Openings, Babblings About

Openings are important. I need to remember this as I write. Because my openings generally suck.

Today, I'm looking at movie and TV show openings as inspiration. Openings really have to set the stage. They have to tell a mini-story, and quickly, to get the reader hooked.

I love this opening for its simplicity:

This tells us all we need to know in a simple package with a snappy tune: There's a bomb in a Russian nesting doll, set to go off just before midnight. Then there's a hint about a treaty. Ah, the setting, or at least one of them.

The tune is important too. It's swanky, to fit the spy theme. But it's jolly, not heavy. So it adds a bit of fun. So not a heavy spy thriller, but something different.

Here's another one (and yes, I know this also stars Bill Murray. Can't help that.

I'm cheating a little with this one, as you'll see in a moment. Again, a happy tune -- a polka -- as you might encounter at some small hick-town event. But all we see is clouds. And they're building, just like the music. It's almost etheral. We don't know anything about the characters or setting. Or maybe we do.

This is a film with two openings, however. Here's the whole thing:

Now we get a lot more about the characters and setting. But we're still wondering, what do the clouds at the beginning have to do with anything? They're setting the stage. Some foreshadowing that the beginning needs.

Also, that line: "For your information, hairdo, there's a major network interested in me."

"Yeah, the Home Shopping Network."

Kills me every time.

Cheating with this next one, too.

Here's a beginning that sets a mood, nothing more. Maybe hints about characters that we recognize after the story is over, but right now, just mood:

What's fun about this film is that it has a second beginning, right at the end. We get hints to the further story beyond what we've seen:

Don't like this film? Too bad. My blog, my likes.