A cold open (also called a teaser) in a television program or movie is the technique of jumping directly into a story at the beginning or opening ...
The best example of this is Star Wars, where you get no titles or credits, launching straight into the backstory and then into Leia's ship, confronting Darth Vader. It couldn't be done any other way. Another would be Resevoir Dogs, where it begins with the team discussing Madonna songs in a diner (among other things) and then walking iconically down a road.
Personally, I like this kind of opening - it gets you directly involved with the action and there's no messing about beforehand. Beginning with credits feels rather too close to the old films (such as The Best Days Of Our Lives).
But there are still films which start with listing all the who-did-whats with a meaningful graphic behind it. Dr Strangelove did it, and so did Centurion more recently (this was what sparked my thoughts).
So people, what do you think? Do you prefer a hot or a cold opening? (And yes, this is a blatant attempt to encourage you to comment.)
Oh, and if I got my details on films wrong, do correct me - I'm doing this entirely from memory.
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3 comments:
I think it's a case of horses for courses. In the case of Best Years of Our Lives it was very much the style of the period however I do think that big movies benefit from the sense of anticipation that a clever credits sequence can generate. In terms of cold openings however Human Target seems to use them as an article of faith, I think it has worked for the first couple of weeks since the show is essentially a seventies throwback but I'm not sure how irritating it might become over time.
I hope you realise that I now have the popular song, "Hot'n'Cold" by Miss Perry in my head and it shall most likely remain there for the rest of my day.
I've now become a little bit irritated with cold openings, at least in TV. Case in point: Lost. A recap then one small plot point that will make you go "ooo" over the 10 second titles. Why don't they just give me the titles first so that I can get on with the show.
Still, I don't think of Star Wars as a cold opening, simply because we still have to sit through 2 minutes of pointless scrawl. I just assumed that a cold opening was something that took you straight into the show/film with no text or whatever.
Besides Bond movies though, I could quite happily live without title sequences
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