The discussion of the first fifteen minutes started with my fellow screenwriters and raised the question: What do the first fifteen minutes ideally present to the audience? All of us writers know that setting up the characters and background of the story are some of the main elements of these fifteen minutes, but that does not guarantee that whatever we setup will work. So what works?
I don’t claim to be an expert but I know I can do good research, so I set out to watch the first fifteen minutes (sometimes up to 17 minutes) of successful movies and to find the common thread that makes all of them work so well. I watched a total of ten movies but will only discuss one of them in this article.
The movie “Dave”, with Kevin Kline, is the story of a double (Dave) of the President who finds himself assuming the role when the president has a stroke.
Here are the first seventeen minutes in as short a summary as I can…
The first three minutes: We’re given a location for the story – Washington DC. We’re introduced to the President and the first lady as well as their entourage. We are shown there is indifference between the President and the first lady. The dog is tossed aside as soon as they’re no longer in the public eye – it’s all show. A moment between the President and his assistant that raises a question about their relationship – We find out later they’re lovers. The President is briefed by his staff. We learn of serious issues he has to attend to. It’s a serious high powered environment, but the President requests his staff find a double. He’s going away for a short while.
In three minutes we are immersed in the world of DC politics, we find out what the President is up to and we get a sense of his relationships. We are even left with a few questions that we certainly want answered!
Fourth minute: Enter Dave on a pig doing a commercial for a car dealership. Just like the President he’s doing a show, but he’s not fooling anyone! He rides a pig in contrast with the President who rides a helicopter (in the opening). Dave also has an audience that is laughing and relaxed. It’s a fun and light environment in contrast with the crowd of reporters and serious white house staff. We learn that Dave is somewhat of an actor, he’s funny and playful, a simple common man, and he looks exactly like the President.
Up to the ninth minute: We see the President in a staff meeting. How he deals with his staff. He’s political, slick, and assertive. We meet Dave at work with his staff and clients. Again we are presented with a contrast of environments and personalities. Dave is a humanitarian looking out for the common people. We get a few funny moments here that tell us we’re watching a light, funny movie and not a drama or a thriller. The FBI ask Dave to “serve his country” by sitting in as the President’s double.
Up to minute seventeen: Now Dave enters the white house and we get to see him reacting to his new environment, and pulling some of his funny theatrics. This series of scenes ends with the President having a stroke while making love to his assistant. This is the inciting incident (this is not plot point 1) that makes the chief of staff, who has his own agenda, call Dave back to be President for a while longer.
After watching these first seventeen minutes, there’s no doubt in my mind that Dave is being pulled into an adventure where he is way over his head. Now that I met all the characters I already have questions about how things are going to unfold. At the seventeenth minute Dave hasn’t accepted to stay as mock president yet, so we ask: What is it going to take for him to accept? How are they going to convince him? How is he going to deal with the assistant/lover, the first lady, and the sharks on the white house staff? He can act but how does someone with his personality and humanitarian principles deal with the environment of politics and smoke and mirrors?
The setup has not only defined the characters very well but has also defined them relative to each other with all their oppositions and dysfunctions. We have a sense of the antagonist and his plan and we know that there are many lose ends Dave will have to deal with. How? We don’t know and I believe that’s why we stick around. There are too many tensions, too many questions, and frankly a character that is bound to trip up and produce very funny moments that we don’t want to miss.
These first seventeen minutes grip us and pull us into the story of Dave and his adventure. They present us with a journey that we say yes to and are willing to take. We anticipate that if the rest of the movie is anything like the opening then we’re in for a great ride.
My exercise of watching the first fifteen minutes has paid off and has actually helped me improve my writing. I suggest you try it and see for yourself. As you watch, note the setup of location and mood, characterizations, tensions, and the questions that come up. Try it with a good movie and try it again with one of the certified bad ones. I am sure you’ll notice a difference. If you can, try reading the first fifteen pages of a good screenplay to see how it shows up in writing. Does it work? Does it keep you wanting to read? If yes, then that’s what you also need to achieve.
The first fifteen minutes is not a rule to follow or even a guideline. No screenwriter would want to limit themselves with yet another rule. But every serious screenwriter owes it to themselves to study closely that first step into their story, that step that I believe can make or break the script, that step that we can refine and perfect by learning from the masters.
