Opening Sequence - Length

[mad_r0]

I've always been a fan of interesting openings - and structure all my writing in the same vein.

So my current project, a family themed horror opens with the Antagonist and two supporting characters. The hero and sidekick doesn't appear until page 12.

So the with the one minute per page rule, is 12 pages too long for the protag intro? Is there an unspoken rule or law for such a thing?

[Joaneasley]

It sounds long, but the real gauge is how it affects your intended audience and readers. Are they hooked or losing patience waiting for the protagonist to take action?

If you spend that long before you introduce your protagonist, will you have time to let us get to know and like your protagonist before he's fully involved in the story? There are trade-offs, and you have to decide.

Would it work to cut back and forth between the antagonist and what the protagonist and sidekick are up to in their daily life, so we get to bond with them before they face the antagonist? My gut feeling is to either do that or find a shorter way to show what the antagonist is doing. But you can do anything you want if you can keep the audience's interest.

[dpaterso]

12 minutes into the film, I'd be mildly surprised to learn that the guy I've been watching all that time isn't the protag. I bet you could cut it in half if you really tried. Not that you have to...

-Derek

[Jenny]

I think it's a matter of tone and style. If it's clear we're watching a villian in his lair with his minions, and the villian is entertaining and frightening and we're spending 12 minutes wondering who could possibly stop him and it's all over-the-top and maybe even tipping towards campy - then I think you can do it.

If it's serious in tone and style, it's probably too long before introducing the real main character.

[THEUGLYDUCKLING]

here's a really simple answer. how many movies have ever been made where we don't see our hero for 15 minutes. Name one.

[Jenny]

Fargo? That's a guess - I haven't seen it in a while, somebody can correct me if I'm wrong.

[dpaterso]

Heh, you're right, Marge doesn't appear till Page 31 in the shooting script PDF. (Just read this one again last weekend.)

-Derek

[roscoegino]

Yeah, Fargo. But there's no confusion as to who the bad guy is. You know who the antag is pretty much from the beginning. Plus, it's more of an ensemble thing.

But Ugly has a point. There aren't many. I'd introduce the hero by page 10. But you dont need to listen to me. Of course every morsel leading up to that point has to mean something, has to be efficiently written.

[Jcorona]

Just thinking, maybe too far ahead.

You send your logline to someone telling him what your awesome hero has to do and that someone loves the logline.

Then he requests the script, starts reading and by page 3-5 starts asking himself, "Where's this awesome hero at?"

So he starts thinking other things instead of getting into the story.

And just a question, but what if you approach someone connected to certain actors you'd love to play this awesome lead role and you tell them that the lead doesn't appear until page 13? I don't think they'd be crazy over the idea.

But of course it could work. All I'm saying is I try not to put any speedbumps in my scripts. The smoother the ride the better.

I still do it, though, and I need to knock it off.

Good luck,

Corona

[wcmartell]

What is the *purpose* of those 12 pages?

Usually an opening without the protagonist is to introduce the antagonist - and in a horror script, that means introducing the monster or killer or ghost or whatever.

Here's one of mine, with four and a third pages of antagonist before we introduce the protagonist:
http://www.scriptsecrets.net/screenplays/gatorbaby2.pdf

I think you may be "starting too early" - you want to start the story in progress, when things are already in motion. Find the way to give the audience information through things happening... and they don't have to know every detail up front, usually just the basic threat the antagonist poses. All of the details of how the antagonist came to be can be parcelled out later in the script. In fact, that's usually one of the things that happens in horror scripts - the protag has to figure out where the ghost came from or how the monster came to be or the secret of why Freddy or Jason became a killer.

You usually want to get to your protag before page 10, and the sooner the better. So I'd trim that puppy up. Figure out what is important in those 12 pages and trim the rest.

- Bill