GlossaryCraft technique
Cold open
Also: teaser · pre-credits
A cold open, also called a teaser, is the scene that runs before a show's title sequence. It drops the audience into action with no setup, doing three jobs at once: hooking attention, establishing tone, and planting the question the episode will answer. Common in television and many features.
The cold open earns its name by starting cold, no recap, no easing in. It plays before the main titles and is built to make a channel-surfing viewer stop.
A strong teaser does structural work, not just spectacle: it sets the tone, introduces the engine of the episode, and ends on a hook into the title card. In half-hour comedy it often carries a self-contained joke; in drama it usually poses the week's dramatic question.
COLD OPEN EXT. GAS STATION - NIGHT A stranger pays for gas in silver dollars, then walks into the dark and does not come back. MAIN TITLES.