Cold Opens Explained: How to Write a Cold Open

A cold open, short for cold opening, is a narrative technique in film and television shows that immerses viewers in the story’s action from the first shot. Also known as a teaser sequence, a cold open typically features principal characters and introduces the narrative’s tone.

TV shows, sitcoms, and dramas employ cold openings to win the audience’s attention and keep them from channel surfing. These cold opens will usually fall before the theme song or opening credits. In film, a cold open might introduce the main character and tee up the plotline. Cold opens can operate as a stand-alone prologue, a setup for a sequence of events, or as a teaser of what’s to come.

Cold opens come in many different kinds depending on the medium and genre of the work:

1. 1. The Office: As a workplace comedy, The Office often employs cold openings that juxtapose the mundanity of an office and the absurdity of the colorful characters therein.
2. 2. Saturday Night Live: SNL is a variety show, and so the cold open operates differently. Each SNL episode opens with a skit, often prompted by that week’s current events. The skits end with a performer sharing the show’s tagline: ”Live from New York, it’s Saturday night!” The opening credits roll, and then the celebrity guest takes the stage for their monologue.
3. 3. Game of Thrones: This drama series uses cold openings to increase suspense and issue mini-cliffhangers. A suspenseful or insightful scene might kick off an episode that ends either unresolved or in some kind of mystery. In Game of Thrones, sometimes the cold open is also a flashback.
4. 4. Breaking Bad: This TV drama’s cold opens expanded and enriched the world of the show and sometimes had nothing to do with the plot of the episode. Instead, opening sequences behaved almost like short films, offering insight into drug trafficking or seemingly insignificant details that resurface later in the series.
5. 5. Moonlight: A pack of boys chases Chiron (Alex Hibbert) in the cold open for Moonlight. The setup for this Academy Award-winning film immediately communicates two key characteristics about Chiron: He is an outsider in his community, and he seldom feels safe.

In film and TV, teaser sequences are the first time audiences see main characters, understand tone, and get a sense of conflict. There are many different cold open tropes—the flashback, the skit, the action sequence, the gag. How you structure a cold open in your screenplay depends on what you are trying to communicate. No matter the genre, the cold openings you use in your screenwriting should be engaging and economical.

1. 1. Use the 5 W’s: In a few shots, your cold open should reveal the who (main characters), what (storyline), when and where (the setting), and why (conflict). This opening scene might hinge on action or comedy, or it might just show your protagonist moving about their everyday life with small details revealing essential aspects of their identity.
2. 2. Create conflict: To craft a cold open, consider your protagonist’s needs, when they need them, and why they can’t attain them. For inspiration, explore other examples of cold opens in other films or TV shows within your genre. Also, practice restraint: Part of a cold open’s appeal is that it only teases out a bit of the story, giving the audience a crumb, not an entire meal. Since the introduction of streaming platforms, screenwriters have more time to play with an opening sequence—they’re not tied to the commercial breaks of a network, so cold opens can be anywhere from a few seconds to ten minutes.
3. 3. Build suspense: As a rule of thumb when writing dramas, you’ll want to introduce a character, conflict, or storyline but not immediately resolve it—that’s something that can happen in the rest of the episode or series as a whole. A series of jokes might take up much of the cold open for a comedy series, but the biggest joke should land at its end, just before the title card appears or the theme song starts.

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