Director's Vision, Part 1 (Introduction)

Last week I helped my wife shoot a music video starring our 6-foot plush bigfoot, Claude. I might be biased, but I think it turned out pretty well. I also think one of the reasons it turned out well is that from the start of the project I had a couple of clear ideas in my head for things I wanted to see (those things were the dancing and painting scenes, if you're curious). I've heard actors talk about the "director's vision" when plugging movies on talk shows, and I think this experience gave me some inkling of what they're talking about.

In the days after the video shoot, I did some thinking about the director's vision and how it might apply to campaign building, adventure building and game mastering. There are a few concepts that come to mind:

The Pivotal Scene
The crucial information or startling revelation that sets off the rest of the adventure/campaign.

The Wow Scene
A scene so cool you can play it in your head like a film in your mind's eye.

The Inspired Improvisation
Sometimes your players/actors come up with something so good you just have to get out of their way and let it happen.

In the next few days I'll try to expand on these and think about how to make them happen.