World Setting

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Inspiration

“Variables” is based on the conspiracy theory —- “Government is performing experiments on humans secretly by controlling public opinions and information flow. For example, one of the most famous conspiracies is about the government asking social media to suppress information that they do not want the public to talk about or use other bigger events to overshadow it. Another well-known conspiracy is that the government will select some areas and turn them into human-subject research fields.

World Setting

In “Variables”, the theory is further developed and extremize to create a society that the characters are living in and the foundation of the world. In “Variables”, the government colluded with the consortium, secretly performing human experiments on different people. They introduced free education, school welfare and maternity benefits to lure adults into having babies. Then, they can have enough test subjects to perform human experiments.

The citizens have no idea of the collusion between the government and the consortium. Therefore, they will give out their right and send their children to these “charity organisations” that work with the government. Thus, some children have performed experiments since childhood, which are called “the variable”. Some who are lucky enough to escape from the experiment are called “Controlled”. This background setting also affects the character setting. Certain characters who have been through experiments will have extreme behaviours while some characters do not. To monitor the effect of the experiment, selections of experiment subjects will be thrown into an experimental environment to test their behaviours for further studies.

Some of the scientists join the plan in the name of “science” and some are lured by the benefits provided by the government. Some just want to protect their beloved. Thus, huge human experimental sites are operating in front of the eyes of the public…

Story Background Setting

Since the world setting tends to be unsettling and dark, the story will be more related to a thriller and horror aspect. In most horror movies, characters are thrown into an isolated situation with no assistance. Therefore, “Variables” follows the basic principle of a thriller, setting the characters in an inescapable situation that has mysteries that need to be solved to enhance the tension and possibilities for characters to have conflict. Also, the conflict can be divided into aspects to enhance the personality traits of the characters, for example, human relationship and social value conflict between the characters, and the conflict between the characters and the world around them.

The audio drama will focus on the characters themselves and their interactions. The world setting providing the foundation of how the story set and the overall tone of the story. However, the experinemetn will not appear a lot in the drama. It more likely to provide some clues for the audience to guess what is truely happening.

In addition to the world setting, localization has been considered, hoping to achieve an immersive experience for the audience. Since the audio drama will be presented in Cantonese, Chinese names and English names that have meanings related to the story need to be considered. Also, the general setting and conversation have to be considered to be more cohesive to the normal lives of Hong Kong. Therefore, the story plot and character design should have similarities and references to Hong Kong people and culture. Names, characters’ daily routines and the school designs should take reference on the secondary school student life and add adaptation to help with the story.