A cold open (also called a teaser) in a television program or movie is the technique of jumping directly into a story at the beginning or opening of the show, before the title sequence or opening credits are shown. On television this is often done on the theory that involving the audience in the plot as soon as possible will reduce the likelihood of their switching away from a show during the opening commercial.
In some movies the title card does not appear until the end. In such cases one cannot refer to the entire movie as the "opening"; the term "cold open" in these instances refers to the opening moments or scenes. Likewise, in movies with excessively long pre-credits sequences, the "cold open" does not necessarily refer to the entire pre-credits sequence. For example, James Bond films often use pre-credit sequences with little or no relation to the subsequent plot; these are not considered teasers.
Read more about Cold Open: History, Nomenclature
Famous quotes containing the words cold and/or open:
“Laid out for death, let thy last kindness be
With leaves and moss-work for to cover me:
And while the wood-nymphs my cold corpse inter,
Sing thou my dirge, sweet-warbling chorister!
For epitaph, in foliage, next write this:
Here, here the tomb of Robin Herrick is.”
—Robert Herrick (1591–1674)
“GOETHE, raised o’er joy and strife,
Drew the firm lines of Fate and Life,
And brought Olympian wisdom down
To court and mar, to gown and town,
Stooping, his finger wrote in clay
The open secret of to-day.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)