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. PATIENCE. \ SHORT time ago we were talking . *■ to a writer who has become noted j 3r the number of sales he registers z aonthly. In the course of the conersation we asked him how long it took : im to get a start in the game. "About bree years," he replied. "I sold two lays during my first two years." That if as all we said on that subject, but his lain statement left an impression on •ur mind, for at another time this writer had showed us his file of rejected cripts, and when we remarked about Iheir number, he said that since he bejan writing scenarios, he had never let i week pass without turning out at least one reel. The two facts told us the story of pa:ience. During those first two years he nad worked along steadily, turning out at least one reel per week, and yet he had sold only two scenarios. That record surely is enough to make the average writer discouraged, but this fellow kept on plugging. He knew he had the ideas, and that he had long since acquired the correct technic. No amount (of rejections could do other than help him to turn out better work, and the result was that he has succeeded, with la capital S. [ It is an excellent example for any young writers. Patience is one of the important elements in the climb of an author to the top of the ladder. He must work — and wait. One without the other cannot accomplish the desired end. Every scenarioist should learn the lesson of patience. He should be willing to keep on working week in and week out without any apparent reward for an indefinite length of time, if he feels he is learning things daily, and if he is convinced that in the end success will come to him. Of course, there must be some sort of daily labor during this period to supply the necessities of life, and his best efforts should be lent to this while he is employed by it. The grind is a tedious one, and wears many down before they have gone far, but the victory for those who fight to the top is so much sweeter because of the effort. DEATH SCENES. A film recently issued by one of the big companies started with a death scene which ran about five hundred feet. It created an atmosphere of depression at the very beginning, and though the latter part of the picture was very acceptable, the whole left a "heavy" feeling with the majority of the audience, many of whom expressed their opinion to the manager of the house as they passed out. A long time ago the better class of directors started to cut down the prominence of death scenes, and they certainly have succeeded in reducing the number of plays containing these during the past two years. Now and then, however, one sneaks onto the screen, and it is ever so much more noticeable because of the scarcity of others of its kind. It is possible to put on an artistic death scene in motion pictures, but in few instances is such a scene of importance enough to warrant the footage an artistic producer would use in handling it. The best thing for scenario writers — especially beginners, who have not yet learned to appreciate the artistic worth of a play — to do, is to entirely eliminate death from their scripts. This will insure them against the prejudice of editors who are opposed to such scenes, and will also protect them from criticism if a script should be produced and the death scene played up in a sensational way. A PLEA FOR THE MEXICANS. Phil H. LeNoir, the man who put Las Vegas, New Mexico, on the motionpicture map, and who turns out good scenarios regularly, has sent us a plea for the Mexicans. There are a number of them in his country, and he should know whereof he speaks. Photoplaywrights who aspire to write Western dramas, but who do not know the country, should read his remarks carefully. Here they are: "I was born, bred, and brought up in the elite East — the elitest East, if you please. Then Old Man Circumstance picked me up and transplanted me in New Mexico. Now, Friend Contentment keeps me, and always will keep me, here. Since living in the West, I have received many an enlightening jolt, one of which I will pass on. While talking to one of our native — Mexican — ■ citizens, a man of education and culture, he said, knowing of my interest in the writing game : Why is it that in ninety per cent of the books and photoplays I read and see of Western stories, the villain is one of my people? Surely, authors and playwrights can't think that we all are such a bad lot? Do you ever remember seeing a Mexican as a hero in a story?' "I replied that I hadn't given the matter much thought, but that I would. So, Diogeneslike, I went looking for a play wherein a Mexican was cast, and in which he was not the heavy, and also for one in which a Mexican was cast for a lead. Up to this time I have been unsuccessful in my quest. And so I ask the question of our authors : Why pick on the Mexican all the time for your heavy? If they could live out here as I do, and mix in with these people; know of their upright lives, their humbleness, their sacrifices, their high