Capturing a Film's Audience in 10 Minutes: Part 3

By the end of the opening bank robbery scene in "The Dark Knight" we learn the Joker is behind the entire robbery. Not only that, we learn everything we need to know about him in just a few short minutes through a few actions and very little dialogue. We learn he's one sick puppy. He's not insane, but he is sick, there's a big difference. An insane person couldn't have pulled off what the Joker did. Anyway, so we're locked on the screen for one big reason: we want to know how the heck this heist is going to end. We're even more intrigued when the bank robbers start dropping one-by-one. Not only are the bank robbers dying but they're killing each other. This might all be written off to greed at first, but we find out rather quickly the Joker ordered each man to kill another when a particular part of the robbery was completed. This action culminates with a bus backing through the front of the bank and the Joker revealing himself, finally. Predictable as the revelation might have been it still has pretty high shock value, or at least, a high coolness factor. This is another example of perfect pacing to keep the audience's attention during the opening of the film.

"The Kingdom" makes perfect use of its first ten minutes. It is flawless. The first time I saw this film my draw dropped on more than one occasion during the opening. The first ten minutes are really one long inciting incident: the incident that sets the film in motion and causes everything else to happen. We begin with a scene that seems innocent enough: military families are enjoying a weekend outdoors on base. They are having barbeques and playing baseball. The first sense we get that something is about to go wrong is when we get close-up shots of some eyes of the base gate guards. There isn't much reason for these CU shots if not to tell the audience, "get ready, bitches". Suddenly, just as calmly as the day started, we're thrown into a full-scale war zone: the base is under attack. Gunmen, trucks, and bombs appear from nowhere. Good, hardworking men and women begin dropping like flies. This scene is constructed wonderfully and gives us little else to think about while watching.

Where this scene goes from "good" to "perfect" is at the very end. The attack is over. People are dead, lives are ruined, and the base is a pile of rubble. The sun has set and an American FBI agent has arrived on scene with numerous other rescue workers. Just when the audience has caught its breath from the beating it just took, it gets delivered a final, and far more devastating blow. A calm has come over the scene of the terror attack when a final blast rips through the base killing all the rescue workers, and more importantly (important the story I mean), the American FBI agent. This final punch to the stomach is the last thing we're expecting exactly because we've reached that state of calm. We've just witnessed a horrific event where good people are murdered for absolutely no reason. That's tough to watch. Then we get a lull, a break, a breather in the story only to be kicked in the face as we're getting to our feet. Again, the final blast is about the last thing we see coming. This final incident is placed so beautifully, and is so powerful it gets the audience riled up: we want revenge. To get that revenge we have to keep watching.

The cop drama "Brooklyn's Finest" opens with a shock. Quite literally, we drop in on Sal and Bobby during a conversation in a car. The car is parked next to a cemetery on a deserted road. Again, to the studious mind this should raise questions. Why are these guys in this car next to a cemetery on a creepy back road? Are they cops? Are they on a stakeout? If so, who are they staking out? Perhaps something else entirely is happening here. Bobby is talking about a trial he was involved in; at this point he could still be a cop. The more he talks and the more reaction we get from Sal we begin to realize this Bobby character isn't quite on the up-and-up; in fact, he appears to be a criminal. Without warning or so much as the blink of an eye, Sal pulls out a gun, puts it to Bobby's head and pulls the trigger. Just as quickly as we arrived at this scene, we've left. Sal grabs a bag of money from Bobby (this money should raise more questions in the mind: "why?") and flees the car. Well, now we know why they met on a deserted street: Sal needed a quiet place to redecorate Bobby's car.

"Office Space" doesn't have the most engaging first ten minutes ever. However, I bring this film up because the opening is good on the level of character revelation. This film, like "Vacancy" has a short run time and can't afford to screw around. We're shown everything we need to know about our man Peter Gibbons up front. This leaves the rest of the story to show us how he is going to get out of his situation. Again like parts of "Vacancy", "Office Space" shows us who Peter is with very little dialogue. This isn't always the easiest task to pull off: so many of us would rather talk about what makes a character a certain way (which has its place), but showing the audience through pictures and not dialogue is more challenging, and in my mind, more rewarding.

The first time we see Peter he is stuck in a traffic jam. This is something even the calmest among us just hate. He is stuck amongst thousands of other cars taking the same route to the same place: a job the drivers don't want to do. Each time Peter changes lanes to a lane moving faster than his, the new lane stops and he is again going nowhere (the going nowhere traffic reflects his going nowhere job too, get it?). So, we see Peter reacting to the traffic in a negative, but understandable way. We get the feeling there's something else below the surface that is wrong. Not only does this scene serve as good character revelation but it's comical at the same time because poor Peter just cannot catch a break. Also, we're introduced to Peter's two best friends: Michael and Samir who are stuck in the same traffic jam. Michael and Samir have their own way of dealing with the traffic, both of which are pretty funny and keep us watching. Is the pattern clear yet?

"Street Kings" is another film that devolves slowly into a less-than-great story, but the opening shows us a whole heck of lot about our hero Tom Ludlow. In fact, it shows us just about everything we need to know about this guy. When we meet Tom for the first time he wakes up and throws up in the toilet. Well, he's either sick or something is weighing on his mind so heavily that he can't physically deal with it. Hmm, I wonder if it's the second one? He hops in his car and cruises to the liquor store where he buys three shooters of booze. He downs the booze in the car (crime number one) and drives to a parking lot where he meets two Korean gangsters to sell them a machine gun (crime number two). After insulting the gangsters multiple times, and admitting he didn't get the proper machine gun they requested, Tom gets his butt kicked by the gangsters. Tom is robbed of his belongings including his car.

Tom pulls himself together and makes a call from a payphone. Over his shoulder is a billboard. This billboard contains the material for the inciting incident: missing twin girls. This wasn't an accident in shooting. This billboard is written into the screenplay to let the reader know, for now, this is Tom's mission. The remainder of the opening unfolds rapidly. Tom arrives at a house, and what this? His car is parked in the driveway. Turns out, Tom tracked the gangsters to their hideout. Tom gains entry into his car where he removes a panel revealing a hidden area. From there he removes a pistol and bullet-resistant vest. Tom makes his way to the front door and kicks in it (crime number three). Here he finds a room of several gangsters that he has no problem shooting first, before he ever takes fire (crimes number four, five, six, and seven).

After a bloody battle in the living room and taking a buckshot blast to the side, Tom emerges victorious. From here Tom rigs the scene of the crime to look as though he was shot-on first. He fires rounds from a second gun at his point of entry. He places drugs in front of one gangster and plants a third gun. Up to this point, what have we learned about Tom? He's a ruthless criminal. He murdered four people in about sixty seconds. He clearly has little-to-no regard for the law as he has engaged in drinking while driving, selling illegal weapons, murder, and planting evidence at the scene of a crime. Who is this guy and what is doing here, really?

Tom makes his way into a back room where he finds a locked cage. In that cage are twin girls; the same twin girls from the billboard. Tom unlocks the cage, and says, "Don't worry, I'm a cop." What? Now, this is particularly shocking because so far we didn't know Tom was a cop. Everything he did points to being a criminal. If someone hadn't seen this movie, went in cold, had no prior knowledge: never saw a preview, never read a review they would most certainly have been convinced Tom was a criminal. Finding out he's a cop is huge. Up to this point he could have been a gangster himself and just wanted revenge for getting beat up earlier. Discovering Tom is a cop gives a whole new light to the adventure we're about to sit through. Now, we really have all the information we need about this guy. We know he's a cop who will do what it takes to get a job done and it doesn't matter who gets in the way because he will take them down. Tom just got a whole lot scarier.

Now, I've given a lot of examples. Let me say, though, killing people in the opening of a screenplay, or having an opening graphic sex scene are not the only ways to rope in an audience. These are certainly some ways to go about accomplishing that, but not the only way. What the reader should have taken from this article is don't let the audience get away. Especially, don't let them get away early. Do what you have to do to keep readers reading, and viewers viewing. Keep butts in seats. Keep pages turning. Be inventive. Take note of how you, you reading this, feel when watching a film. Take note of these feelings, and notice if you're enticed or bored stupid. Bring the enticing feelings across when writing your own work. Make something big happen by page ten. Make that inciting incident killer. So killer that we, the audience, must keep reading to know how the hell this problem is going to be solved. Best of luck, and as always, happy writing.