Honor being the film’s central theme.Īnother salient example is the film Lord of War, written and directed by Andrew Niccol, which opens on Nicolas Cage’s character standing in a sea of spent bullet cartridges in a war torn third-world country. Their synchronized moves not only emphasize their disciplined training, but it also shows them working together as a single unified force – a machine of precision with one objective in mind, which is to bring honor to the Marine Corps. The opening is a credit sequence depicting a Marine Corps. Take the film A Few Good Men, written by Aaron Sorkin. Openings can also be used to set up a story’s theme. These questions are the spark that ignites the fire of interest in the audience who want answers, and will continue watching to get them. Who’s Tyler Durden? Why does this guy have a gun shoved in his mouth? Why is Brad Pitt’s character going to blow up the city? The non-linear scene immediately seizes our attention by drawing us in through the vehicle of curiosity. “ People are always asking me if I know Tyler Durden.” We float through the synapses of a human brain, exit out of through sweating pores on a forehead, continue to pull back down the barrel of a gun to reveal that the weapon is shoved in the mouth of Edward Norton’s character who narrates. The audience has no idea what’s going on, but the opening generates such amazing curiosity by raising so many questions, that it’s almost impossible not to continue to watch what comes after that first scene.ĭavid Fincher’s Fight Club is another solid example of the usage of an opening scene as a teaser. The opening scene reveals a Polaroid of a dead man that slowly begins to fade away as we then start to realize that the entire scene we’re watching is happening in reverse. The film Memento (written and directed by Christopher Nolan, based on the short story "Memento Mori" by Jonathan Nolan) is a terrific example of this at play. > Make sure your screenplay hooks them from the start: How to Turn Script Readers into Fans in the First Act What is a teaser? It’s simply an opening moment, scene, or sequence intended to hook the audience from the get-go by generating curiosity and/or conflict that leaves the audience wanting more. Utilizing an opening scene as a teaser can help prevent that. (As do they the first few minutes of your film.) If your story and writing hasn’t hooked them by then, it’s a knife in the gut of the read that will turn your screenplay into a corpse of creativity. The hard truth is, most professional readers, development execs, and reps make a value judgment on your screenplay within the first 5-10 pages. Executed correctly, it can be a powerful storytelling technique. However, it’s only a cliché if done ineffectively. Let’s touch on a few pivotal ones… TeaserĪs a former industry reader I’ll be the first to concede that ever since Jaws did it successfully way back in the 70’s, having your opening scene be a teaser is overdone and can be considered a screenwriting cliché. Not only are they important first impressions of your writing ability, they also serve a variety of narrative purposes that can raise the storytelling bar by instantly immersing the reader into the world of your screenplay or film. In the competitive world of screenwriting (and filmmaking) where industry readers judge your script in the first few pages, openings are a vital part of a successful screenplay and film.
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