I Want

I was working on the first sequence in my new feature, and it occurred to me that the first sequence of most films functions like the “I Want” song in a Disney movie. It’s the chance for us to find out what our guy wants, why we’re letting him take us anywhere.

I first heard about the “I Want” song in this episode of This American Life. I’m not a big fan of Disney movies or musicals, so please forgive me if this is obvious to those who are. Listening to the TAL piece, it struck me how the “I Want” song distills the point of stories to their essence. I’m going to sing a song about what I want, right at the beginning, so it will be crystal fucking clear what the fuck we’re all doing here and why we’re about to go somewhere else!

Here is TV Tropes’s explanation of the “I Want” song:

In most American musicals, the hero is a little guy (or girl) who doesn’t amount to much right now, but dreams of a brighter future. Usually, they do this with an “I Want” Song, where they sing of how this little town is too small and they know there’s a great big world out there for them. This is always so the audience can identify with them. Because the hero, just like you, isn’t a movie star or a princess or anybody else officially special, but is really special deep down if they try, and (unlike those conformist drones around you) wants to try. The lyric to the song may well include the actual words “I want” or some variant thereof to hammer the point home.

The first sequence of your movie tends to always include some kind of “I Want” song. The main character doesn’t necessarily sing their desire, but chances are good that he communicates it thoroughly and well — through the current state of his life, through what is missing. To pull back that pinball spring as hard as possible, you make the character’s “I Want” more pressing, more abject, more ravaging, more empty. You could call that first sequence “the ‘I Want’ Song”. (Song optional.)