Basements

At the moment I am adapting a short story for screen. The whole story is set in a basement...... the thing is we don’t have basements in Australia. I know what they basically are but that’s about it. If someone could describe one for me please.

__________________
It's a god-awful small affair, To the girl with, the mousy hair, But her mummy is yelling "No", and her daddy has told her to go, But her friend is nowhere to be seen, Now she walks through her sunken dream, To the seat with the clearest view, And she's hooked to the silver screen, But the film is a saddening bore, For she's lived it ten times or more...

Well, if it's a finished basement, it looks much like any other room in a house. If it's unfinished, there's usually lots of concrete and maybe a washer/dryer, primarily used for storage. The basement is typically a larger room, as it may run most of the length of the house. This is why you're likely to find pool tables and bars down there.

But basements vary as much as any other room in a home.

__________________
"Film is a disease. When it infects your bloodstream it takes over as the number one hormone. It bosses the enzymes, directs the pineal gland, plays Iago to your psyche. As with heroin, the antidote to Film is more Film." - Frank Capra

Maybe a few cobwebs...concrete walls and floor...a bare, exposed lightbulb...and the ceiling is usually lower than in other rooms of the house.

We dont really have basements over here in the Uk either, but dont you normally find dead bodies down there or monsters?
Or maybe even a collection of unwanted children? Thats the impression i get.

__________________
Pumpkins scream in the DEAD of night!

blib...


I lived in several houses with basements growing up but the one I remember the most had concrete block walls and concrete floors. The ceiling was low consisting of the under flooring of the room above. And like Yoda mentioned, the only lighting came from two light fixtures, one at each end, that were nothing more then a bare bulb screwed into a socket hanging from the ceiling… which of course meant there were also exposed electrical wires running along the ceiling and shadows everywhere… The stairs leading down were made out of plain wooden boards, very steep and narrow with a single board rail. There was a furnace in one corner that had pipes extending upward that reminded me of some kind of huge metal octopus from hell… it always made these creaking moaning noises and sounded like it was in pain… or hungry… … The floor was slanted and at the lowest end, there was a round hole a little bigger around then a basketball (it ate mine all the time) full of water… it was some kind of pump to keep the basement from being flooded… and of course it made weird noises too… Anyway, it was always dark, damp, musky smelling, and creepy down there… best place in the world to tell ghost stories and scare all your cousins…

__________________

Thanks guys. heaps of help

Hondo, I've never had a basement either, but have you seen the series That 70's Show?... I think that's what it's called. I've caught a couple of scenes where the kids have made up a room down there? I'd think it would be pretty much another room that you just make into what you want. Altho, I have heard it's a great place to keep your vegetables and another fridge... and yeah, dead bodies and unwanted guests...