The photoplay; a psychological study (1916)

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THE DEMANDS OF THE PHOTOPLAY by the medium of words and phrases. How little would we know what those people are talking about if we saw them only acting and had not beforehand the information which the "leader" supplies. The technique differsi with different companies. Some experiment with projecting the spoken words into the picture itself, bringing the phrase in glaring white letters near the head of the person who is speaking, in a way similar to the methods of the newspaper cartoonists. But mostly the series of the pictures is interrupted and the decisive word taken directly from the lips of. the hero, or an explanatory statement which gives meaning to the whole is thrown on the screen. Sometimes this may be a con- cession to the mentally less trained members of the audience, but usually these printed comments are indispensable for understand- ing the plot, and even the most intelligent spectator would feel helpless without these frequent guideposts. But this habit of the picture houses today is certainly not an esthetic argument. They are obliged to yield to the scheme simply because the scenario writers are still untrained and clumsy in us- ing the technique of the new art. 199