Moving Picture News (Jul-Oct 1913)

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THE MOVING PICTURE NEWS 17 sounding adjectives, who frequently utilizes two pages of manuscript to tell that which could clearly be described in a hundred words. Pertinent Pointers Give thought to your titles. Always make a carbon copy of everything you write. Don't number your scenes in letters or Roman numerals. Use everyday plain figures at the side of the sheet. We were shown a script the other day, the action laid out as "Scene A; scene B," etc., centered on the page. We do not approve of such innovations. Script writing more naturally leads to short-story writing than does short-story writing to pictureplay writing. Maybe some of those rejected pictureplay plots could be worked into magazine fiction. We know three writers who have recently worked rejected pictureplays into successful short fiction. We plead guilty to being one of the three. It isn't the style that counts in the pictureplay script. It is the building up of an idea in as terse a manner as is possible with comprehensive clearness. Let style take care of itself, and perhaps it will if you put over your pictureplay action clearly and concisely and logically. We do not charge for answering questions by mail. All that is required is a stamped and self-addressed envelope. We are here to do all the good we can, in all the ways we can, and to everybody we can, and so feel no hesitancy about availing yourself of this opportunity. To those who have received no answers to inquiries, we would state that the reason is that the one rule necessary to qualify has not been observed. Successful dramatists have made a careful and thorough study of the stage. It is also necessary for pictureplaywrights to make careful and thorough study of the moving picture screen in order to succeed. Practical knowledge of the art is gained by familiarity with moving pictures. How often must we warn ambitious writers not to copy other films? After all that has been said on this subject, a number of would-be pictureplaywrights are persisting in revamping stories they have seen in picture theatres and submitting them to the editors as strictly original stuff. Authors do not seem to realize that when htis action is persisted in, the editors will view everything they write with dark suspicion and that, eventually, all markets will be closed to them. Ladies and children are great patrons of moving picture theatres. Keep them in mind when writing your Ijlots. Why is it that some writers who are punctilious in the drawing-room will hasten home and write the most nauseating drivel for the moving picture screen? Be clean, and remember that every suggestive picture that is released does an untold damage to the art in general. Endeavor to write short sentences. Too many scripts are composed of compound sentences and long-drawn-out paragraphs which could well be condensed. Short sentences carry force. An ability to put a good sentence together is desirable. Biffs and Boosts Applcton. Wis. — "Three cheers for you for that gentle hint in this week's issue to eliminate the death-bed scenes. I have never known it to fail that when I sought joy at the moving pictures, I would usually find myself weeping instead. Good luck to you and your departments. You have surely done wonders for me in cheering me on my way to fame and fortune in the scenario line." Los Angeles, Cal. — "You trade-journal editors do more harm than good. Too much attention is paid to such vaporings. You all have something to sell, and if it is not a course of lessons it is a text-book, an operator's manual, or some other graft. I never read your drivel, because you indulge in personal abuse and not in facts." New ^'ork City. — "Dear Mr. Wright: I want to thank you for virtually selling two scenarios for me the other day. From your column I learned that I was trjfing to write stories instead of pictureplays. I took two rejected scenarios and cut them to the quick, and I made the synopsis of one seventy-five words long and the other under two hundred words. 1 have sold both, receiving $3.5 for the two." New Orleans, La. — "After getting onto your paper, a year ago, and studying your department, T took an old magazine story that I could not sell, rewrote it into a pictureplay, and sold it that way. I received $1.') for it, which is considerably more than the price of a year's subscription to the News. Thank you." Columbus, Ga. — "I write you on behalf of the correspondence schools. I took a course and was treated all right. You have some axe to grind when you jump on these schools so often. What do you know about schools, anyway? Did you ever go to school? I, and many others, believe not." Indianapolis, Ind. — "Dear Sir: You are a 'nut.' That's all I have to say." Editorial Etchings A. W. Thomas is now editor-in-chief of Photoplay Magazine. Lloyd Lonergan is the name of the editor who has written about two-thirds of all Thanhouser stories ever produced. He has been running his department without any assistance for the past few weeks. A complete novel from the pen of Maibelle Heikes Justice will appear in the "Red Book" soon. Miss Justice has been writing much of the big stuff produced by Selig and Essanay. She has been spending the summer in Illinois but goes East soon. Monte Katterjohn, who once conducted a "school" and a monthly magazine for pictureplaywrights, has returned to his "first love," namely, script-writing. Captain Peacocke, veteran script writer, now on the Universal editorial staff, is a veritable soldier of fortune. He has been a soldier, explorer, revolutionist among other minor experiences. He also writes poetry and short stories, and writes them well. Hugh D'Arcy, publicity man for Lubin Manufacturing Company, is the author of those noted verses called "The Face on the Barroom Floor." We had the pleasure of hearing the author recite the poem recently and were certainly pleased with the opportunity to hear an accomplished recital of immortal verse. With the "Professors" "You can easily write a photoplay in twenty minutes after learning the proper form, and each play is worth from $25 to $100 to you," so reads a New York City "institute" prospectus we received to-day from a long-suffering subscriber. The above we honestly regard as the limit in "school" literature. A Toledo, O., newspaper prints an advertisement addressed to "boys and girls," urging them to spend vacation in learning "to weave a plot and receive big money." Complete course costs only $3.50. We would remark that there are childish scripts a-plenty without foisting more upon the defenseless script editor. Lifted from Fiction The editor of this department upon several occasions has secured the permission of certain magazine editors to use his stories in moving picture form and they have met with a ready sale. Now comes Miss Maibelle Heikes Justice with the script, "When Tony Pawned Luisa." This is a dramatization of Miss Justice's story of the same name which appeared full page in the Sunday New York Herald. It is interesting to note, for it is the first fiction of Miss Justice to appear on the screen, although she is a prolific writer of short stories. The film is a Lubin release and the script is followed closely in regard to plot. This is a note of interest to script writers — that fiction is sometimes written so that it can be lifted almost direct to the screen despite the fact that so many say the contrary. WM. LORD WRIGHT. Helen Marten is nursing a badly bruised knee as the result of a little realism in a scene taken during the recent trip of the Eclair Company to the Adirondacks. The picture under way was "The Wolf," a coming release. Miss Marten was hidden in a cupboard and then in order to get the action "over" it was necessary to have this cupboard fall with Miss Marten in it. It was impossible to "fake" the scene and so the little lady had to stand for the rough handling. It was a bad fall and she got some severe bruises i)ut was game and finished out the scene before she let out a yelp. Mr. S. L. Lesser, of San Francisco, president of the Golden Gate Film Exchange, and who is also identified witli the Pacific Feature Film Company and the Northwestern Feature Film Company, of Portland, Ore., is on a business trip to New York. Mr. Lesser reports big business for the feature film and he will make some good contracts while in this city. Joe Brandt will leave for Europe on Tuesday, August SCth, to organize a big publicity campaign for the Universal Film Manufacturing Company. He will be away three months.