The Promise of Cold Opens

Hi all.  It’s been a while, I know.  Forgive me, I was on an extended contract job that kept me busy as the proverbial bee for a few months.

But I have returned, and it’s high past time that we started talking about storytelling once again.

Now, pour out a cold one, and don’t tell me no lies. Today’s topic? Cold opens and promises.

What is a Cold Open?

Cold opens are the part of a television show that runs before the main credits. The initial idea is that they snag the viewer’s attention so they’ll sit through the entire show.

If it’s a comedy, it might be a little skit that doesn’t really impact the main plot (The Office).  If it’s a drama, it might cut to credits at some major unresolved question (Star Trek: The Next Generation).

What’s interesting is that this formatting quirk persists even as we’ve moved into the age of streaming TV.  Netflix shows still feature a cold open, even though there’s really no reason for them to do so.

If you chose to watch it, you’re already affirming your interest in it.  No further hook needed.

Even movies will use a cold open.  What’s a horror movie with a quick, gruesome kill? Would “The Matrix” be the same without Trinity’s opening fight and subsequent escape from the cops?

Movies and Netflix shows don’t need to snag your attention.  So why do they still use the cold open structure?

Making a Promise

The first scene, the cold open, is a promise that you’re making to your audience, whether that audience is sitting in a theater, at home at their couches, or around the gaming table.

It’s saying “This is what you’re in for”. A sitcom like “The Office” or “Parks and Rec” promises zany hijinks, and will open accordingly.

Something more action-packed, like “Arrow” or “Agents of SHIELD” promises exciting fights and comic-book angst.  Best to open with a bunch of random goons to beat up and something for the heroes to feel guilty about.

Or let’s take a recent example, “Thor: Ragnarok“.

VERY mild spoilers follow.

Thor: Ragnarok’s Cold Open

The most recent Thor movie opens with Thor in the realm of the Fire Giant, Surtur.  Destined doom of Asgard, bringer of Ragnarok. Thor quickly explains how he got here. Surtur quickly explains who he is.

There is some light exposition.

There are some funny jokes at Thor’s expense. Then Thor breaks free, summons his hammer, and proceeds to KICK ASS to Led Zepplin’s Immigrant song.

It is AWESOME.  It is METAL. It is the entire movie in a nutshell.  Going forward you know that you will be watching a sci-fi/fantasy Norse saga put through the prism of Jack Kirby and the side of every van in the 80’s.

Clearly, this person comes from the land of the ice and snow.

That is the promise this film is making to you. Now it just needs to keep it.

Keeping the Promise of the Cold Open

A cold open, however, is completely meaningless if you break your promise to the audience. People don’t like feeling tricked, and you’d be surprised how quickly you can lose an audience’s goodwill.

If you set out with the vibe that this is going to be a dark western in the style of “Unforgiven“, you need to keep that vibe the entire time. Don’t go giving us a happy ending at the last second.

By the same token, if you set out to make an awesome metal Norse epic, we expect it to be awesome, metal, and ultimately epic in all senses of that word.

To be clear, I am not saying that you can’t put in twists and unexpected turns.  Merely that your twists and turns need to stay within the bounds of the promise that you made to the audience.

Let’s look at “The Sixth Sense“, a film well past the statute of spoiler limitations.

Cold Open Case Study: The Sixth Sense

The cold open of “The Sixth Sense” features Bruce Willis trying to talk down a hysterical, and shockingly skinny, Donnie Wahlberg. Donnie has been driven to extreme measures by the dead people he sees, and the refusal of anyone to believe and acknowledge him.

So he breaks into Bruce Willis’ house and shoots him.

We go through the movie believing that Bruce survived the gunshot wound as he attempts to wrong his previous mistake with another small child who can see ghosts, only to finally learn that he didn’t survive the gunshot.

He’s dead himself.

None of that breaks the promise that the film’s opening sets up. That this is a cold, bleak, dark film.  It deals with trauma, death, and potentially the supernatural.

How to Use Cold Opens in Gaming

We’ve examined why cold opens are so important in the storytelling sphere, but how can this apply to gaming?

Video games often feature a form of cold open in the tutorial level.  It’s not just a place to explain the controls, but to set up the general feel and vibe of what’s important in the game.

There’s no reason you can’t bring this to tabletop gaming as well. We’re all more than a little bored with everyone meeting in a tavern at this point.

It just leads to a lot of artificial chit-chat and nothing really happening until the players get used to each other.

Instead, why not cut to the exciting stuff? Start with some action, some comedy, or some drama. Instead of meeting in a tavern and having boring chit-chat, why not have a bar fight erupt?

 

Have your Werewolf: the Forsaken campaign start right after a hunt, your characters naked from shredding their clothes and needing to get back without causing a scene.

Your Shadowrun campaign can start in the middle of a mission that’s about to go horribly wrong and the fallout from that propels your campaign forward.

This is, incidentally, exactly how Shadowrun: Dragonfall starts.

Conclusion

So, as I said, now that my contract employment is up, I’ll be back to your regularly scheduled gaming and storytelling advice programming. Hopefully, you see how cold opens are more than simple hooks but promises to the audience.

Promises that must be kept.

This week I’ll do a few more short posts picking apart other cold opens, but what topics would you like me to start covering? Let me know in the comments or on Facebook or Twitter!