Define Your Entire Story in the Opening Scene
The opening scene is the most crucial scene because it’s the first impression an audience has with your story. Although the audience may not be aware of it, the opening scene summarizes the main conflict for the entire story.
Think of the opening scene to “Star Wars” where Darth Vader’s massive starship chases and captures Princess Leia’s much smaller starship. That mini-space battle summarizes the whole story as a fight between Darth Vader and the evil empire and the rebellion force that’s fighting for freedom.
In “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl”, the basic story is about a high school senior who thinks the way to get through life is to maintain an emotional distance from everyone. That way he never risks getting hurt. Yet the story is about how this hero is forced into a relationship with a dying girl and how his brief relationship with her makes him realize how unique friendships can be and how even pain can be a memorable experience.
The opening scene to “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl” shows the hero navigating the world of high school by superficial relationships with everybody. Overcoming this superficial nature is what the entire story is about.
In “Wargames”, the whole story is about a computer threatening to start World War III on its own. So the opening scene shows two missile men ordered to launch their missiles but one man refusing to do so. That’s essentially the problem the entire story is about where the government decides people are too unreliable so a computer should control all nuclear missiles. Then the computer starts calculating how to start World War III while keeping humans out of control.
In “Moneyball”, the opening scene shows the Oakland A’s baseball team losing a division series to the New York Yankees. The big problem is that the Oakland A’s only have a payroll of $39 million while the New York Yankees have a payroll of $114 million, so the big question is how can the Oakland A’s compete?
That opening scene summarizes the entire story where the hero tries to use statistics to identify inexpensive baseball players who are good that other teams have overlooked. The hero has to struggle to get people to understand his theory until he finally succeeds. Watch the opening scene from “Moneyball” and the essence of the entire story is in this opening scene.
So when writing your own screenplay, ask yourself what’s your story about? Then write an opening scene that summarizes that story and problem in a compelling and intriguing manner.
Your opening scene must grab and hold our attention, but also encapsulate the entire story in one short scene. Do that and your screenplay will be off to a great start.
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