Research Documentation

The scenes will only truly belong to a time and place if you know this context perfectly. The context must be part of the story, not just decoration. Study the context your story is set in as thoroughly as possible, for your locations to feel real, not artificial. Collect information and also visit places similar to the context your story takes place in. Take notes, observe and read everything you find about the period in which your story is set in. Make sure you know the habits and customs, rules and particularities of this world. Is the story about pirates or set in a hospital ER? Does it take place in a sports environment, or is it about hunters? This world you want to take your viewers to must have absolutely no secrets for you.

If you set the story in a context you know well and have spent a lot of time in, it will be easy for you to take us there. But remember the audience doesn’t necessarily know everything you do about this environment. You have to take time to introduce your world, with its codes and rules.

If it is an imaginary world, imagine every corner of it. Know how it works. If your story is set in a magician’s school for instance, you need to know the school rules!

Example Your story is about the adventures of a medieval merchant. Like everyone, you have your idea about what the Middle Ages were like: knights, cathedrals, castles, crusades, monasteries and inquisition bonfires. But you may need to be more specific.

The Middle Ages began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire circa 476 and officially ended in 1453 with the fall of Constantinople. Many events took place in those thousand years. You must be as precise as possible and do thorough research about the period you are interested in.