Stories often carry the first impression that really sets the mood. If you’re lucky, your story will also have a happy ending—one that sticks in your audience’s mind and continues to interest them long after the credits roll. But what if the way the main story begins doesn’t match the mood?
What if your final image needs to be a completely separate moment to really stand out? In screenwriting (especially television writing), this is where trailers and tags come in handy.
trailer, also known as cold start
“First impressions are everything,” your mother might say. The same is true in storytelling. Your firm handshake, your first hello to the audience, might benefit from a few different techniques that make up what we call a “cold open”—the prologue moment before the show’s main narrative begins.
start in media studies
If your story touches on a few beats before people understand the main concept—for example, showing a normal day in the life of an upright family before disaster strikes—then you might start to get people invested in some of the action.
first few minutes breaking Bad Case in point, we start in the middle of the episode with Walter White making an emergency escape and hinting at some serious consequences. In fact, things have apparently gotten so dire that in trailers for the rest of the show, viewers see Walt deciding to record a final video for his family. Regardless of the context, viewers can see this state of urgency and be incredibly moved by it, feeling as if they need to see how it all ends, or even how it begins.
that’s its magic in media resources Action, or action starting “in the middle of things.” It’s a classic storytelling strategy originally made famous by oral tradition, and it’s exactly what keeps people invested before they decide to watch the first act and beyond.
Color taste creator
Even in shows that don’t have “all the action,” there are ways to use trailers or cold opens to give the audience something to hook. In the situation comedy genre, this usually comes from the jokes being played at the beginning (often on their own) to fit the overall mood and tone of the show or particular episode.
Is it rude? officeMichael Scott or more specific story seinfeld The stand-up comedy routine that precedes each episode has a way of preparing the audience for the antics they’ll see on the show.
The same goes for shows that have a “monster of the week” buffy the vampire slayerIn the first half of the story, everything seems fine in the school until the demon suddenly appears. Shows like this will use trailers to warn viewers of the dangerous dangers to come, show some teenage couple getting eaten or see some gruesome ritual at work before the unbelievable theme song goes all out.
a question of commitment
Finally, a cold open can and should raise a question within the narrative that needs to be answered.
For a Monster of the Week show, there are usually two questions: Who is the big bad this week, and how will our heroes defeat them?
For a romantic comedy, the cute encounter isn’t happening for a while, but the trailer shows the protagonists having a horrific breakup with their supposed soulmates, begging the question: Who will they end up with?
The promise of such a question will also become central to your story concept, and while not every movie or show will answer their question in the same section, having this question in their mind will help the audience identify with the characters and their struggles. , and the world you bring them into.
Read more: Two of the most important storytelling concepts you’ve never heard of
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tag, also known as stinger
Just like a story can remove a moment from the main story to introduce the audience to, a writer can use a similar moment at the end to lead them to a specific conclusion.
Just like trailers, these tags can completely change the mood – like seeing a seemingly defeated villain show signs of life after the story “ends”.
A tag or stinger can also raise further questions or even give the impression that there is more to the story. Perhaps the most famous example in mainstream cinema is the post-credits scene of many of the Marvel Cinematic Universe films—sequel bait that points to the same huge, decade-spanning question each time: How do these Marvel characters relate to each other?
In fact, the sting that happens after the end credits is sometimes the most effective, creating a sense of resolution before showing the audience that not everything is as it seems.
Read more: Top 10 Best Movie Endings of All Time
When to use tags or trailers
Trailers or tags can make a noticeable difference depending on how you want to impact your audience’s experience.
In addition to the examples you’ve already read, here are more strategies for either element:
clear things up
Dramatic irony is a powerful tool in the right hands. Rather than developing the story in such a way that the audience learns everything at the same rate, it would be more effective to provide the audience with knowledge before or after the fact, making things clearer or even making the possible truths more conflicting because the facts might be more valid .
in pilot boysa label that challenges the common perception of Homelander as a squeaky-clean super guy with nothing to hide. Without giving away all the secrets, Stinger showed off what this super-powered mutant was truly capable of and even set the tone and urgency for the rest of the show in the following seasons.
Provide motivation and background
Characterization comes in all shapes and forms, from the visuals that adorn a person to the way their dialogue and actions flesh out their personality.
However, one effective way to describe them is to look at the characters outside the context of the main story – to see what they are like before or after the events the audience is about to experience.
Streaming web series cold open fall outwe see Cooper Howard before nuclear war destroys America—we see him not as a ghoul, but as a failed actor and father trying to make a living. This kind of characterization, background, and underlying motivations are not easily presented in the main story set hundreds of years later. After all, he still has a little time to make some changes. But because it’s important to the overall story, we still get to see Howard’s life before the bombs dropped.
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Every story has to leave a lasting impression. Often, first impressions and last impressions are different, which means they both need to be handled with care.
This is where a good trailer or tag can come in, guiding the way viewers interact with the narrative.
What they know, feel, and understand depends on the moments you include – so take advantage of these opportunities to control this knowledge and emotions the way you need!
Read more: What is the midpoint?
