How To Start A Screenplay – Of all the parts of the screenplay, the opening scene is perhaps the most important—not only because it sets up the story of the world, but because it also directs the writer’s attention to the reader. Check out some ways you can introduce noise into your script, including examples of script opening scenes from Chinatown, Blade Runner, and more. By the end, you’ll be equipped with various new plans to handle the opening scenes of the script like Robert Towne and Orson Welles.
Many people will tell you that “99% of scripts are rejected after the first scene.” And although there is certainly something to be gained in this matter, it is not useful to impose it on the writer himself. The fact is, good stories get noticed, and good open scenes are important.
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How To Start A Screenplay
Our video on The Art of the Opening Scene looks at how to write an opening scene for a film, with strong script elements.
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Now that we’ve seen some of the basic elements of creating a movie in the opening script, let’s break down some more ideas on how to make them happen.
How many times have you watched the opening scene of a movie and wondered, “Who’s the main character? Your protagonist shouldn’t be in the opening scene, but it almost always makes them better when they are.”
Import the Chinatown script into screenplay software to see how Robert Towne handled all three of these points in the opening scene. As you read, consider identifying points where the focus, POV, and resonance of the city’s movement divide the narrative.
We know from the first page that Jake Gittes is the protagonist of the story. Why? Because he is clearly in control. Gittes’ commanding presence provides narrative focus and places us behind his story.
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The town also builds emotional resonance by making Gittes equal and supportive of Curly. Thus in just a few pages we see the great power of characterization. Finally, the opening scene
There are times when starting your story with an opponent can work better than starting it from scratch. Especially since we already know the main characters, there is no point in repeating their characters in the first scene. But the opening scene is often better suited to focus on the opponent.
The opening scene of Christopher Nolan’s Dark Nolan, let’s take a look at how he hooked us up with the story’s villain, the Joker.
It does a great job of training Jocular’s character. In a larger sense, it does a great job of setting up the main struggle of the story. We know by osmosis that the Joker and Batman stories will be villains and heroes.
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Since the movie is aptly titled Batman, you don’t need to see anything else to know that he’s the main focus. So by choosing to show the clown from the start, Nolan pushes us into action. The final result of the motor-driven foundation competition.
One of the smartest choices you can make in screenwriting is to start your script at the end of the story line and then loop back to the beginning. And when done well, it can pay endless dividends. I can think of no better example of this type of opening script executed to perfection than Charles Brackett, Billy Wilder and D.M. Marshman Jr. on Sunset Boulevard.
Think how the writers care about the main character in a few pages.
We should use the narrative strategy we see in many of the best Twilight Zone episodes. The narrator briefly explains the context, but the main purpose is to draw us through the mystery. It makes us wonder, what’s going on? Where are you? when are we Why is she?
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Starting a story at the end is a neat mechanic that almost always grabs the reader’s attention. But it’s also a sharp sword – if the public knows about its fate and meaning, they may be less inclined to observe the events leading up to it.
Perhaps no screenplay has done a better job of building an enticing mystery into its opening scene than Orson Welles and Herman J. Mankiewicz’s Citizen Kane. Watch the clip below to see how Welles used lighting, props and chiaroscuro design to film a visually ambiguous lens that matched the ambiguity of the script’s opening events.
This opening scene has only one word of dialogue—”rose”—but it’s enough to make us wonder: what’s going on? Where are you? when are we And what is it?
Metaphorically, the “rose brush” moment relates to the main theme of the story and serves the narrative through a line that connects the events of the theme from beginning to end. When you are preparing the opening scene of your script, think about how you will return to it at the end. This in itself creates a natural sense of mystery and narrative continuity.
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It starts with the first line of the script – where we say the location, time of day, and year or age (if appropriate for the story). In most stories, it is important that we know when and where we are at the end of the first scene. Of course, there are exceptions to this rule – for example, I’m a lost guide – but most of the time, it’s better if the setting is shared early.
One screenplay that does a great job of breaking up the opening scene is Hampton Fancher and David People’s Running Blade. Let’s take a look at how the dystopian setting of the alternate world of Los Angeles is built through description and action.
The script’s opening scene succeeds in the way it laid the groundwork for the visual spectacle that would become the film’s opening. Now that we’ve seen how Fancher and People made it into the script, let’s take a look at how it came together in Ridley Scott’s final cut.
The narrative takes place outside our reality. When writing your screenplay, think about how Fancher and Peoples created the world for Ridley Scott to build the techniques of the film. At times, he used all kinds of terms like “salvaged junk”, “touch panel” and “LASER BURNING” to give us the impression of a language beyond our ordinary language.
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A red herring is defined as “an element of the narrative planted by the writer to mislead the reader.” Fairy tales as old as red herrings were used to trick audiences into believing something that wasn’t true. For more information on red herrings, see our video below!
Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho contains one of the red herrings of all time. Let’s go to the script to see how we’re led to believe the story is going one way, then thrown for a loop when it goes another.
Scenario without knowing what happens to Nor-bates and the fruit cellar? This scene read like the beginning of a dramatic story. It honestly reads more like a Tennessee Williams play than an Alfred Hitchcock film. And that’s the point.
The script is a false fiction that takes the story of Marion Crane Law, when in fact we have not yet met the story of the character: Norman Bates.
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Starting with red herrings, screenwriter Joseph Stefano distracts us from the real plot, which helps further drive value.
Montages – although today in several styles – have historically been used in large works; a point proven by many of Woody Allen’s best films. Woody Allen’s Manhattan in particular does a great job of creating mood and communicating sound. Watch the opening scene.
Would this scene have worked as well without Gordon Willis’ cinematography? No, it probably isn’t, but that doesn’t mean the writing structure is lacking! On the other hand, it very briefly shows how to use montage effectively in the opening scenes.
Transition methods are the only ways to write a great opening scene. Here are some other resources you might want to check out!
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The opening scene of the script plays a huge role in how the film is set, and there is perhaps no visual element that is more important to the opening scene than the opening shot. In this next article, we reveal the best scenes of all time. By the end, you’ll be ready to use immersive filmmaking techniques like the great filmmakers. The script. It’s probably one of my favorite past times: thinking of stories, thinking of stories they’d like to see on the big screen, solving plot holes, keeping the audience guessing about where the story is going , inspiring the audience to have new thoughts and feelings. Accepts, when it is in the field of the creative process; to be imagined first by *
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