Amateur Movie Makers (Dec 1926-Dec 1927)

wise would pass by unnoticed. To be prepared let us lay out our Scene and Action Plots in advance to assure a smooth and harmonious continuity of theme. Let's assume we're going on a journey. We know that our first destination is one particular seaport, and we have made up our mind as to what points of interest we are going to visit. Let us classify them in our Scene Plot. We have read or been told that certain activities go on at these various points of interest, so let us classify them in our Action Plot. Now, as we go from place to place, we know what we are looking for, and whatever else happens unexpectedly we include in our schedule for the place where it occurs. When we come home we'll have an assembly sheet that will be of great help in cutting, titling and editing our story. Travel is fascinating. It brings us in contact with people and places. It humanizes us. So let us try and get into our story, human interest. Sports, let us divide roughly into two groups, one, the kind we engage in with our friends or the kiddies, two, the sports we witness in amateur or professional exhibitions and competitions. The first, I believe, is more interesting because we are directly involved. Let us sit down and think of the games we play. Where are they played and what are the different locations needed? (Scene Plot.) What are the high lights in each step of the game that makes it so interesting and absorbing? (Action Plot.) Let us write out a little story about a game. Build up suspense, lead up to a climax and have a smashing finish. Our Scene Plot and Action Plot will give us complete control from beginning to end. There are a great many sports that are not games; that have no objective outside of healthful, happy recreation. The spontaneity of these are often times much more amusing and contain a wealth of human interest that cannot be foreseen. For these write out your Scene and Action Plot as you go along. Then when you come to cut and edit your story, you will have a helpful assembly sheet that gives a smooth, harmonious continuity to your theme. With the second group we can seldom get close enough to shoot any continuity of theme. Conditions are not under our control and that makes it difficult. I would say we can use this group to help us enjoy the first more. With our camera we can record much more than the eye can catch. For example — the follow through of a golf club, the swing of a tennis racket, or a beautiful jack knife dive. Let us study and analyze these actions and correct our own faults. The Photoplay is perhaps the aim of many amateur movie makers. Here we can apply to the fullest extent what studious and farsighted commercial producers have found to be the simplest and yet least restricted method of procedure. First write your story in the simplest, most direct manner, using the present tense. Everything in your story is happening right now and you have complete control of all the action and are a part of it. When that is done, plot out the scenes of your story in the Scene Plot. Group all the interiors under one head and the exteriors under another. Group the interiors and exteriors, so that, for example, when you are in the garden, and the garden scenes occur several times in the story, each time with different action and actors, you will have them all together and eliminate confusion and jumping around. The same for the interiors. If you are shooting in the CINEMATIC BEAUTY Scenes from the Blac\ Pirate which was produced by the "Scene-Plot, Action-Plot" Plan sun parlor, finish everything you have to do there for the entire story. Then under each scene write the names of the people who have business there. Group the scenes one below the other down the left side of the paper and on the right side, corresponding to each scene, write the action. For example: (Continued on page 55) Fourteen