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INTRODUCTION
In dealing with talking pictures the great difficulty is to curb one’s enthusiasm. Overenthusiasm often fails to carry conviction. Yet in writing or speaking of the dazzling new dialogue development recently introduced to the screen it is easy to be swept off one’s feet.
The authors of this book, Messrs. Pitkin and Marston, have very sensibly avoided this mistake. Their whole book reveals a strong faith in talking pictures founded upon close observation. Their restraint in treating the subject carries more weight as to the value of talking pictures than highly colored phrases would.
They are also sensible in handling talking pictures from a practical standpoint. With the addition of dialogue and sound to the screen, the motion picture has become more of an art than ever. But it is a very practical art. No theories for it can be developed over a long period which may come true eventually, as in other arts. The motion picture is a thing very much of to-day and it must meet the requirements of to-day.
The producer for the screen is face to face with certain almost unalterable demands in the way of story, characterization and casting — a circumstance which this book clearly recognizes. The very fact that the motion picture public is so vast, with over twenty million persons daily bringing to the film theaters their different desires, hopes, hates, and preferences, gives a faint idea of how very practical the talking picture producer must be to suit the patronage
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