The art of sound pictures (1930)

THE BUYER’S PROBLEMS 43 ticular studio, its players, and its program requirements. One of these elements was a South Sea set, another was a prim New England girl, a third was some sort of orchestral music and song numbers, a fourth was an elaborate cabaret set which happened to be available, and so on. There was no logical story connection whatever among any of the elements which had to be combined to make this picture. The experienced Hollywood writer set to work at once. In less than a week he had a story outlined by scenes, as suggested above, which met the producer’s approval. Without a single conference, this story was put into finished continuity form, and a director was called in and ordered to make the picture exactly as outlined in the continuity. The picture was completed at a cost of about $265,000. It quickly grossed over $1,000,000. The writer saw on the screen precisely what he had written, without even a change of title. The moral of all this, so far as story writers are concerned, is that the more the practical requirements are considered by the writer before the story is turned in, the more valuable the story is to the studio, and the more artistic unity will be carried from the story into the finished picture. Here are a few of the problems which a story may have to face in the studio conferences before it is finally accepted for production. First of all, the cost of production must be estimated. This is a very serious item in accepting or rejecting a given story. If a story is seriously considered, it may be sent at once to the production manager, who is required to estimate the cost of sets.