How do writers grab our attention and keep it for the rest of the film?
Thrilling action.
Complex characters.
A gripping plot.
Whatever they do, it should happen in the first 10 pages.
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Now, let's hang 10.
Today, an audience doesn't have much patience.
Whatever the art form, a viewer expects to get drawn in quickly.
Industry players are inundated with scripts.
So getting them to read yours can be hard.
If an executive isn't grabbed by a screenplay within 10 pages,
they will likely put it down.
It's not fair, but it's the truth.
- Someone has been changing my marks.
What a horrible place this is. It's not fair.
- The first 10 pages are crucial.
These pages must establish one or more of the following story elements.
Tone.
Characters.
Setting.
Theme.
And Stakes.
Let's look through these elements beginning with 'Setting the tone'.
- I snap his neck!
- The opening pages of a screenplay should effectively indicate the
tone and genre of the film priming the reader for what's to come.
- Philistines.
Lazy, vulgar, rancid little Philistines.
- The Wachowski script for "The Matrix" sets a mysterious sci-fi
thriller tone on the first page.
The opening lines prepare us for the film's conceit.
A blinding cursor pulses in the electric darkness like a heart
coursing with phosphorous light.
Computers have a life of their own.
- Yeah. Is everything in place?
- The dialogue builds intrigue.
A mysterious plan is in motion.
- You like him, don't you?
You like watching him.
- Don't be ridiculous.
- We're gonna kill him. You understand that?
- Morpheus believes he is the one.
- Do you? - It doesn't matter what I believe.
- And someone is listening.
- Did you hear that? - Hear what?
- Are you sure this line is clean?
- Yeah, of course, I'm sure.
- I better go.
- "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" is an absurdist masterpiece.
- Now stand aside worthy adversary. Tis but a scratch.
- A scratch? Your arm's off.
- No, it isn't. - Well what's that then?
- This is established from the very beginning.
- The troupe writes out the credits, inserting comedic subtitles as they go.
This not only indicates to a reader that the film will be funny, but that it will
also play with the cinematic form itself.
Nothing is outside the scope of their satire.
The first scene follows a similar subversion.
The scene heading and the superimposition of England AD 787 Quickly
transports us to medieval times.
And the sound of hoofbeats in the mist builds anticipation.
The reveal that the sound is coming from a servant with two
half coconuts is another laugh line and furthers the satirical tone.
With the tone set, the first 10 pages will often establish the primary characters.
Most screenplays will use their opening pages to introduce the reader to the
core characters in their narrative, showing us their essential qualities.
What do they want?
- I want to be a writer.
- What is their place in their world?
What are their values?
- I can do this all day.
- These introductions differ depending on the type of narrative being told.
"The Babadook" opens with a life-changing moment for the protagonist.
A car crash which killed her husband.
By beginning with the accident, writer Jennifer Kent signals to the audience that
Amelia is haunted by her husband's death.
And though it's manifested by a struggle with the Babadook, Amelia's true journey
is coming to terms with her grief.
- It's all right. It's all right.
- "Marriage Story", meanwhile, focuses on the relationship between two protagonists.
To emphasize this, writer Noah Baumbach opens his script with dual monologues,
where his two protagonists lay out extended descriptions of each other.
- What I love about Nicole, she makes people feel comfortable
about even embarrassing things.
- What I love about Charlie Charlie is undaunted.
- The monologues are romantic, but are quickly turned on the head on page 10.
- As we mediate your separation and eventual divorce, things can get quite contentious.
- In his opening pages, Baumbach has established his characters and
their relationship, and the audience is primed to see how this family
will navigate this massive change.
- And so that as you come apart you're reminded that this is a
person you had great feeling for.
And maybe still do in many ways.
- Not all protagonists have to be likable.
But the audience needs a reason to follow them anyway.
In their script for "Fargo", the Coen brothers introduce
us to the anti-hero Jerry.
- I'm, uh, Jerry Lundegaard.
- He isn't likable, but the beginning builds enough interest in his
convoluted plan that the audience wants to know what happens next.
- You want your own wife kidnapped. - Yeah.
- As "Fargo's" opening shows, the first 10 pages are also where a
writer can establish the setting.
Setting is vital to give a reader a sense of time and place in their opening pages.
Martin McDonagh does this with his opening lines for "In Bruges", writing,
Various shots of the empty, cobblestone, otherworldly streets of Bruges, Belgium.
It's winter, and a freezing fog covers everything.
The Gothic churches, the narrow canals, their odd little bridges.
We could be in any period of the last 500 years.
We happen to be in the present day.
This focus on location from the very beginning tells the reader
that, as the title indicates, Bruges is a centerpiece in the story.
The protagonists are stuck in this city and will have to find
different ways to exist within it.
"WALL-E" takes a broader approach to establishing the story world.
Using the setting to provide backstory.
Writers Andrew Stanton and Jim Reardon begin with the wide expanse of space.
Their description scope slowly narrows as they write, going from distant
galaxies, constellations, nebulas, to a single planet, drab and brown.
They then describe the planet's surface, before settling on
a single avenue of trash.
This is a dystopian future, where the world has become a massive landfill.
The deeper we get into the first 10 pages, more details explain how it came to be.
This broad scope also emphasizes just how small Wall-E is.
This won't stop him, however, from making a huge change.
As such The "WALL-E" script also does what many screenwriters
do in their opening 10 pages.
Allude to the script's theme.
Most great first 10 pages will hint at the larger ideas a movie will be tackling.
- Honoring your parents sounds great, but if you take it too far, well,
you might forget to honor yourself.
- In "Sorry to Bother You", writer Boots Riley quickly establishes the theme of his film.
Capitalist oppression.
- God made this land for all of us.
And greedy people like you want to hog it to yourself and your family and charge
all the rest of us for the right to live.
- In the first scene, Cassius is told to stick to the script.
Planting the seed that he will be financially rewarded if he conforms.
- S.T.T.S. Stick to the script.
- Stick to the script. Stick to the script.
- Later, on his first day at the job, Cassius sees a wealthier
man go to a nicer elevator.
A signifier of social class disparity.
For Cassius, the high life is so close and yet so far.
American fiction thoroughly establishes one of its primary
themes in its first ten pages.
The Protagonist, Monk, doesn't fit into the mold expected of him as a black author.
As a conversation with his agent illustrates.
- They want a black book. - They have a black book.
I'm black and it's my book.
- You know what I mean.
- You mean they want me to write about a cop killing some teenager or a single
mom in Dorchester raising five kids?
- Dorchester's pretty white now. But yes.
- Jesus Christ. You know, I don't even really believe in race.
- Yeah, the problem is that everyone else does.
Anyway, have fun at the book festival.
And just don't insult anyone important.
Please.
- In a following scene, Monk witnesses the success of another black writer who
he thinks is playing into a stereotype.
- Would you give us the pleasure of reading an excerpt?
- Yo, Sharonda!
Where you be going in a hurry like that?
Donna asked me when she seen me coming out the house.
- With these two scenes, writer Cord Jefferson begins to investigate
one of his film's central concerns.
The precarious tightrope black creatives are often forced to
walk when trying to succeed.
- That's me, Ellison.
Yeah.
He is me, and he and I are black.
- Oh, bingo. - No bingo, Ned.
These books have nothing to do with African American studies.
They're just literature.
The blackest thing about this one is the ink.
- The first 10 pages of a script can also set the stakes.
- Without spice, interstellar travel is impossible, making it by far the most
valuable substance in the universe.
- Most stories have some sort of stakes.
In other words, they have to answer the question.
Why does any of this matter?
- I wish I knew what I'm supposed to do.
Establishing the stakes in the first 10 pages is a good way to quickly get
an audience invested in your movie.
In "28 Days Later", writer Alex Garland introduces the stakes with a prologue.
He begins with images of stunning violence and the dangers of societal collapse.
He then uses the scientist to explain the contagion that will
plague the rest of the film.
- Infected with what?
- Rage.
- And once one of the activists is bitten,
we see the effects of the disease ourselves.
By the time we are introduced to the protagonist, we know what he's up against.
Stakes don't have to be life or death to be meaningful.
Writers Darius and Abraham Marder open "Sound of Metal" with
a scene of Reuben drumming.
This is his element.
When it becomes clear over the next few pages that he is losing his
hearing, the stakes are obvious.
This will jeopardize his dream.
But the Marders also establish more subtle stakes by establishing
Reuben's relationship with Lou.
They are co-dependent and do everything together.
This makes their party of ways later in the script all the more meaningful.
Now, let's look at an opening 10 pages using all the techniques we've discussed.
Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor's script for "Sideways".
The screenplay starts by introducing us to its protagonist, Miles.
His interactions show us that he is prickly.
- Miles, can you move your car, please? - Why?
- Because the roofer's gotta get the truck in. You didn't park so good.
- Yeah, alright. Hold on.
- A number of details reveal that he doesn't have his life in order.
Like his appearance.
His car is described as 12 years old and starts fitfully.
He's hungover and running behind schedule.
But he's also an intellectual who neglects automotive safety.
The other primary character, Jack, is introduced on page four.
Though his bowling shirt, shorts, and flip-flops were changed for
the shoot, his wardrobe still signals his laid-back demeanor.
It also shows us that he doesn't fit in with his fiancée's family.
- Honey, we don't really have time for that because we got to hit the road.
Payne and Taylor also established settings that further characterize our leads.
First, they describe Mile's home as a hideous apartment complex in San Diego.
Jack is associated with the blandly palatial suburbs of Rancho Palos Verdes.
The juxtaposition between these two worlds reinforces how
different the two characters are.
These opening pages indicate the tone of the film as well.
It is a subtle and irreverent character study.
Not going for obvious punchlines, but rather finding humor
in everyday interactions.
- We're thinking maybe you went the wrong way.
You went to Tijuana and they don't let you back.
- Yes, yes, yes. Yes, I had to bribe them.
- Meanwhile, Mile's conversation with Jack establishes some of
the themes the film will tackle.
Miles lacks self-confidence tied to his struggles getting published.
- No, it's a long shot, all right?
And besides, conundrum?
It's just a small specialty press.
Anyway, I'm not gonna get my hopes up.
- While Jack's lack of appreciation for rare champagne hints at his selfishness.
- Jack, that is a 1992 Byron. - Right.
- It's, it's really rare, okay? I've been saving it.
- All right. - Please, don't open it.
- Jack!
- These hint at the film's core concern.
How two vastly different men struggle with maturity, honesty, and respect.
- You know, I've stopped caring.
To hell with it, I have stopped caring.
- As Miles and Jack head to wine country, Payne and Taylor hint at
what's at stake for these characters.
Miles has lost hope in getting his book published and suffers
from a lack of confidence.
And later, when he is rejected once again...
- Conundrums passing.
- We see the consequences.
Jack's penchant for dishonesty and indifference to his engagement eventually
leads to infidelity and heartbreak.
- You're getting married on Saturday!
What's with all that shit you said to me?
- Stephanie, stop! I can explain!
- You said you loved me! - I do!
- I hope you die! - Stop it!
- As such, "Sideways" opening pages set up much of what's to come
while also hawking the audience.
- New Orleans? - How is that white?
- Don't ask questions like that up in wine country.
They'll think you're some kind of dumb sh*t, okay?
- Just tell me.
- The first ten pages of a script are arguably also its most important pages.
- Hey, wait a minute. Let's just sit with what we heard.
- They can establish tone.
Characters, setting, themes, stakes.
When done right, they can get an audience on board for the rest of your film.
What scripts do you think have the best opening pages?
Share your favorites in the comments.
- What's your favorite scary movie?
- Uh, I don't know.
- Start writing your first 10 pages with StudioBinder screenwriting software.
That's all for now.
Remember, first impressions are everything.