So you want to write for the screen? I hope you have your story worked out, your characters are competing and your screen dialogue sparse and filled with double meaning. But how to start your screenplay?
The start of your screenplay is where you define the mood, the atmosphere and introduce the main characters. the beginning should also let us know which social stage your story is set in. the beginning should also be dripping in emotion, and ask a question that the reader of your script will want to find an answer in the rest of your script. So, no pressure. Right from the very first age of your script.
Britton Perelman has identified 7 Ways You Can Start A Screenplay. When I was researching this article I found that he has some great ideas, along with the ever prolific and talented William C. Martell.I have combined their wisdom with a few tips of my own!
How To Start Your Screenplay – 7 Techniques
Surely one of these great techniques will fit your story. Have a scan and see which one fits your vision for the all-important start of your script.
1. Paint the emotion
Do you want your audience to wriggle and squirm? Or do you want their attention focused directly on your story? The easiest way to do that is to paint emotion.
Take this opener from Bill Martell’s script:
2. Start with a quote
You want the sell? Do what brand marketeers do, and start with a quote, ideally one that deals with the emotion of your story. If you follow me on Twitter, I often have a famous quote. The trick is to find a relevant quote.
Here are two famous quote sites I use:
Here’s the trick. Find a quote that elicits emotion, and which relates to your story, and open your screenplay with that quote. It will at least get the reader past the first couple of pages.
Breakfast Club – Download the screenplay here
Hurt Locker Download the screenplay here
Crazy Rich Asians – Download the screenplay here
3. Break the fourth wall and address the audience
We often see title cards at the start of a movie. In fact, the famous quote are title cards. But if you address the audience directly, your opening might have added impact.
At Raindance we often get films that open with “Based on a true story.” Useful, or even as truthful as this might seem, why not add some extra to your opening.
Basically, when you address the audience directly, you break the fourth wall – the imaginary wall between the characters on the dscreen, and the audience – in this case the reader.
Vice – Download the screenplay here
500 Days of Summer – Download the screenplay here
There are other examples of how filmmakers have broke the fourth wall.
In Fight Club, the character Jack addresses the audience directly.
Read Fight Club hereWatch the scene:
4. Open with a visual
The old adage: A picture says a thousand words. A great way to start your screenplay is to paint a compelling word picture that will captivate your reader.
The Dark Knight Read the screenplay here
Shape of Water – Download the screenplay here.
5. Open with sound over black
A black screen with sound can throw an audience directly into the screenplay. It could be a song, the sound of waves breaking, or a narrator setting the mood. The sounds you use need to relate to and amplify your story.
Zero Dark Thirty Read Read the screenplay here
6. With Voiceover
Voiceover can be done to death. Some use the V.O. as a third person narrator. Others as the voice of one of the character in the movie (so technically not a true voiceover). Either way, it can add drama and anticipation to your script
War of the Worlds Download the script here 
7. A series of action paragraphs
Professional script reader hate reading! They usually scan down the dialogue, and when they get lost, they scroll up to the description tosee what is going on, anjd then move on.
Imagine yourself as a lowly intern at a film production office. If the big cheese slapped this script on your desk as said “Red it!” what would you think? An entire page of description?
If you choose this opening, you would need to make certain your opening page or two tell a visual so compelling, a story that elicits emotion, that you would be compelled to turn the page.
Shawshank Redemption Read the screenplay here
Fade Out
Fade out are the last two words of every screenplay.
Stuck for an opening? Why not go with FADE IN
Did You Know?
