# MovieClips Question - Initialise before controlling?

**URL:** <https://forum.kirupa.com/t/movieclips-question-initialise-before-controlling/218669>\
**Category:** flash\
**Created:** [March 9, 2007, 3:39pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/movieclips-question-initialise-before-controlling/218669 "2007-03-09T15:39:11Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![kevinc](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex011/user_avatar/forum.kirupa.com/kevinc/32/1079_2.png) [@kevinc](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/kevinc)\
**Post date:** [March 9, 2007, 3:39pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/movieclips-question-initialise-before-controlling/218669/1 "2007-03-09T15:39:11Z")

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Hey,

I’ve read a bit before about how sometimes clips need to be initialised but I’ve never come accross it unless I was doing some serious coding. But I’m having a basic problem now that I can’t figure out. I’m wondering if I’ve just never come accross this in Flash before!

I’ve a simple flash movie with a movieclip on it.

I simply want to start the movieclip playing using **transition.gotoAndPlay(“start”);** but it doens’t work if that code is placed on teh 1st frame of the movie. It does however work if it’s on the 2nd frame.

[Here’s the .fla file](http://www.multiblah.com/exps/flash/firstframe/basictest.fla)with a very simple test case. I’m pretty sure I’ve done stuff like this many times before, so I’m really scratching my head.

Any ideas?