Hey all,

Most of you know by now the five elements of any scene. We eat, drink, live, and breathe the five elements – they must be in EVERY scene. As we discovered in Chicago at our workshop last April, sometimes one of the five elements can be focused on, but the others must be at least present.

As we all know, the five elements are (drum roll please):

1. Environment
2. Characters
3. Conflict
4. Stakes
5. Resolution

I want you to repeat these before you go to sleep every night. Okay, once you have done that for a year you can read on.

Now you are a master at the five elements. You are a master of improv. What you, say, you want to become better yet? You fool! Okay, then, well since you are a master at the five BASIC elements… I can think of nothing better then to mess you up!

There are many more things that take a basic scene (with the five elements) and make it into a GREAT scene. Therefore… (drum roll with five base guitars) I present to you three MORE elements!

Niigon’s Three (More) Elements To Make Good Scenes Great!

1. Time
Every scene must some kind of structure of time. Many scenes will have linear time, meaning this event happens which leads to this event which leads to this event, and onwards. Have you ever thought what a scene might look like if we started with the end and moved backwards? I don’t mean speaking in backwards (although this would be cool too) but what if you did a scene á la the movie Memento a story told in reverse? You introduce the the resolution first, then the stakes, then the main conflict, then the characters, and then moved to the environment! Think in terms of 5x30 second increments that exist in a normal scene. Instead, tell the last thirty seconds first, then the second-to-last, then the middle thirty, then the second thirty and end on the first thirty!

Time is an essential element that we don’t think about but we do have control over. The audience will accept the rules of the world that we set out for them. As improvisers we set rules all of the time. It’s up to us.

2. Theme
Every story has a theme; a message, a moral, a point. You can almost always pin the scene’s theme down to one phrase or word, which represents the message that scene shows to the audience. This is always up for interpretation, and in fact the best art lends itself to multiple interpretations, but the actors usually know one theme which the troupe is going for in their “group mind”.

Possible one word themes are: loneliness, memories, phobias, dreams, successes, and failures.

Possible phrasal themes are: “It ain’t over till it’s over,” “Mom always loved you best,” “Follow your dreams,” and “Corporations are evil”

As improvisers we make a statement with EVERY scene we do, it’s just a matter of figuring out what it is, and playing with it. Often, when our “ask-for” is a single word, we are asking for a theme word, or something which the scene will represent. Remember that an object can mean a message. Metaphors are objects with meanings – for example a grapefruit is “beautiful on the outside, sour on the inside” – that’s a theme, that’s a message.

3. Psychology
We create characters all of the time. Many times, we don’t have time to show the arch of the characters, also known as their evolution, because we have little time to show them in our games. Characters, though, like us, have a life, they change just like we do.

Think about how you were one year ago. Five years ago. Ten years ago. Now think about how you were yesterday. Five hours ago. Ten minutes ago. You were different. You have learned more, and grew in that time. Sometimes we are better, sometimes we are worse. Characters are the same way.

Think about how characters get more corrupt as they gain more power, or how they become more resilient as their goal becomes closer. The character goes through an arch, a movement, where they change. This is one of my favorite things about professional wrestling. Often one match will result in a character changing. They’ll start honestly and end as a rulebreaker. They’ll start as a rulebreaker and end as a rule follower. They’ll start with a crooked manager and end by realizing they don’t need him/her. Okay, okay, but watch it, you’ll see.

Think about what arch your character will have in every scene. Every scene a character changes in a some way (mostly little changes though - no one makes dramatic changes every moment of every day). In fact, many of you do this already, but you don’t know it – check the tapes and see.

There are many more secrets to tell… many more elements to share, but incorporate these three more elements and your scenes will go from good to GREAT! Many of you already do these things and don’t know it, but knowing it makes you realize what the scene needs you can also be one of these elements!

Happy scening!

Niigon