That opening hook is everything. It\u2019s the contract you make with the audience to deliver a movie that entertains and excites.<\/p>\n
So, what are the elements of an opening hook that gives the writer the best advantage for a great script?<\/p>\n
GENRE<\/strong>: Get your viewer into the genre. The hook should reflect the genre of your story.<\/p>\n TENSION<\/strong>: Create the first moment of tension. It can be overt and in your face, or subtle. But tension needs to be in the opening scene.<\/p>\n CONFLICT<\/strong>: Can your opening hook give indication of the central conflict of the story? Give the audience a sense of what the movie is about.<\/p>\n HERO<\/strong>: Can the hero be in the opening hook? The sooner you introduce your Protagonist in conflict, the better for your story.<\/p>\n ANTAGONIST<\/strong>: I\u2019m in the camp that I\u2019d rather see the Antagonist in the opening hook, than the Protagonist. I think it gives a solid line of tension. So consider your hook with the Antagonist being active and setting in motion the line of conflict that your hero must overcome.<\/p>\n FILM WORLD<\/strong>: Along with genre, you should create the film world in which the Protagonist will operate.<\/p>\n ALPHA-OMEGA<\/strong>: When the script is complete, will the beginning of the movie bookend with the ending? There is an elegance in unity of theme and story.<\/p>\n Example: My favorite opening hook is still the original TERMINATOR. The world is established. The stakes become evident. It\u2019s visual. Active, Terrifying. Dangerous. Does it get any better for a script or a movie? Write on.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" That opening hook is everything. It\u2019s the contract you make with the audience to deliver a movie that entertains and excites. So, what are the elements of an opening hook…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1418,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[14,15,16],"class_list":["post-1079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-opening-hook","tag-screenwriting","tag-script"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/propathscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/propathscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/propathscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/propathscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/propathscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1079"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/propathscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1079\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/propathscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/propathscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/propathscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/propathscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}