DZ-89: Opening Sequences

How does your opening sequence set up your audience? Inspired by her tweet on how subversive an opening OCEAN’S ELEVEN has, Chas and Stu invited amazing writer/director Jessica Ellis onto the show to deep dive into opening sequences. How does a good opening setup character, genre, and theme? In exploring how best to open your story - instead of looking at the almost mandatory studio note of “dropping you in the action” - Stu, Chas and Jess look at the inventive openings of OCEAN’S ELEVEN, LONG SHOT, ARRIVAL and A SERIOUS MAN. Each of these films opens in a way that seems to defy its genre conventions and yet still provide all the set-up it needs to perfectly tell its story. As always: SPOILERS ABOUND. Audio quotations used for educational purposes only. Timestamps indicated below. Chapter markers included in the mp3. Thanks to Chris Walker for editing this episode. CHAPTERS 00:00:56 - Intro 00:12:04 - Ocean’s Eleven 00:30:26 - Long Shot 01:01:32 - Arrival 01:22:22 - A Serious Man 01:41:17 - Wrap Up 01:46:47 - Patreon thanks LINKS Jessica Ellis: https://twitter.com/baddestmamajama What Lies West: https://linktr.ee/whatlieswest RELATED EPISODES DZ-15: World Building Rules, Okay? DZ-43: Driving Sequences – Character and Plot Intensity DZ-44: Marvel, First Acts and Establishing Characters   This episode brought to you by ScriptUp – https://www.scriptupstudio.com – use promo code DZ10 to get 10% off. Thanks to all our patrons, especially Casimir, Lloyd, Eduardo, Jennifer, Leigh, Thomas, Garrett, Bjorn, Randy, Jesse, Sandra, Alex and Khrob. You rule! Please considering rating or subscribing to us on Apple Podcasts or sharing us on the Social Medias! We like finding new listeners. We are @stuwillis and @chasffisher on twitter. And you can find @draft_zero on Instagram and Twitter.