Anatomy of the series – Cold Open

If the theater begins with a hanger, then where does the series begin? To many, the answer to this question will seem obvious to the absurdity. Of course, each show begins with the introductory screensaver. Truth lies in its very name. However, if you recall the last viewed episodes, then perhaps you will notice one small detail: rarely what a modern series open the credits. Usually they are preceded by a small passage, which is called Cold Open. What is it and where it came from, we will discuss in this article.

A little story

Find out who exactly for the first time guessed to “move” the screensaver for a few minutes, is unlikely to work out. At one time, no one thought to fix this milestone in the history of television, and now for this it will be necessary to watch hundreds of hours of material. Nevertheless, the approximate guideline of the appearance of a “cold discovery” is the beginning of the 1960s. For example, such a technique was used by the popular television tank “Bonanza”, which was released from 1959 to 1973.

Like any evolutionary change, review of the structure of television series was caused by competition. Just on the period of the 1960-70s, the Golden Age “of American television came. By this time, the TV became an everyday household appliance and was available to almost every family.

Increasing demand provokes an increase in supply. The struggle for the attention of the audience began to gain more and more revolutions-and at some point it was noticed that the trend to switch the channel is manifested, as a rule, at the very beginning, precisely when the introductory credits are going on. That is, having finished watching one show, a person is waiting for the next. And since nothing happens during the screensaver, attention and interest falls.

It was then that the decision was made to “cling” the viewer right away. Show something so exciting and interesting that he no longer thinks about what is going on on other channels. Therefore, “cold discovery” is sometimes called “teaser” (from English. Tease – tease, lure). This was also written by the creator of Star Trek Jin Roddenberry in his book Making of Star Trek. The typical episode of the Say-Fei series, as a rule, began with Tizer, which consisted of a small scene with the orders of Captain Kirka, explaining what and where.

And although the Cold Open segment was created for the same purpose as CliffHanther – that is, to keep the attention of the viewer – over time his role expanded significantly. It even got to the point that sometimes it was not related to the rest of the episode at all. Therefore, now it is somewhat incorrectly combining the terms. The teaser can be part of the “cold discovery” and even take all its time, but the latter still remains a wider concept.

A little etymology

Before we proceed to discuss various types of “cold discovery”, it is worthwhile to figure out why it is generally called that. And more precisely, why it is “cold”, because part of the “discovery” is generally obvious.

Most of the dictionaries, starting with Cambridge and ending with the Urban Dictionary, do not contain the definition of the word “Cold”, which would be suitable for the meaning of the phrase. Basically, with the help of this word they describe low temperature, unfriendlyness or “coolness” if it comes to conversational jargonisms. Nevertheless, in English, another value of “Cold” is traced, denoting a surprise.

The expression “Cold Turkey” (“Cold turkey”) means “abruptly throw a harmful habit”. Often the so -called “breaking”, that is, withdrawal syndrome – symptoms that occur when the adoption of psychoactive substances is cessed. Less commonly, the phrase is used in a wider sense of “unexpectedly stop anything”.

One of the options for the etymology of Going Cold Turkey says that a cold turkey is a dish that does not require special preparation. Therefore, the phrase means “doing something without preparation”.

One way or another, the values ​​of surprise and sharpness are great for the “cold opening”. The show that uses such a technique begins precisely what “suddenly” and “sharply” begins.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine

Another common expression “Cold Call” (“Cold call”) means a technique in which sellers themselves are looking for a buyer, and not vice versa, often with the help of a call or a pond bypass. And although users of the Stackexchange linguistic portal were able to trace the phrase until 1827, it spread in the 1970s.

In this case, the call or visit is called “cold”, therefore it is made without preparation. In English, the phrase “Warm up” means both the literal “warm -up” and “warm -up”. So it turns out that the “cold call” is aimed at nothing suspecting buyer. And the “cold discovery” on the exactly the same spectator, who, without any warning, is immersed in the plot of the episode.

Varieties of “cold opening”

The most technically simple and at the same time common type of “cold opening” can be conditionally called “Recap” (English. “Brief repeat”). Most often, in fans of series, this segment is associated with the phrase “Previouslay on. “(” Earlier in. “) And soap operas.

The fact is that in this case, Cold Open is just a cut of fragments of the previous episode. And since soap operas were always rich in many events, their audience simply needed to remind of what was before. A particularly strong effect is achieved in conjunction with Cliffhanger from the previous series. Sometimes the final scene was even completely repeated at the beginning of the next series.

In addition, it must be taken into account that during the heyday of this genre, the recording equipment was not very common. Not to mention the possibility of free choice of episodes on the Internet. Then, if you missed the series, then almost forever. And if this situation is not tragic for the sitcoms, then for the tied through plot lines of “soap” it was a big problem. In such a situation “earlier in. “Helped not to lose the thread of the narrative.

Game of Thrones

Nevertheless, it cannot be said that only “soap operas” use this technique. Other genres also do not disdain them. There are recaps in series that use the weekly show. For example, each series “Chuck” (Chuck) began with the words: “My name is Chuck, and now what you need to know about me. “.

In addition, often “previously in. “Appears in the first episode to refresh the memory of the audience after the off -season. However, given their exclusively utilitarian nature, sometimes they are cut off on etheric television to save. And streaming services like Netflix automatically miss them when the user watches several series in a row. To escape from editorial scissors, the segment should be more creative. In the fourth season “Raising Hope”, the characters sang a song about the previous three years for their sclerous great -grandmother.

Raising Hope

The next species is diametrically opposite to the previous. If recap is excerpts of past series, then “announcement” – Cutting the future. It can be said that this is a kind of episode trailer right before its beginning. But in the presence of real trailers who are twisting all week and even immediately after the show, the format did not get a lot of distribution.

Although such a statement is true for the most part for art works. Documents, popular science and journalistic shows widely use the announcing segment in the spirit “Today in the program. “. Turn on any news release – most likely, you will see at the very beginning a selection of the most interesting messages.

Infarction. Announcement for the preview-imbalance and in https://4crowns-casino.co.uk/ the title of the video

At the same time, the announcement is not equal to the “cold discovery”. It can easily be in its place or after the introductory credits. And with the development of Internet technologies and video hosting like YouTube, this segment generally began to get out of the video. A brief description of the release of the transmission is found in the name and even on the preview.

Another variation of the introduction of the announcement is integration with the screensaver. One of the most famous examples is the Top Gear Automobile show (Top Gear). But the highlight there is not even that the personnel of the episode are combined with the opening credits. The transfer mainly ironizes the announcing technique. Instead of the most striking moments of the series, it shows the most trivial and not related to the topic. Leading, pronouncing random words, blinking a light bulb and a floating cloud – a very typical beginning of “Top Gir”.

Among the works of art, integration is found in the animated series “Disappointment”. There, almost the entire screensaver consists of minimalistic sketches describing the events of the episode.

But in “Supernatural” (Supernatural) the announcement is somewhat united with a recap. Formally, of course, there are only cuts from previous episodes. But along with recent fragments refreshing the current storyline, the show shows and, so to speak, “thematically selected”. For example, if ghosts appear in the series, then there will be several frames with them in the “cold opening”. And if one of the secondary characters return, then we will be reminded in advance who it is.

Supernatural. The series has three sections of the Cold Discovery. The Road So Far is a large recap. Theen is a small recap. Now – goes after Theen and is usually a “presentation of the case”

With the announcement it is easy to confuse the path “How we ended up here” – They both show what will happen in the future. However, the first is exclusively a technical element, it can easily be omitted without any damage. While the second is an artistic technique and an integral part in the structure of the narrative.

If the “cold discovery” is designed to sharply dip the viewer into what is happening, then along with “how we ended up” it does it as much as possible, it throws not only in the abyss of history, but into its very ending. At the same time, almost the rest of the story is a series of Flashbacks, actually answering the question: “How we are here?”.

Usually this path is amplified by some unusual or extreme situation to cause maximum interest. The doctor wakes up in a burning house next to the corpse, or the training group instead of the library is in the house on wheels with a huge hand on the roof – these are the usual examples of using the path.

Also, one of the most successful examples of such a “cold discovery” can be considered the entry of the pilot “Breaking Bad” (Breaking Bad). Desert, corpses, gas masks, half -naked Brian Cranston – all this is very intriguing. Moreover, immediately after the screensaver it is shown by a quiet and passive loser. How he could be interfered with something similar – a mystery that is not revealed to the very end of the episode.

Breaking Bad

By the way, in the indicated episode “all heavy” there is also another path – “Action Prolog”. As the name is clear, this technique is characterized by the beginning with action scenes.

Usually, even the most dynamic work needs “acceleration”. Present characters, construct the world, designate and develop a conflict – all this takes time. Therefore, the first fifteen minutes of the film are traditionally considered the most boring.

Fortunately, this stereotype successfully destroyed Bondiana. Films about agent 007 usually start with action to immediately give the viewer what he came to the cinema. For example, in Goldfinger (Goldfinger), James Bond managed to fulfill his entire obligatory program even before the main screensaver. Judge for yourself: penetrated the enemy base, used different spy bakes, changed into a tuxedo, put it in a bar, blew up an enemy base, exchanged worships, promised with a beauty and fought. You can not watch further.

It is worth noting that “cold discoveries” are not a single television privilege. Cinema also often uses this technique, although there it is usually called “Pre-Credits Sequence” (“Segment to the Titras”). However, on large screens it is less important: you do not need to compete with other channels, there is no repetitiveness of series and screensavers and everything else.

Of course, part of these problems appears when the film is shown on TV. But initially the structure of the story in the cinema has exclusively artistic plan. Therefore, liberties with her are limited only by the imagination of the director. Sometimes the name can be at the very end in general, but this does not mean that all an hour and a half were a “cold discovery”.

Supernatural

Bond is close in spirit to the so -called “Prologue Batman”. Technically, he is also full of action, but in this case he uses it more restrained. Because the essence of this path is to show the usual “working day” of a superhero with the usual level of adrenaline and the intensity of passions.

The traditional stories of superheroes are built according to the same plan. A new villain appears, he defeats the hero, the hero overcomes and defeats the villain in the finale. But with its constant use, even with a million possible variations, the feeling is inevitably created that the protagonist is still a weak. Who just did not break out of the web of Spider-Man, which, in theory, should be incredibly durable. And who just did not beat the invincible superman.

Buffy The Vampire Slayer

For leveling such an image, comics often (yes, we are not about series again) begin to struggle with ordinary opponents. It can be ordinary bandits or some secondary villains. The task of the Batman prologue is to show that actually the hero is very cool-there is an adversarial. Just the new head of the head turned out to be even cooler. Therefore, the victory over him will bring our guy to a new level of coolness. Here is such a sisyphus coolness. It is meaningless, but has been working for decades.

On television, this path is used by superhero projects. A striking example is the animated series Ultimate Spider-Man or Batman: The Animated Series. Everything is clear with this. A much more interesting question: how can there be a cold discovery in the comic book if there is a cover?

Batman: The Animated Series

On the covers of comics, their history and development, you can write a separate dissertation. But in short, they perform the same function as the posters for films. Moreover, sometimes they are not even related to the plot at all. Although in other cases they literally begin it. There is no time for a time.

I have an issue of Ultimate X-Men No. 16 on my table now. The cover depicts Wolverine with Harley. You know how many times in this issue of Wolverine went on a motorcycle? Exactly zero. The story itself begins with six pages on which we are shown a new villain. It is they who are considered a “cold discovery”. Because only after them there is a U -turn with the names of the comic book and the plot arch.

By the way, the case described above is a variety “Presentation of the case”. This version of the “cold opening” shows a certain situation, with the consequences of which the heroes of the series will be dealt with. Therefore, as a rule, only episodic characters and locations participate in the scene.

For example, the beginning of a typical episode in the Law and Order (Law & Order) to the main screensaver consists of a demonstration of the victim of the crime, detecting a corpse and a procedure for inspecting the scene of the incident. In other detectives, when the mystery does not lie in the question “how?”Show the crime itself. In legal procedures – suspect.

For obvious reasons, a “presentation” is common mainly among procedures. Moreover, procedures in the broad sense of the word, and not just criminal. Mystical shows, especially with the “monsters of the week”, this also applies. And in “Dr. House” (House M.D.) The cold opening shows the patient at the time of exacerbation of the condition. The scriptwriters themselves are guessed by the fact that this method. Sometimes they try to confuse the viewer, “forcing” to cough one character when another loses the consciousness of another.

“Presentation of the case” is an almost perfect description of the “cold discovery”. This is literally a mystery, the solution of which will be only at the very end. Moreover, it always creates stress or action and quickly ends. However, in a creative environment, if something is made to such an extent as to become a rule, it is simply necessary to destroy it.

Saturday Night Live

Do it “Sketches”. And they are most common in who would have thought, sketch shows. And the first thing that comes to mind is the transmission “Saturday Night Live), which largely popularized the term“ Cold Open ”. Traditionally, each issue begins with a reprise that is not much different from everyone else. The only thing-at its very end, the actors welcome the audience with an unchanged phrase: “On the live air from New York, this is a Saturday evening!”.

Such a discovery is a finished and self -sufficient number. It does not have a cliffHenger or other trick aimed at holding the viewer. Strictly speaking, they are exactly the opposite of the main idea of ​​Cold Open, because after watching them you can safely turn off the TV and not lose anything.

The Office (US)

In fairness, a show without a single storyline cannot offer anything else. However, such sketches have taken root without any problems in the series. It will now be difficult to imagine the “office” beloved by many without traditional entrance sketches. Personally, I periodically revise my loved ones: about the Asian jim, the reconstruction, who does not notice anything to Stanley and many others.

For a long time, taking a cold opening that was not tied to the plot remained a prerogative of comedies. In the dramatic genre he was popularized by “Breaking Bad” (Breaking Bad). But these were not humorous miniatures, but a kind of short film, which were designed to deepen and expand the shown world.

Breaking Bad

The main storyline always rotated around Walter and Jesse, but they were most of the time only by manufacturers and did not participate in the rest of the work of the criminal empire. Therefore, the series was basically concentrated only on the “cook”. However, the “advertising video” Los Pollos Hermanos demonstrated the packaging of “Product”. Another discovery is the delivery process and risks associated with this. And there was one day in the life of a prostitute showing the final consumer. For the most part, they do not bring anything to the storyline of a particular episode or even the entire series. But very strongly affect its perception.

In this case, Cold Open is no longer a technical necessity or marketing trick. This is an integral part of the author’s creative vision, describing the world in which there are characters. Of course, there are no problems to show all the same and mainly timing. But this will only harm him, because these scenes are not part of the story, but its scenery. And in the emergency section, they are simultaneously part of the series, and naturally separated from it.

As we already understood on the example of Bond and comics, Cold Open are widespread far beyond the boundaries of television. Video games often begin with a teaser-level, after which the credits appear and the game itself begins. In the Assassin’s Creed series, the inscription with the name may appear in a few hours of passage. And the old X-Men 2: Clone Wars began so sharply that I was sure of the cartridge malfunction.

The first chapters of several books about Harry Potter were, if not technically, then spiritually “cold discoveries”. Remember the very beginning of the story: it was mainly told about the Dursleys, and in the “Cup of Fire” about the watchman of the family of Reddlov. Then it is always in the center of Harry, and only at the very beginning does attention switch from him to something else. Similarly, in the cycle of “Song of Ice and Fire” there are “disposable raises”, on behalf of which the introductory chapters are told, which do not directly intersect with the main plot lines.

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey

That it reminds you all? Cold Open? Well, actually in literature it is called a prologue. He was invented even in ancient Greece, so “Bonanits” here, probably, is still not a pioneer.

It turns out that everything that we discussed today is the topic of the literature lesson in the fifth grade? And yes, and no. Yes, since Cold Open is an introductory part of the work, it can be correlated with a prologue or even a preface. Together they reflect the continuity between different types of art.

And no, these are not completely equivalent concepts. The preface is usually completely separated, it is rather a story about a work than part of it. The prologue, again, usually directly describes the disposition and is not a natural part of the work. Whereas a “cold discovery” is a direct introduction, which means a mandatory part of the work. And again – usually.

Harry Potter

In fact, inventing terms and classification for objects of creativity is a matter of ungrateful. At any time, a genius can come, who will turn everything upside down. And you can’t do anything about it. We said that the “cold opening” should intrigue and cling, but there are those that use it for completely different purposes.

We think that this is just a short seeding in front of the series, and in “good signs” it takes almost half an hour. But we can at least be sure that the Cold Open remains in the same genre-visid plane as the show itself. By the way, I mentioned that sometimes it is made in the form of a music clip?

And what is the moral? Well, if you write the script, do not forget to take care of the “cold opening”. A concentrated portion of humor or an interesting mystery, inconspicuously help in holding the audience, is tested by time. And if you are a student of the television series institute and choose a topic for your course, here is a great. In Russian, this term is almost never found. Although, maybe I was not looking for. And everyone else, I hope, next time they just look a little deeper at such a familiar trifle.