How to Write Moving Picture Plays (1915)

How to Write Moving Picture Plays By WILLIAM LEWIS GORDON Section 1.— INTRODUCTION. Years ago, when motion pictures were first introduced, we often heard the remark, “ It is only a fad, and will soon die.” True enough, the crude, ridiculous films we saw in those early days have passed away. Then came better stories, principally one-reel plays. Today we have the double-reel, threereels, five-reels, serial stories of many reels; we can sit for three hours and witness a spectacular production impossible of production on the legitimate stage, but never unattainable to the energetic film-producer, who takes his company of actors to Asia, Africa, Mexico, or Alaska, to secure the proper locale — who uses the whole earth, the ocean, and the clouds for his stage. Photoplays are more popular today than ever before. They have come to stay. The highest class of legitimate stage productions are restricted for the rich, to the exclusion of the poor. Motion pictures have filled this vacancy, making it the international amusement from one side of the world to the other, extending to the rich, poor, and middle class its irresistible invitation. It is approximated that over three thousand photoplays are produced every year, more stories than contained in all of the standard monthly magazines combined for the same period. Then, to what source must producers look to supply this enormous demand? A staff of two or three salaried writers for each company could never do it; but if such a task were even possible, originality would suffer, and there would exist a volume of sameness to each writer’s work. The answer is, THE PUBLIC MUST COME TO THE RESCUE; and film-producers care not whether the writer is a clergyman, teacher, banker, stenographer, shop-girl, farmer, housewife, or invalid. How many of us, among the millions of people interested in moving pictures, have not felt at some time or another the ambition to write photoplays? How many of us, upon witnessing some crude motion picture play, have not said to ourselves, “ I am quite sure that I could write a better picture story than that?” Then, WHY have you not tried? Others are making a success in the work, and there is certainly room for you. If there is one field of work in this wide country where everyone is cordially welcomed, it is that of photoplay writing. This work is now a recognized art. Film-producers are spending millions of dollars to meet increasing demands of the public, and one of the chief problems today is the scarcity of good plays. The constant and rapid growth of this immense industry should serve as an incentive to the aspiring photoplaywright when once convinced that fortunes are being spent annually towards the betterment of the motion picture, and that a liberal amount awaits him or her who can submit a good play worthy of production. It has opened a new field of work to every bright, imaginative mind with foresight to grasp the opportunity and gain prestige as a photo playwright before the thousands who will eventually seek entrance have awakened to the call. The writing of photoplays is fascinating, while its remuneration depends solely upon the ingenuity, imaginative powers, and perseverance of the individual seeking success. The field is NOT crowded with good writers, nor does the work require a person of literary attainment or college education. A successful magazine or shortstory writer may make a poor photplaywright, finding it difficult to portray a story without the aid of beautiful words and picturesque descriptions, while the man or woman absolutely incompetent as a story-writer may make a highly successful writer of picture plays, where scene action takes the place of perfect rhetoric. A recent estimate shows 20,000 moving picture theaters visited by 5,000,000 people DAILY ; 500,000 people in some manner connected with the industry, and about $200,000,000 invested capital. Consider the above figures, along with the fact that the commercial exhibition of motion pictures was begun only about seventeen years ago, while now producers are turning out hundreds of plays every month, and it will give you an idea of the field open to successful playwrights. These companies are spending thousands of dollars for good plays. The opportunity is therefore open to the man or woman who enters the work with fifty per cent confidence and fifty per cent determination, improving upon each succeeding effort until success is won. Section 2.— HOW ARE MOVING PICTURES PRODUCED? A moving picture is a series or succession of pictures photographed on a reel of film by a moving picture camera. These reels of film are in lengths of several hundred feet; each picture is one inch wide and threefourths of an inch high. The pictures are photographed and afterwards produced on the screen by the moving picture projecting machine at such a rapid speed that it deceives the eye and appears to be ONE picture, full of life, when in reality each play you see consists of thousands of separate pictures taken at the rate of about fifteen per second. A full reel contains about one thousand feet of film, and takes about twenty minutes to be produced on the screen; a double-reel, approximately forty minutes; three reels, one hour, etc. (See Section 26 for full explanation of single-reels, double-reels, splitreels, etc.) We could write several pages pertaining to the manufacture of films, but consider it unnecessary to the writer’s success. If our student desires to study every phase of the moving picture industry, we call attention to the advertisement in back of this manual, “Motion Picture Work,” a large 618-page book covering every feature of the moving picture, its production and its theater.