Picture Play Magazine (Oct-Nov 1915)

Hints for Scenario Writers By Clarence J. Caine It is assumed that the majority of those who follow this department have had some experience in preparing scripts for the market, but for the benefit of beginners even the most simple questioning pertaining to photo-play writing will be treated at some time or another in the future. Any scenarioist who is in doubt as to anything which comes under the head of script writing is welcomed to write in and state his trouble. Questions will be promptly answered through this department or personally. Address all correspondence to Scenario Writers' Dept., Picture-Play Weekly, Street & Smith, Publishers, New York City. TO ENTER A STUDIO. '■• "^HE ambition of almost every young writer who is just entering the I enario game is to become a staff an rite'r. He has dreams of the day in --• e time to come when he will hold ">'■■< >wn a desk next to other writers whom knows by reputation, and will be able ■■' sell everything he writes. We say )lj -earns, because he knows little of the ntfftal inner workings of the studio. Perftps, if he knew the story of successi»j*l writers, he might think differently ■: the matter — perhaps not — but in ther case that is another story. If the beginner is really determined to to the top and win for himself a ace with some big manufacturing com■ my, there are many, many obstacles for Him to overcome. First of all, he must ;:: ;alize that he is an amateur. That ?■ junds easy, but it is really harder and 1 lore important than actual writing at rst. He must start out to learn all the is and outs of the scenario work and '■'ie general principles of the motionpicture business itself. Granted that he j;as some original ideas to begin with, ■e ] e must search about and add to these •: teadily. He must make himself a P !ountain of ideas. He must study the ; "creen, and see how others do the things ' e wishes to do. In short, he must • prepare himself along every necessary " ine of the work until he feels that he :nows something about scenario writing. Not until then do we think he is : eady for actual writing. By this time ' ie has realized that working his way to he top is far from easy, and has either lecided to fight the rest of the hard batle or give up altogether. If he chooses he former course, he must settle down o a long, hard grind. He must work vith pains, intelligence, and speed. He nust turn out many scripts before he can justly, expect success to come to him. But they must be more than mere "scripts." They must be scenarios that are unusual and attractive and capable of securing and holding any editor's attention. During this period he must be "on his toes" at all times for the general market conditions for his work. There is no use writing a scenario unless he can dispose of it, and the only way to do that is to know where to send it. He must study this subject just as fully as he did the subject of writing itself, for it is almost equally as important. Again we will take a point for granted, viz., that he has gained fair success in the open market. Now, there comes a time for another change. He must pick out the company for whom he wishes to work, and must concentrate on them. He must see as many of their released pictures as possible, and study the synopsis of ..11 the rest. He must learn the roster of the company from the president down to the second-string leads. He must try to discover the peculiarities of all its directors and leading players, and learn what the general policy of the company is. Then he must model his own work along these lines, never submerging his own personality, however. Whether success will come or not will then depend entirely upon how well the writer has prepared himself, and upon how capable he is of turning out scripts that will appeal to the selected company. The campaign we outlined in so few words above should cover a long space of time. In some cases it will be longer than others, for some writers are more gifted than their fellow workers. In any case,, however, we do not think the time could possibly be less than a year and a half or two years. Recently a writer of our acquaintance landed a place with an Eastern concern which he has strived for three full years. There is no use of a writer deceiving himself into thinking he is an exception to the rule, and that he can force his way from a place among the unknowns into a studio in a short space of time. The writer who does not try to represent things to himself as they are not has already got a splendid start in his climb toward the top. ■ In working out your own future, much judgment will be required to tell just when you are ready to pass from one step to another. No one will be able to judge this accurately except yourself, and we feel justified in saying that avoiding mistakes in this particular is about half the battle. It's a long fight, and there are many variations to the plan we outlined, but we think they all are along the same general lines. The best we can do is to outline a course of this kind for our writer readers, and then help them all the way along the line — a thing which we will gladly do 'at all times. TECHNIQUE. The magic word "technique" seems to be the chief factor in the failure of scores of writers, and it is all because they do not know what it means. We know that is a pretty broad statement, but it is a true one. Flocks of beginners and bevies of more experienced scenarioists plug along day after clay, week after week, hoping that the day will come when they will master "technique.'' They may or may not study deeply the art in which they are trying to succeed. If they do study it, they do not do so intelligently, for the person who really studies soon leaves this class. The difference between really