The technique of the photoplay ([c1913])

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146 TECHNIQUE OF THE PHOTOPLAY down. Note the resemblance between the scenes you see and the examples you will find here. Add to your mental classifi- cation what you see on the screen. Note the handling of the cut-back, the use of trick work, the manner in which the story is developed. Educate yourself so that when you study the book you can add to the examples cited many more from the plays you have seen. And note always what it is in each picture that makes an im- pression on you. You like this picture. What was it that you liked? Was it the acting? Was it the story? Was it the production? Suppose that your answer is that it was the acting. What was there to the acting that won your regard? Was it the personality of some favorite player? Look back of that per- sonality and see if you can see how the story cunningly con- trived to show that player at his or her best. Note how all the situations were thrown to that player that your interest might be strengthened in the character. The player, no matter how good he or she may be, cannot hold your interest if the play is not well planned. You think for the moment it is the acting, but you will find that, after all, it was the well written story; so well written, indeed, that you lost sight of the tech- nique in the interest you felt in the character. That is the true technique; not to show that you are deliber- ately planning to throw all. the interest to the central character, but to so plan the plot and its development that the mechanism by which you influence is not apparent. The best story does not say "Look at Miss Blank. Isn't she lovely? Isn't she charm- ing? Isn't it pathetic that she must give up Joe and marry the rich old miser to save him from bankruptcy? See how we make you think that there is no other way, and now look how we have Joe's rich old aunt die and leave him all her money!" That is not technique; it is mechanics. Technique makes this same appeal but does not let you realize that the appeal has been made. Perhaps it really was the acting. Perhaps the personal charm and skill of the players was superior to the labored development of the plot. Here too you may learn, for you can see how the clumsy use of incident defeats its ends. It is as important to known what makes a bad story bad as what makes a good story good. If it was the story that interested you more than the acting, see what there was to that story that made it better than the playing. Take it detail by detail, incident by incident. Set each apart by itself and see what it is like, then put it together again