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SERVICE // MODULE 05

Retention intros

The first ten seconds decide whether anyone hears minute forty. We cut a cold open that makes leaving feel like a mistake.

01 // THE COLD OPEN

The ten seconds before the titles

A cold open is the first 30-60 seconds of your episode: one moment, pulled from later in the conversation and cut to make a promise the episode then keeps. Most shows lose the biggest share of their audience in the first minute; this is the minute doing the work.

STANDARD£100 / EPISODE
  • Clip-based cold open, cut from your episode
  • Hooks and cliffhangers, structured to hold
  • Set to music, mixed under the voice
ADVANCED£220 / EPISODE
  • Everything in standard
  • B-roll and cutaways covering the visual dead spots
  • Animated text and motion graphics on the key lines
  • Transitions cut to the beat of the track
  • Sound design: risers, hits and emphasis
  • A broadcast-style open that sets the tone for the whole episode
02 // HOW IT WORKS

How we run it

Where the ten seconds come from, the same four steps on every episode.

THE SEARCH

Mining the moment

We watch the whole episode before we cut a frame of it. The intro isn’t the first thing that happened, it’s the sharpest thirty seconds anywhere in the conversation: the claim, the number, the story that earns the next forty minutes.

THE CUT

Building the open

Hook first, context second, cliffhanger last. A retention intro runs 30–90 seconds and ends on a question the episode answers, so pressing pause feels like walking out of a film at the twist.

THE SCORE

Pace and music

Music isn’t decoration; it’s the metronome. We cut lines to the beat, drop the track out under the cliffhanger, and let silence do the last two seconds of work.

THE TEST

The ten-second check

Before delivery, every intro is judged the way viewers judge it: thumb hovering, sound off, zero patience. If the first ten seconds don’t earn the eleventh, we recut it.

03 // QUESTIONS

Asked before the first cold open

Straight answers to what every show asks about this module.

When does the intro land, and what about changes?

It's cut alongside the episode edit, so everything lands together, under a week after your files arrive. Revisions until you're happy, and most notes are turned around within a day.

Can we switch between standard and advanced?

Yes. The tier is part of each episode's spec, not a contract, run advanced for a big guest and standard the rest of the time, and the price follows.

Do we need to record anything extra?

No. The intro is cut entirely from your existing episode footage, we find the moment, we don't ask you to perform one.

What's the difference between standard and advanced?

Standard is a clip-based cold open with hooks and cliffhangers, set to music. Advanced adds B-roll, animation and transitions cut to the beat, a broadcast-style open.

Does this work for audio-only shows?

Yes, the same principle drives audio feeds. We cut an audio cold open that hooks listeners before your theme music lands.

04 // FIELD NOTES

From the mission log

Related field notes, written by the crew that does this for a living.

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