Fifth Element Part 2 (Patreon)

My prep is very much world-building based. I try to completely understand intuitively the circumstances and geography so that I can improvise in the world of the movie. I don't plot events or scenes because I don't know what will be happening when we arrive at a specific moment. Even if I strongly believe a moment will happen, small differences in circumstance lead to enormous differences in how it can play out. So trying to prepare specific beats of a story is a fool's errand. I learned that long long ago.

Fifth Element lulled me into a false sense of security though. It's a deeply on-rails movie for a lot of reasons. The first episode played out almost exactly like the movie. I let myself believe that this was going to be a more traditional, by-the-book campaign. And I knew that the first scene of episode two was going to be a big meeting with all the government big-wigs as to what to do. I designed out about twenty distinct government characters with their own agendas and proclivities. All this is great. All that's fine. Then I started to specifically imagine out the scene, how I could build tension and set up different story elements. I started thinking like a writer. That's where of course I doomed myself.

I still needed to even get them to the main government building. And I put them in a limo. And the rest is history. Spoiler warning: They didn't make it to that meeting. Of course they didn't. This is why I don't work on specific scenes. They won't happen. If I ever plot something out specifically there is zero chance we will ever arrive at that moment.

And you know what. Reality was right to spite me. This show works the way it does because it's improv. Let go of your earthly attachments, such as specific scenes and moments. We're at our best when we don't know what we're doing. And hey, we got to go touch world-building I didn't expect to get to use. I love when we do that.

Back in two weeks with more Fifth Element!