noise made by any props in the setting. It?s worth noting, however, that noisy props will almost certainly destroy the feeling of desolation.
Before I explore creating a desolate location I?d like to make a note of a few things that desolation is not:
- Explicitly Scary: a desolate place will feel forboding and unnerving and the viewer/player will not want to remain here but it should not be explicitly dangerous. For example a wornd down wooden bridge over a large pit of lava is not desolate: people aren?t on the bridge because it?s dangerous! A small town, lit fires in the grate and food on the table but with no inhabitants is also not desolate; the lit fires and food implies that something caused the inhabitants to (very suddenly and very recently) not be here which implies danger. In contrast the same town three months later, with valuables stolen, food mouldy and fires burnt out would be desolate as the immediate danger would seem to have passed.
- Excessively hard to reach: an empty monastery that is not well known, up a large mountain and several thousand stairs is not desolate; there are no people here because none could be bothered to come up here. Many authors would describe such a place as ?desolate? but if we consider the same place within a context of a film or video game there is no sense of foreboding, no mystery as to why people aren?t here. The same applies to a mansion that requires a complicated lock mechanism to open; in this case there is the sense of foreboding however it is caused by an intrusion: somebody went to the trouble to keep the character/player out using the locking mechanism.
Note that in both of these examples the prime reason why they are not desolate is that there is a reason why they are empty, either stated or implied. So, the first rule of a place being desolate is that there must be no reason why it is empty, why it has been deserted. I?m going to centre the rest of this essay around building an example of a desolate place to give some context and specific examples of props. The place I will be using comes from an exceptionally vivid dream I once had, so it is a solid place in my mind.
The place is the roof of a building: the building itself is relatively unimportant but I will describe it quickly. It is an office building for the military with several floors of science labs under it. It?s not an evil co-operation or super-soldier research centre, it?s a relatively short skyscraper in the middle of an average (American) city, surrounded (and dwarfed by) by other skyscrapers. It ,and indeed most of the city, is made of brick and stone with darkened windows, unlike many modern buildings which show off steel and glass to the outside. The outside of the building is worn and has seen better days but is not run down or dangerous, the inside is bright with open plan offices, white walls and good lighting. The science labs are rarely used and are clean. Lifts and stairs service most of the building except the roof, access is granted by one stairwell, lit and cleaned but rarely used, and a vehicle lift. The roof itself is a small car park for officers and high ranking visitors, though the building has a larger underground car park for all of its staff and less important visitors.
The first rule mentioned above (that there is no reason for it to be empty) applies here. Why aren?t the officers using this car park anymore? Nobody knows. The door onto the roof is locked but can be opened with keys from the building (in a modern film or game this would be a swipe card carried by all staff) so it is easily accessible, however nobody comes here.
The second rule of desolation is that the location and setting should remind the viewer/player of humanity at all times, so they are constantly aware of its current absence. The shortness of the building does this nicely; whichever way the viewer/player looks off the rooftop they see man-made skyscrapers. The floor can also do this, painted lines to designate parking spaces reminds the viewer/player that this was once a working, functional place that had a reason to exist.
The third rule is to do with time: the desolate place isn?t just quiet today, it has been empty for a long, long time. In my rooftop car park example the timeframe is in months or years. This is most easily shown through the use of props: litter and dirt will have collected in corners, not swept up. Wind blows this dirt in flurries over the ground before returning it to its corners. The painted lines mentioned above are worn and faded, cracked and chipped in places as the stone beneath them has shifted. A solitary car, a humvee, is parked in one of the spaces but it is also worn; the paint has started to fade and flake in the sun, rust has invaded uncovered metal. A single wheel has come off and the car is propped up on a stack of wood to keep it balanced, but it was never repaired. A closer look reveals the doors to hang loosely open and the inside has been torched, some group of vandals has attempted to burn the car after making their way onto the roof, but had not succeeded. These props show that extreme time has passed since anyone has cared about this rooftop, however other props like empty bottles and cigarette stubs are also acceptable: they show that a human presence has been here but no not show a care or respect for the location. For an example think of the fairground in the tutorial level of Hitman: Blood Money. It?s been almost exactly a year since anyone came to the fair, and it shows.
Other, subtle methods can be used to make a place seem more desolate: lowering lighting levels can help but lowering them too much can make it scary (what if there?s a monster in those shadows?) Outside and on a roof an ideal time would be late afternoon/early evening, before the twilight hour. Shadows are long and light levels are low, but the light itself is golden. In another setting, in a fair ground or on the high street, it would look beautiful. Rain can make a place seem more desolate, but also provides a reason for the place being deserted. A place being empty despite a warm, bright sun beating down on it makes it seem more desolate. (Note that this weather is more applicable in films that in videogames; without extensive scripting or a tight story a game has little control over weather. Also, when a game has these things it?s often accompanied by characters saying things like ?wow it?s quiet here? and ruining the effect. The effect of desolation is best felt in game such as The Elder Scrolls, free roaming adventure games in which the developer has little control over the weather.)
The fourth and final rule is sound. This is mostly dynamic and my examples will apply specifically to my car park, however I will explain why I am using each of these. The sound track must have at least two layers in all cases: the first will be ambient sounds of the world. In my car park these will likely be traffic sounds from street below, cars honking horns, a dog barking. The important bit about this layer is that it is muffled: it?s not just quiet but is distorted, signifying a detachment from the rest of the world. This is not a natural effect, but one a director can use to enhance their world. For an absolutely perfect example of this ?muffling? effect think back to The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time for the Nintendo 64. Remember in the back alleys of Hyrule Castle City during the day? Yes, the sound there. Note the difference, however, to a very close location from the same game, the garden outside the temple of time totally removes the music and noise the town centre makes. Note also that these back alleys are not desolate (it?s implied they?re where the city?s houses are), but the music effect can be used to enhance a feeling of desolation. The second layer of the sound track is the setting?s own sound. In the case of the car park this is a simple wind blowing over the building and a rustling as it scrapes litter over the ground. Footsteps are loud and speech is very clear, this emphasises the quietness of the location.
These four rules describe how to make a location desolate by manipulating both its physical attributes and its sound, as well as describing why these manipulations create an effect of unease without being explicitly dangerous. In summary and conclusion, remember the four main points of making a place desolate:
- leave no reason, stated or implied, why the place is deserted.
- remind the viewer/player constantly of humanity in order to emphasise the fact they are alone
- using props, show an extreme time lapse since anyone has cared about this place
- using a multi-layered sound track, remind the viewer/player of the ?outside? world while signifying a detachment to it through the use of sound muffling. Emphasise quiet sounds of the location itself
Remember, however, that these are only the ?hard? rules. If your media allows it you may also alter things like weather, time of day, lighting levels and other characters in the location (for example, a guide) to enhance the feeling.
Desolation
In media, desolation is a powerful tool. It gives atmosphere with a single word, doing in eight letters what it can take a sentence, paragraph or even a page to do otherwise. In videogames it makes the player feel alone, with luck it will affect their perception of events and alter their actions as they play. In films it gives as excuse for the characters to act irrationally and cautiously.
For example: the moors were desolate is short and concise; this allows the reader to understand what the author is telling then and move on with the story. In many situations this increases atmosphere by not lingering too long on why exactly the moors are desolate and boring the reader. In books this works well but in films and videogames knowledge of precisely what makes a place desolate is required to successfully create the feeling on screen. But what is it, exactly, that makes a place desolate? The dictionary.com definition of ?desolate? is as follows:
?adjective
1.
barren or laid waste; devastated: a treeless, desolate landscape.
2.
deprived or destitute of inhabitants; deserted; uninhabited.
3.
solitary; lonely: a desolate place.
4.
having the feeling of being abandoned by friends or by hope; forlorn.
5.
dreary; dismal; gloomy: desolate prospects.
(Note that this is only concerning the adjective; the verb is used in a different context and is not considered in this essay)
Simply put, this definition means the location has neither inhabitants nor other regular landmarks such as trees or houses. It is, for all extents and purposes, empty. However, an empty room within a house is not a desolate location and it is this difference that this essay will explore. The difference is summed up quite nicely in point four in the above definition: ?having the feeling of being abandoned by friends or by hope; forlorn.?
The empty room in a house is not, in itself, desolate because of its direct connection to humanity (it?s within a lived-in house). However, the house itself could be desolate if it was on top of a hill and run down; for a perfect example think of the Mansion in Tim Burton?s Edward Scissorhands. This example is perfect for this essay because there is a very clear line separating desolation and non-desolation: in the garden the flowers bloom and the hedges are carved into beautiful sculptures but when the setting changes to just inside the front door the mansion is desolate. So what changes as the camera moves through the door? (I?m aware that in the film the camera doesn?t physically move through the door, a cut shot is used for maximum impact on the viewer, but it is within this split second of the cut that the setting becomes desolate which is close to the same thing.) Several things change:
1. Location
2. Setting (these two words are basically interchangeable, however it?s the definitions I?ve assigned to them in this essay that are importent)
3. Sound
Location is the basic place in the fictitious world which is desolate. For maximum impact on a viewer/player this must change so they may ?enter? the desolate place. In the example of Edward Scissorhands it is the mansion that is desolate: the garden outside does not become desolate. In the example I will be creating below the desolate place will be the car park, while the staircase is not. Location also describes what other parts of the world a viewer/player may see.
Setting is the largest consideration and concerns the specifics of the location: materials used to construct it, amount of dirt, light levels, props, etc. Technically it also includes sound, however I have considered sound separately here as it is dynamic while many points of the setting can be considered ?hard? rules.
Sound is.. well it?s the sound in the setting. The noise that the viewer/player can hear. Specifically to creating a feeling of desolation it concerns the ambient noise and noise filters but not the noise made by any props in the setting. It?s worth noting, however, that noisy props will almost certainly destroy the feeling of desolation.
Before I explore creating a desolate location I?d like to make a note of a few things that desolation is not:
- Explicitly Scary: a desolate place will feel forboding and unnerving and the viewer/player will not want to remain here but it should not be explicitly dangerous. For example a wornd down wooden bridge over a large pit of lava is not desolate: people aren?t on the bridge because it?s dangerous! A small town, lit fires in the grate and food on the table but with no inhabitants is also not desolate; the lit fires and food implies that something caused the inhabitants to (very suddenly and very recently) not be here which implies danger. In contrast the same town three months later, with valuables stolen, food mouldy and fires burnt out would be desolate as the immediate danger would seem to have passed.
- Excessively hard to reach: an empty monastery that is not well known, up a large mountain and several thousand stairs is not desolate; there are no people here because none could be bothered to come up here. Many authors would describe such a place as ?desolate? but if we consider the same place within a context of a film or video game there is no sense of foreboding, no mystery as to why people aren?t here. The same applies to a mansion that requires a complicated lock mechanism to open; in this case there is the sense of foreboding however it is caused by an intrusion: somebody went to the trouble to keep the character/player out using the locking mechanism.
Note that in both of these examples the prime reason why they are not desolate is that there is a reason why they are empty, either stated or implied. So, the first rule of a place being desolate is that there must be no reason why it is empty, why it has been deserted. I?m going to centre the rest of this essay around building an example of a desolate place to give some context and specific examples of props. The place I will be using comes from an exceptionally vivid dream I once had, so it is a solid place in my mind.
The place is the roof of a building: the building itself is relatively unimportant but I will describe it quickly. It is an office building for the military with several floors of science labs under it. It?s not an evil co-operation or super-soldier research centre, it?s a relatively short skyscraper in the middle of an average (American) city, surrounded (and dwarfed by) by other skyscrapers. It ,and indeed most of the city, is made of brick and stone with darkened windows, unlike many modern buildings which show off steel and glass to the outside. The outside of the building is worn and has seen better days but is not run down or dangerous, the inside is bright with open plan offices, white walls and good lighting. The science labs are rarely used and are clean. Lifts and stairs service most of the building except the roof, access is granted by one stairwell, lit and cleaned but rarely used, and a vehicle lift. The roof itself is a small car park for officers and high ranking visitors, though the building has a larger underground car park for all of its staff and less important visitors.
The first rule mentioned above (that there is no reason for it to be empty) applies here. Why aren?t the officers using this car park anymore? Nobody knows. The door onto the roof is locked but can be opened with keys from the building (in a modern film or game this would be a swipe card carried by all staff) so it is easily accessible, however nobody comes here.
The second rule of desolation is that the location and setting should remind the viewer/player of humanity at all times, so they are constantly aware of its current absence. The shortness of the building does this nicely; whichever way the viewer/player looks off the rooftop they see man-made skyscrapers. The floor can also do this, painted lines to designate parking spaces reminds the viewer/player that this was once a working, functional place that had a reason to exist.
The third rule is to do with time: the desolate place isn?t just quiet today, it has been empty for a long, long time. In my rooftop car park example the timeframe is in months or years. This is most easily shown through the use of props: litter and dirt will have collected in corners, not swept up. Wind blows this dirt in flurries over the ground before returning it to its corners. The painted lines mentioned above are worn and faded, cracked and chipped in places as the stone beneath them has shifted. A solitary car, a humvee, is parked in one of the spaces but it is also worn; the paint has started to fade and flake in the sun, rust has invaded uncovered metal. A single wheel has come off and the car is propped up on a stack of wood to keep it balanced, but it was never repaired. A closer look reveals the doors to hang loosely open and the inside has been torched, some group of vandals has attempted to burn the car after making their way onto the roof, but had not succeeded. These props show that extreme time has passed since anyone has cared about this rooftop, however other props like empty bottles and cigarette stubs are also acceptable: they show that a human presence has been here but no not show a care or respect for the location. For an example think of the fairground in the tutorial level of Hitman: Blood Money. It?s been almost exactly a year since anyone came to the fair, and it shows.
Other, subtle methods can be used to make a place seem more desolate: lowering lighting levels can help but lowering them too much can make it scary (what if there?s a monster in those shadows?) Outside and on a roof an ideal time would be late afternoon/early evening, before the twilight hour. Shadows are long and light levels are low, but the light itself is golden. In another setting, in a fair ground or on the high street, it would look beautiful. Rain can make a place seem more desolate, but also provides a reason for the place being deserted. A place being empty despite a warm, bright sun beating down on it makes it seem more desolate. (Note that this weather is more applicable in films that in videogames; without extensive scripting or a tight story a game has little control over weather. Also, when a game has these things it?s often accompanied by characters saying things like ?wow it?s quiet here? and ruining the effect. The effect of desolation is best felt in game such as The Elder Scrolls, free roaming adventure games in which the developer has little control over the weather.)
The fourth and final rule is sound. This is mostly dynamic and my examples will apply specifically to my car park, however I will explain why I am using each of these. The sound track must have at least two layers in all cases: the first will be ambient sounds of the world. In my car park these will likely be traffic sounds from street below, cars honking horns, a dog barking. The important bit about this layer is that it is muffled: it?s not just quiet but is distorted, signifying a detachment from the rest of the world. This is not a natural effect, but one a director can use to enhance their world. For an absolutely perfect example of this ?muffling? effect think back to The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time for the Nintendo 64. Remember in the back alleys of Hyrule Castle City during the day? Yes, the sound there. Note the difference, however, to a very close location from the same game, the garden outside the temple of time totally removes the music and noise the town centre makes. Note also that these back alleys are not desolate (it?s implied they?re where the city?s houses are), but the music effect can be used to enhance a feeling of desolation. The second layer of the sound track is the setting?s own sound. In the case of the car park this is a simple wind blowing over the building and a rustling as it scrapes litter over the ground. Footsteps are loud and speech is very clear, this emphasises the quietness of the location.
These four rules describe how to make a location desolate by manipulating both its physical attributes and its sound, as well as describing why these manipulations create an effect of unease without being explicitly dangerous. In summary and conclusion, remember the four main points of making a place desolate:
- leave no reason, stated or implied, why the place is deserted.
- remind the viewer/player constantly of humanity in order to emphasise the fact they are alone
- using props, show an extreme time lapse since anyone has cared about this place
- using a multi-layered sound track, remind the viewer/player of the ?outside? world while signifying a detachment to it through the use of sound muffling. Emphasise quiet sounds of the location itself
Remember, however, that these are only the ?hard? rules. If your media allows it you may also alter things like weather, time of day, lighting levels and other characters in the location (for example, a guide) to enhance the feeling.