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. INSPIRING GOOD FEELING. A LETTER was recently sent to us by a photo-playwright in New York City who has been fairly successful for some time past, but who has not, as yet, broken into the rank and file of professional writers. It tells the story of an editor who is inspiring good feeling between himself and his contributors. We congratulate the editor mentioned, and publish the writer's letter to us herewith, as we think it is a good object lesson to other editors and writers : "A short time ago I submitted a scenario to Russell Smith, editor of the Famous Players Film Company, of New York. It was quickly returned, with a rejection slip, which read: 'Not big enough for us.' I realized that when it was too late, and was not surprised at its return. At another time I sent Mr. Smith another offering, and this, too, was returned. Again the rejection slip was marked, this time reading: 'Not our line; try ,' giving the names of several companies he knew to be handling that line. Doesn't that prove conclusively that my scenario was given personal attention and carefully read? I think so, at least, and I want to thank Mr. Smith and the Famous Players Company through PicturePlay Weekly for their kind suggestions. Even though the scenarios in question do not sell, I shall always appreciate their efforts to help me, and I want my brother writers to know that if their ideas are big enough, this company will not turn them down simply because they are newcomers. I shall seek no farther for honest men." FROM A MAN WHO KNOWS. Not so very long ago a stranger came to the World Film Corporation's studios in New Jersey to make pictures. His name did not make much difference at that time, for no one knew him, anyway. Now it does, however, for every one who has followed the motion-picture industry closely knows that M. Maurice Tourneur has been making "pictures," with emphasis on the last word. In a recent interview, granted a representative of a New York paper, he expressed his views of the present situation in the motion-picture field. We present them herewith for the benefit of our readers: "Big stars from the speaking stage," he said, "are all right for the photo play. I have no fault to find with them. They have done a big service for the moving pictures. They have made it possible for us to lift ourselves out of the nickelodeon or small-store shows. They have lent tone to the screen. They have won, through the importance of their names and the attendant advertising possible with it, the consideration for the film drama from the intelligent class of people, who otherwise would not have regarded it seriously. No twodollar picture show would ever have been possible as a success but for the previous presence of these stars of the two-dollar speaking stage on the screen. "But the big call of the moving picture of to-day in its anxiety for the future must be for manuscripts. We have in the moving picture a new way of expressing our thoughts : therefore let us have new ideas to express as well. Let us not put on the same old stuff cloaked in a slightly altered garment. I am glad that I believe that the adaptation of books and stage plays is only temporary, as it is at present a necessary evil. Our film stories must be written especially for the screen and with the possibilities of the camera always in the author's mind. "We must find a way — and there 1 only one way — to attract the most tat ented authors to the scenario field. )| we offer enough money we will con 4 mand their attention, and they will tali I the time to learn to realize the numbei I less possibilities of the screen and sp< * cialize in that direction. "The so-called scenario writer of tcl day, with but few exceptions, is I back number, or should be one. He if a relic of a bygone day, with an entirel I different demand, who has not keff abreast of the times, and does not real j ize the changed conditions. Indeed, if he had, I doubt if he would have know; I how to meet them. He is of an in ferior order of intelligence. He is ; small peg in a large hole, and does no fit it at all and cannot be made to. Fa better would it be to find a peg whicl was too big and cut it down to thi proper dimensions. "The scenario writer of to-day ha: the same old bag of tricks, and uses th< five-and-ten-cent store method of shak ing it up and grabbing the tricks, givim them perhaps a different order of appearance, but, alas ! they are the sam( old tricks. How tired we become olj them ! "Now, let us rid ourselves once and for all time of the old court-tria.1 1 scenes, the mobs of policemen, the awful poison stuff, the tons of guns and knives, the asinine detective horseplay, with the colossal magnifying reading glass, which he produces from an in " side pocket and peers stupidly through at furniture and carpet. And, oh. yes! Let us not forget to lose forever that time-honored locket by which, years aft-l erward, the kidnaped child is recogj nized, through a picture of its sainted mother. Shades of 'The Bohemian Girl'! You were new once. And.