Teasers & Cold Opens (PT61)

Alex and Nick discuss the importance of teasers in television writing and key elements that make cold opens effective.

What is the point of opening scenes? What makes a good teaser? How do you reveal character, story and theme in those first few pages? Are there teaser differences between comedy and drama?

Plus, we talk 2017 Emmy winners and the revamped Fox Writers Lab.

The Paper Team opens up...

SHOWNOTES

Content
Paper Scraps: Emmys 2017 & Fox Writers Lab (00:28)
1 - Why are teasers and opening scenes important? (11:00)
2 - What makes a good opener: tone, character, expectations, story, and world (14:55)
3 - Specificities of teasers: comedy vs. drama, length, pilot vs. normal episode (32:01)
Takeaways and Next Week On (38:19)

Links
69th Primetime Emmy Awards (2017)
The Handmaid's Tale (TV Show)
Lena Waithe
Donald Glover
Sterling K. Brown
Frank Pembleton
Fox Writers Lab
"Six Feet Under" Pilot Opening Sequence (Video)
"Riverdale" Pilot Opening Sequence (Video)
Glee
Election
"Scandal" Pilot Opening Sequence (Video)
Firefly
Psycho
"Buffy the Vampire Slayer" Pilot Opening Sequence (Video)
In medias res
"Rick and Morty" Lighthouse Scene (Video)
"Breaking Bad" Pilot Opening Sequence (Video)
"Lost" Pilot Opening Sequence (Video)
"Breaking Bad" Crawling Scene (Video)
Stargate SG-1
Goa'uld
Futurama
Cheers
"Lost" Season 2 Opening Sequence (Video)
"Lost" Season 3 Opening Sequence (Video)


Special thanks to Alex Switzky for helping us edit this episode.

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You can find Paper Team on Twitter:
Alex - @TVCalling
Nick - @_njwatson
If you have any questions, comments or feedback, you can e-mail us: [email protected]