If your hand begins to cramp just thinking about writing a screenplay, it shouldn’t. AI is revolutionizing the industry. However, AI’s brains are built on a history of brilliant screenplays written by humans. Screenplays that tug at our heartstrings, build empathy, galvanize us to action, anger us, and make us weep. Like the UK with novels before it,, cinema is the art form that US global hegemony brought to the world and globalized. And it wouldn’t be an art form at all without screenwriters and their screenplays. Directors would have nothing to direct. Actors, who my kids always say “are so funny” wouldn’t be funny at all – they don’t write their own lines, after all. Forgotten, overlooked, and typically underpaid, screenwriters did.
This map is an ode to screenwriters. There is no data to show. Some scene vignettes translated into different languages based on the country. The world, indeed a lot of what we perceive as real about the world, has been shaped by screenwriters. This simple map is meant to reflect that… and basically shows what can be done quickly.
Cartographers note: if I wasn’t making one of these a day, I would probably have spent more time on getting this just right. Originally there were going to be three acts that were randomly scattered in different languages. Maybe someday in the future. Next year? 🙂
Consider this a proof of concept. And Happy Screenwriter’s Day! Another craft massively impacted by AI already.
View the map here.
- Prompt cartographer: Ian Muehlenhaus
- Content fills created with ChatGPT (screenplay draft based on direction and translation into multiple languages).
- Map created using WebMapperGPT.
Original Prompt
I would like to create a map for international screenplay day. I don’t want to run a foul of copyright laws, but I want this to be artsy, not informative. I’m picturing a world map that is zoomable, and each countries fill is typewriter font screenplay text with standard screenplay formatting bits like SCENE INT, dialogue, description, etc.
Each country when you zoom in should have screenplay text in that countries dominant or official language.
The screenplay text should be made up, PG rating, and can be the same text in different languages. It should be a scene or scenes where two characters, one female and one male, talk about the power of film to build human empathy and connection across borders. As people zoom I to a country, more and more of the text should become visible (though never all of it) as the fill font size stays roughly the same across zoom levels (e.g., 12pt) but more of a country is visible as you zoom in. We should have three different scenes discussing this, so countries with the same exact language can have different scenes.
If I provide the three scenes in English formatting, could you translate it the scenes (roughly one-two pages) into the to 20 languages of the world in screenplay format and then build such a map for me. The only I teractivity will be zooming in and out. No data, no anything. An artsy map for screenwriters/screenplay day.
I imagine this being quite minimalist but can you think of any way to enhance visual hierarchy so the text doesn’t all blend into one another? Perhaps slightly roasting text fills in each country or creating a subtle but discernible border between each country? I will use natural earth 1:50000000 geometry files for countries (no lakes). I will use my favorite ISO3 country abbreviation. Perhaps I will need a language field added too, so when people hover it can name the country and language but maybe that ruins the aesthetic.
Please help me design a simple, dialogue heavy text map! Thank you!
Once I get your feedback we can create a schema and I will draft the screenplay. Also, what tech do you think works best for this?