Moving Picture News (Jul-Oct 1913)

THE MOVING PICTURE NEWS 17 son, Hoadley and Peacocke make a trustworthy team and one in sympathy with the writer. The Marchioness Townshend is writing scripts for the Clarendon Company of England. Lady Troubridge is also writing them. Next thing we know Lloyd George and the Prince of Wales will be dashing of? plots. Hall Caine is doing it and Rud Kipling may be expected to enter the list soon. The Wrong Advice A writer asserts that one should stick to a script of certain type, his most successful kind, except upon order or special occasions. We do not think so. Epes W, Sargent, tor instance, has specialized in comedy, but is now devoting his talents to two and three-reel drama. In our •own experience we have written comedy, drama and commercial stuff with equal success. We doubt if it would Tae wise for a photoplaywright to become too completely identified with one kind of work. Versatility is a mighty good qualification, and every accomplished writer should be able to get out of the groove occasionally. Individuality should count for little or nothing in the script-writing .game. It's the knack of shifting from your favorite dramas when the market is crying for comedies, and vice versa, that puts shekels into your pockets. Training will ■do it Pertinent Pointers Be sure your name and complete address is on the first page of every script. Universal is in the market for work of free-lance writers. This in answer to several inquiries. Write the kind of story that the studio can produce. Leave specializing for others. Charles Van Loan has been writing fiction for the Saturday Evening Post and his atmosphere is the moving picture studio. It will pay j'ou to write for the back numbers. (No free advertisement, this.) Use a black "record" ribbon in preparing your scripts. Avoid purple copying ribbon, which is apt to leave the page mussj-. Do not jump at every advertisement you read and submit your scripts to unknown concerns. There is no manufacturer who will pay you "from $100 to $1,000 for a pictureplay plot." Use good common sense in your marketing. Two and three-reel stories are in demand and the demand will rapidly increase. There are not enough tworeel stories to go round. Sometimes an old single-reel story, that has been rejected because it is too lengthy, will prove just the thing for a multiple-reel feature if rejuvenated. Now, this doesn't mean that you should devote yourself strictly to two or three-reel features. However, if you have the proper stuff you can find the market. Small casts are preferred by the Universal Film Mfg. Co., Mecca Bldg., New York City. Universal can use society dramas, light and farce comedies. Do not be alarmed if the Edison Co. holds on to your script. The longer they keep your story the better are your chances for a sale. Three to six weeks are taken for a decision. In fact, do not rush any editor who is considering your work. Don't forget that you are writing for the whole civilized world, and for that reason don't be narrow-minded in what you write, correctly cautions Arthur Leeds, of the Photoplay Author. And we would add, avoid the morbid themes, which will soon be tabooed by every advanced film manufacturer. Have good taste. Don't hang around a moving picture theatre and drink in as words of wisdom everything the gentlemanly usher sees fit to divulge. Many an ambitious photoplaywright is given an idea by moving picture theatre attaches that all he has to do is to "just scribble off" something in order to sell the script as a moving picture play, "Hurry up and write a story and we will show it in our theatre" is becoming monotonous. Nine times out of ten you know as much if not more anent plot writing as the illustrated song singer or usher. Go to the theatre to study the screen, but don't tell everyone that that is your object. The reason we do not publish the advertisements of the "schools" is because the majority of such advertisements are misleading, to put it mildly. We have turned down hundreds of dollars' worth of display "school" advertising the past year because we believe that consistency does not mean the scoring of graft in one column and accepting money for displaying grafting schemes in another column. A Los Angeles View A Los Angeles writer sends this one in, and the arguments are worthy of consideration: "The letter from a discouraged playwright published in your department August 9th, struck a sympathetic chord in my heart. His state of mind will surely find its replica in the case of man}' an amateur photoplaywright, and in that of many apparently more successful than he. By a strong coincidence I happened to possess the very same thoughts at the arrival of the News. But, more strangely still, my resolve, namely, to give up pictureplay writing, was actuated not by rejections but actually by receipt of a check resulting from the sale of a script to one of the most prominent and least accessible studios in the field, Biograph (The Law and the Man), I have been writing for almost two years and have sold quite a number of scenarios, the payments ranging from the munificent sum of $15, to the stupendous award of $35. Discouraged and saddened by the generosity of the various editors, I began writing to suit the needs of a certain manufacturer, whose liberality, I had been told, was in proportion to his inaccessibility. I reached my goal yesterday, after a year's constant effort, adapting my construction to the peculiar style of the director. I finally rounded up a startlingly original story, put together with care as to detail and power of situations, and receiver my reward — a $25 check. 'To sell a script you must beat the best you see on the screen,' is an oftrepeated statement. But should not the writer's compensation be in proportion? Surely $25 is not ample payment, especially since there is practically no opportunity afforded for the gaining of reputation. Several years ago, the phrase 'better times are coming' was the staff of hope for the discouraged 'star writer.' Prices are no higher, if not lower, than then, although the quality demand in pictureplay has gone up fully 500 per cent. Pictureplay writing is now almost as difficult as the construction of 'legitimate drama' and original ideas are certainly more" difficult of obtainment in the former field." The arguments of this correspondent are forceful. We have long contended that $25 is not enough remuneration for a single-reel script properly constructed. We incurred the wrath of several when we argued for better prices — however, we are still arguing. It is stated that Universal will start crediting authors on posters and film. This will be something that is due the writer. More is demanded of the writer of todaj^ and the prices are not commensurate with that demand. This has long been our opinion. We remain optimistic and of the opinion that better times are coming, WM. LORD WRIGHT. THE CLOW.X'S D.VLGIITER Reliance 2 Reels,