Thursday 14 January 2016
So that i could get a better understanding of Ergastulum; the City in which the story Gangsta takes place, i've researched more into Ergastulum, not only by watching and grabbing screen shots from the anime, but also researching more into the name by finding out what it means and the history behind its meaning.
Because this research is very in depth, it will be broken down into two blog posts, the first part developing thorough useful historical research on Ergastulum, which will then be used to help towards developing ideas for the second part of the research which is recreating this world into a live action production.
This blog post will help to display my research, plus further help me towards appropriating and developing the live action version of Ergastulum for my production concept.The presentation of the research into Ergastulum will be provided in this order:
Gangstas historical background of Ergastulum
Brief history behind the creation and lifestyle of Ergastulum in the Gangsta series.
Definition of Ergastulum
A historical exploration finding out what Ergastulum is.
Conclusive summary
Cross referencing research and drawing a conclusion as to how the city was created, looking into the notion behind the name and it's historical context in order to understand how the anime city was appropriated into a new concept. Showing source material from the Gangsta anime series and real world examples for comparison.
SIDE NOTE
This research will consist heavily of copying and pasting, however, only relevant parts of the articles will be copied and pasted plus expanded upon as it will build up towards the overall conclusive summary of this blog post. The source links to this research will be referenced if further information is required.
Gangstas historical background of Ergastulum
http://gangsta.wikia.com/wiki/Ergastulum
Ergastulum is a city in an unknown country in which the series Gangsta takes place.
Ergastulum was founded in the wake of the War of Unification
in 1913. It was originally intended as a quarantine for Celebre users from the
war, later known as Twilights. Twilights born outside of Ergastulum, or
"strays", are targeted by the government to be identified, tagged and
relocated to Ergastulum.
In 1926, prison overcrowding caused the government to open
Ergastulum to criminals as well, regardless of whether they were Twilight or
human. It also became a home for refugees from various countries. Because of
this there is a high amount of racial and ethnic diversity in Ergastulum.
City layout
The city is made up primarily of terraced housing, alleyways and backroads. The backroads and alleyways is where a lot of the action takes place throughout the series.
In the Gangsta city, the citizens drive on the righthand side of the road like that of most European countries, as the drivers wheel is positioned to the left of the car.
Main locations
These are the key locations within Ergatsulum where parts of the story take place
HandyMan Base
This is the apartment which the main characters live in
Paulkee Guild
The Paulkee guild's location is their main base of operation, where they run their organisation from and also live at.
Monroe Headquaters
Doctor Theo's Clinic
This is Dr Theo's clinic. Nothing is special about the outside of the building, apart from displaying a green clinic logo.
Ergastulum Police Station
This is Ergatsulums police department which the two main police officers of the series 'Chad Adkins, & his junior partner 'Cody Balfour' work out of
Gun Shop
Cristiano brothel
Erotic magnificent pussy
This location is a brothel that is featured within the series run by "Big mama" Georgina, as prostitution is one of the key activities that takes place within the series, being that the main character Worick does occasional work as a Gigalo & Alex was a former prostitute.
Definition of Ergastulum
An ergastulum (plural: ergastula) was a Roman building used to hold in chains dangerous slaves, or to punish other slaves.[1] The ergastulum was usually subsurface, built as a deep, roofed pit - large enough to allow the slaves to work within it and containing narrow spaces in which they slept. They were common structures on all slave-using farms (latifundium).[2] The etymology is disputed between two possible Greek roots 'ergasterios' (workshop) and 'ergastylos' (pillar to which slaves were tethered).
http://www.gutsandgore.co.uk/notorious-prisons/history-of-penal-institutions/
There is no evidence in Roman Law to show that imprisonment
was served to criminals as a sentence, but rather it was used as a holding cell
for those awaiting trial or punishment. Punishments were often based around
physical pain, banishment and death, but sometimes criminals were sentenced to
forced labour, usually in Ergastula. An ergastulum was another form of Roman
prison for dangerous or badly behaved slaves. It was essentially a deep pit in
the ground, covered by a large roof, and prisoners were forced to work and
sleep inside its squalid conditions.
Conclusive summary
Having researched into the City in which Gangsta takes place, plus the meaning and history behind the name Ergastulum, i have found out that the City draws its inspiration from Italy, appropriating certain key features of that what can be found in an Italian City/Town.
When you compare Ergatsulum's street layout structure plus building architectural designs to that of Cities within Italy, you see a strong resemblance. Below is a list of comparative key features.
City layout + architectural design
Terracotta roof tiles plus terraced housing layout.
Narrow backroads/alleyways
Another key feature of the series is that it shows numerous amounts of stray cats, which is a renowned feature of Italy
"There are estimated to be 300,000 feral cats in Rome living in over 2000 colonies."
http://goeurope.about.com/cs/rome/a/rome_cats.htm
The Cat featured in The way of the Dragon fight scene between Bruce Lee & Chuck Norris inside a colosseum in Rome
Conclusion
When you compare the notion behind the characteristic of the people living within an Ergatsulum (Dangerous, Badly Behaved, Criminals, Violent ext..) plus the role of what an Ergatsulum was used for during the Roman period, against the the historical description plus activities that takes place within Gangsta's city "Egatsulum" you can see how this newly created city has adapted and expanded upon the original concept, taking the idea from a moderately small prison and developing it into a big city, whilst maintaining it's historical architectural infrastructure.
The interior locations however don't all follow this notion, as each place is unique to itself.
http://baruda.net/tag/ergastulum/
http://percaritatem.com/tag/ancient-slavery/
THIS WAS AMAZING. A pure city atmosphere. I also like the dingey crime element, I can't believe I found this off a google image search for Ergastulum. From many angles, inside-out. With descriptions.
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