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:
“It’s alive and waiting for you. Ready to kill you if you go too far. The sun will get you, or the cold at night. A thousand ways the desert can kill.”
—Harry Essex (b. 1910)
“I count him a great man who inhabits a higher sphere of thought, into which other men rise with labor and difficulty; he has but to open his eyes to see things in a true light, and in large relations; whilst they must make painful corrections, and keep a vigilant eye on many sources of error.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)