Screenplay Structure: How to Write an Opening Scene Like a Pro

In this installment of Screenwriting 101, we’re tackling script structure by sharing the 7 types of opening scenes professional screenwriters use. Following a few simple screenplay structure rules is a simple yet often overlooked way to write like a pro. So here’s everything you need to know about opening scenes so you can write a screenplay that will hook the Audience from the very first page.

Screenplay Structure #1
The Teaser Open

Often used in Action, Mystery, Thrillers, or slow building Dramas.

A Teaser Open is a scene or sequence that draws your reader/audience in from the first page. You give them a hint, a tease, of what’s to come later in your story. Teasers are like little bargains you’re striking with your Reader/Audience: “Stick with me through the slower (but necessary!) action at the beginning of the story because eventually, we’ll get to this great part — and you really want to see it. Promise!”

Teasers are often your story’s most exciting/action-packed scene (ending with a cliffhanger, of course). You show a hint, starting in the middle of the action — so the audience might know there’s danger ahead, but how does the Protagonist get there — and how do they get out?! You’ll have to read/watch to find out.

EXAMPLES: • Breaking Bad • Jaws • Memento • Fight Club

Screenplay Structure #2
The Character Study Open

Might be used in a Drama, Biography, Crime, Romance, and True Story.

Character Study Opens are title sequences, short scenes, a sequence or montage, or other devices (see list below) highlighting the essential parts of your Main Character’s life. It quickly catches the audience up on how this person, the Protagonist, got to the point in their life that’s so interesting that you’re making a story about them. In your screenplay structure, this Open takes you right up until just before their story needs to be told. Explore your character by diving into their world, detailing things like:

Character Study Opens establish a frame of reference, and when you drop your character into this detailed world, we, the audience, get it. These Opens provide a shortcut for us and let us jump right into who the Character is quickly and efficiently.

NOTE: Character Studies should be used sparingly. Often it’s best to jump right into the action of your screenplay structure and drop breadcrumbs of backstory through the Character’s actions instead of spelling out all the details in the Opening Scene. Sprinkle details… don’t dump ’em 😉

EXAMPLES: • Se7en • American Beauty

Screenplay Structure #3
The Tone Open

Tonal Opens are often used in Art films, Comedy, Documentary, Film-Noir, Sport, Thriller, Musicals, War, and Fantasy stories.

An Open that “Sets the Tone” can be a scene or sequence used to relay the ambient mood or atmosphere of the project quickly. Tonal Opens steep the reader/audience in this world, lulling them into the vibe and tempo of this story, so they’re ready to catch whatever you throw at them.

For example, in “There’s Something About Mary” (screenplay by Ed Decter & John J. Strauss and Peter Farrelly & Bobby Farrelly, story by Ed Decter & John J. Strauss), a 1980’s high school Prologue sequence introduces us to all the major players: Ted, Mary, Warren, and Woogie. But it also sets the comedic tone and tempo: Ted is a good guy to whom unfortunate (yet funny!) things happen. (“Franks and beans… franks and beans!”)

The tone of the “Everything Everywhere all at Once” script (written by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert) sets up the Wang family’s world in one amazing paragraph on page 1: “The tiny dining room is overpopulated with workout equipment, self-help and inspirational business books, an old TV playing a Chinese soap opera, a live security feed for the laundromat downstairs, a rice cooker spewing steam, & a microwave with one minute to go. It is a still life of chaos.” Their apartment is the embodiment of everything, everywhere, all at once. (The Daniels are amazing. If you haven’t seen their WGA Script Breakdown of EEAAO yet, treat yourself by watching the video below on your next break!)

Screenplay Structure #4
The Prologue Open

Often used in Drama, Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Crime, Mystery, and Biography or True Story.

A Prologue Open is a scene or sequence at the beginning of the movie that succinctly relays important information that occurs earlier than the body of your story.

Prologue Opens are like Flashbacks; they go back in time before the story starts. (Okay, technically, an Open can’t be a Flashback — we haven’t established the timeline yet! So we’re not going back in time in our screenplay structure. We’re simply starting early and then skipping ahead to get to the body of our story.)

Prologue Opens are kinda like Teaser Opens insofar as they give the Reader/Audience a small glimpse into the world/character they’re about to invest 1.5-2 hours in… but then there’s a jump in time, and the “real” story timeline begins. That’s what script structure is all about; having scenes happen for a specific reason at specific times. Think of it less as a script template and more of a story guideline… you don’t need to count pages and cuts things for page counts. But you do need structure. And the Open is an easy one to structure; it can be as long or short as you need it. It just needs to have a purpose.

Prologue Opens are frequently used at the beginning of stories to create a bond between the audience and your Main Character. This Audience/Protagonist bond can be forged by exploring:

For example, could “There Will Be Blood” start in 1911 with Daniel Plainview bringing in one of his oil rigs and meeting Paul Sunday? Sure. But instead, we start in 1898, with the first 15 minutes of the film showing him alone, fighting to find gold, then dragging himself across the desert. That uniquely establishes that character (without dialogue!), and then we cut to years later in the screenplay structure.

— Bonus points if you can give your Character a Talisman that will harken back to this establishing Prologue (like the limp Daniel has from breaking his leg in the Opening Sequence when he falls down his mine shaft). Talismans can serve as a reminder of who this character was before, what they have been through, and why they change and become who they are in the end.

EXAMPLES: • Rogue One • The Big Short

Screenplay Structure #5
The Shock Open

Often used in Action, Adventure, Horror, Documentary, Thriller, and, surprisingly, Family stories.

Jump scares. Foreboding reveals. Gasp-inducing deaths. Shocks in Opening Sequences get your blood pumping right from the jump (scare!) and set up the Reader/Audience for the story yet to come.

Often these shocking events send your Protagonist down a different life path. And Shocking Opens are usually designed to imbue the audience with sympathy for this character. Their misfortune is our luck; now we have a juicy story to enjoy and a Protagonist we’ll enjoy rooting for.

Shock is another Open where you do not want to mismatch tone and genre (unless you’re doing so intentionally, for a specific reason, of course!). You probably wouldn’t want a Shocking Open on Romance or a horrifying river of blood in a Musical — unless it’s “Sweeny Todd.” (Could you imagine a jump scare opening “Hamilton” or “La La Land”?)

Screenplay Structure #6
The Action Open

Action Opens are often used in, you guessed it, Action. 😉 But also in Adventure, Crime, Documentary, Fantasy, Family, Mystery, Sci-Fi, and War stories.

Action Opens usually speak directly to the story’s Theme. These no-nonsense Opens usually hit the audience/reader over the head with the story’s stance on a Core Idea on the very first page. Examples of simple Core Ideas are “War” (“tense, bewildered, innocent, eyes searching for the truth” of war in Platoon, written by Oliver Stone) or “Love” (“you always hurt the one you love” in Fight Club, written by Jim Uhls, based on a novel by Chuck Palahniuk). These lines establish what the story is REALLY about — and support them with gripping action to back it up.

The first page of Platoon drops you right in the middle of war: fresh recruit stepping off the plane into the misery, grime, and body bags of the Vietnam War. And the very first Action paragraph, “TYLER has one arm around Jack’s shoulder; the other hand holds a HANDGUN with the barrel lodged in JACK’S MOUTH. Tyler is sitting in Jack’s lap.” sets everything up. Two sweaty, disheveled friends are waiting for buildings to blow up?! Bam! A lot has happened — and we want to go on this ride and discover how they got there.

Action/Theme Opens are often combined with other types, like in the brilliant script “Nope,” written by Jordan Peele. Right in the middle of a chimpanzee rampage on a TV soundstage, a Bible QUOTE FADES IN: “I will cast abominable filth at you, make you vile, and make you a spectacle.” This story will go beyond what happens in the supernatural valley of the Haywood Ranch; it will explore the dangers of pursuing spectacle on many different fronts. And Jordan Peele told us that right at the top of page 2.

Action Opens are, unsurprisingly, usually reserved for stories with less talking and more action. So unless you’re using it ironically, an Action Open usually won’t match single-genre stories that are more conversational, like Romance, Musicals, and Dramas. Of course, you can always mix and match Genres, making something like an Action/Romance (like “Romancing the Stone,” “This Means War” or “Baby Driver”) or the aforementioned Action/Horror/Mystery/Sci-Fi “Nope.”

As always, be careful you don’t bait and switch your Reader — what you open with should be paid off in some way later in your screenplay structure. Action should either be delivered straight-up or turned on its head (when you knowingly use Action to highlight that the rest of the story does NOT contain action).

EXAMPLES: •  Saving Private Ryan •  Children of Men •  GoodFellas

Screenplay Structure #7
The Fakeout Open

Often used in Mystery, Action, Comedy, Crime, Thriller, and Film-Noir.

In a Fakeout Open, your story starts by introducing a Character, object, or piece of info to mislead your audience (aka a “Red Herring”). Fakeout Opens often combine a Teaser Flash Forward with a Red Herring by sharing part of a later truth to intentionally plant a deceptive seed of an idea, hoping it blooms and leads the Reader/Audience away from the real story.

Hitchcock’s Psycho (written by Joseph Stefano, based on the novel by Robert Bloch) has one of the greatest Character Red Herring Fakeout Opens of all time. By establishing Janet Leigh as the (fake) Protagonist — getting us invested in her character and (crime) story — we’re side doored into Norman Bates’ world and psychosis when she’s abruptly taken out of the picture by him. The story’s focus then shifts to Norman, the true Main Character.

A similar Character Fakeout occurs in “Scream,” written by Kevin Williamson. Drew Barrymore (the most famous performer in the cast) is brutally slain just 12 minutes into the story. And in “The Dark Knight,” written by Jonathan Nolan and Christopher Nolan, Joker is an anonymous bank robber in the midst of other mask-wearing “clowns” until he’s the last clown standing. Then he tells the bank manager, “I believe that what doesn’t kill you… (removes mask) simply makes you stranger.” A shocking reveal and a single line from the Antagonist perfectly setting him up.

EXAMPLES: • The movie trailer Open in “Tropic Thunder” (2008)  


 

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