Craft

What is Cold open?

In one sentence

A cold open starts a video in the middle of the action, with no introduction, greeting or setup. On short-form it is close to the default requirement rather than a stylistic choice.

Explanation

The seconds before the point arrives are the seconds during which people leave, and almost every underperforming video has a measurable gap between when it started and when it began. Counting that gap and comparing it against the retention drop usually shows the same number twice.

In practice a cold open means deleting the first sentence you wrote. Introductions feel necessary to the person who made the video and are invisible to a viewer who has no context and no obligation to acquire any.

The common mistake

Confusing a cold open with skipping the subject. Starting mid-action still requires naming what is happening, because a viewer who cannot tell what they are looking at leaves faster than one who was mildly bored.

Related

Back to the glossary.

Reading about it is the slow way

Ten free videos, no watermark, and no card to start.