Through creative storytelling, 'Aliena' demonstrates all 3 types of Unfamiliarity; Real World, Timeline, and Fictional.
REAL WORLD UNFAMILIARITY[]
Aliena uses several major real-world landmarks that enable the audience to suspend their disbelief, and envision themselves in an otherwise unrecognizable world.
- Capitol Records Building in the city formerly known as Los Angeles - is now a government run facility, as a branch of the TAO's entertainment division.
- Johns Hopkins Medical Research Center - Once an acclaimed research hospital, it is now under the influence of the Alchemists - they use the site for horrific experiments on their citizens, in pursuit of developing an elixir that will preserve life and youth.
TIMELINE UNFAMILIARITY[]
Using historical events such as the presidential election in 1945 with Franklin D. Roosevelt, or reappropriating the great earthquake in 1931 as a nefarious man-made disaster rather than a natural one satisfies the storyworld need for a Timeline Unfamiliarity. The audience sees a world that looks, acts and operates as our own, yet it is dark and dystopian, and a chilling idea of what could have been.
FICTIONAL UNFAMILIARTY[]
Fictional Unfamiliarity is achieved through the rising of legendary ancient civilizations and its inhabitants. While most have heard of the lost city of Atlantis, few have heard of the lost continent of Lemuria. This affords us an opportunity to create an entire species of fish-human hybrids (not mermaids) that have their own symbolic language, customs, and beliefs who have existed peacefully for thousands of years. After the earthquake, their civilization and existence become known to the rest of the world; and as such they quite literally become the fish out of water.