How to Write Moving Picture Plays (1915)

HOW TO WRITE MOVING PICTURE PLAYS 13 make a note of their style, and it will aid you materially in determining the kind of plays to write. Keep a note-book handy and jot down any amusing or interesting item that you read, or any incident that you see or hear. You can soon acquire a large stock of ideas for plots, as well as situations with which to build them. When you have an idea, put it down in your notebook at once, before you forget it. Get a scrap-book and paste in it every item of interest pertaining to your work. Let the moving picture theater be your schoolroom, this manual your text-book. If you see a play that impresses you, watch it run from beginning to end two or three times, study its many features, make notes of the strong points, and profit thereby. There has no doubt been many an incident in your life, and in those of your friends, around which as good plays could be formed as from any book or magazine story you ever read. Another suggestion is, that you occasionally secure a copy of some moving picture trade journal, which you can buy at any prominent news-stand for ten cents, and which will prove of great interest to you. They give a synopsis of every new play being released each week, and will keep you in close touch with the kind of plays each company is producing, the progress of this immense industry, and will undoubtedly serve as an incentive, or “stimulant,” to forge ahead AND WIN SUCCESS. A physician advances in his profession by studying medical books, an attorney by close application to his law-books, the photoplaywright by reading all matter pertaining to HIS work and studying the ideas of others. Do not think, when we say “new plots are wanted,” that the field is limited. There have been thousands of stories written about elopements; but this does not signify that YOU cannot devise a new story based on an elopement. There have been thousands of stories about auto accidents, stolen money, unrequited love, extravagant wives, unfaithful husbands, and self-made men, and the years to come will bring thousands of other stories on these very same subjects, the foundation the same, the trend of the tale different — a new story on an old theme. The foundations of ten new houses may be identical, but on these ten foundations we may erect ten houses, no two alike. So it is with the photoplay and its plot. Remember, that a drama must be really dramatic, that a comedy must be really humorous, and do NOT depend upon one or two short situations of dramatic or comedy value to carry the burden of entire play. Every photoplay should have, first, a motive, then an effect. Make it open with interest, to arouse attention, introduce your principal characters, MAKE CLEAR TO AUDIENCE WHAT YOUR MOTIVE IS, keep up the interest with each succeeding scene to hold suspense, and then close with a big scene to satisfy the audience and make everyone say, “That was great from beginning to end.” Strange to say, the city-bred man or woman often prefers to write of country life, while the farmer-boy or girl has the ambition to write a story of the city. Do not attempt this NOW; write of the life you know until your success is assured, and then turn your ideas towards other themes. Above all, encourage an ambition to elevate the photoplay by writing good, clean, inspiring stories; and on American subjects, which are best and far more appreciated by American producers and the American public than foreign stories. I picked up my morning paper one day to see if I could discover, within twenty minutes, a half-dozen ideas that could be worked into photoplay plots. Here is the result 1. I read of a man suing his wife for divorce because she attended a card-party every day. The wife, in testifying, claimed that while she was away hubby entertained the ice-man, milk-man, and butcher, and consumed a case of beer every day. 2. Another item told of the dual life of a man who was a model husband by day, a Raffles by night. 3. An umbrella-mender died, leaving a letter which told of a blighted romance in his earlier days; he had at one time been worth $100,000. 4. A storage company was defendant in a suit; their movingvans had backed up to the wrong door and moved the household effects of a bachelor, who returned from work in the evening and found his rooms bare. 5. A darkey found one thousand dollars in an old clock, started out for the time of his young life, only to discover that it was old Confederate money 6. A young Romeo, disguised as a peddler, drove up to the home of his Juliet in a springwagon; his fiancee leaped into the seat under the eyes of father. The elopement was successful, the father forgave. These six items were not found under the large headlines, but in the five and ten-line obscure items, and all noted in my book within fifteen minutes instead of the twenty I had granted myself. I do not imply that there is anything particularly inspiring about any of these ideas; it may appear contradictory to the advice given above to help elevate the photoplay; but my aim is to show how easy it is to find plots everywhere, if we are observant. Section 12.— PREPARATION OF MANUSCRIPT. This is very important. If possible to do so, have your play neatly copied on a typewriter. Some producers refuse to read a script unless it is typewritten. They ALL prefer the typewritten manuscript, but there are others who will gladly consider it if written in a neat, legible hand, with BLACK ink. Never use a red or colored ink, and NEVER USE A PENCIL. See LIST OF FILM-PRODUCING COMPANIES, included with this book, which gives names of those demanding typewritten scripts and those who will accept plays written in a neat, legible hand. Use white, unruled paper, 8}4 x 11 inches in size; several sheets can be secured for a few pennies at any stationer’s or printer’s. Never use notepaper, fool’s-cap, tablet paper, or any other odd kind ; it will mark you as a novice. In purchasing paper, ask for “twenty-pound bond;” a heavier paper will cost too much in postage, while a thin paper will show the writing through sheet when placed one over the other. Any kind or quality of paper will do for your carbon copy or the copy you retain for yourself. (See advertisement in back pages of this book, covering manuscript paper, and envelopes.)