Moving Picture World (Oct-Dec 1914)

924 THE MOVING PICTURE WORLD THE PHOTOPLAYWRIGHT Conducted by EPES WINTHROP SARGENT INQUIRIES. Questions concerning' photoplay writing addressed to this department will be replied to by mail if a fully addressed and stamped envelope accompanies the letter, which should be addressed to this department. Questions should be stated clearly and should be typewritten or written with pen and Ink. Under no circumstances will full manuscripts or synopses be criticized, whether or not a fee is sent therefor. Multiple Leaders. What might be termed the multiple leader has started to become a nuisance. By multiple is meant the two to four-sentence leader used with identifications in place of the single sentence leader. It looks something like this — if you have not seen it : Editor — This leader's too long. Cutting man — I know it. What then? Director — I'll fix it. Editor^How? Director — I'll write seven leaders. When a man gets so blamed lazy that he cannot spend some little time getting all this in a single sentence, it is time for his boss to fire the loafer and hire some one else, but because it is easy and saves some indolent cheater a little thought, we are getting more and more all the time. People do not go to the theater to read long stretches of dialogue. They go to see a story told in pictured motion. If the present fad keeps up they will get tired of being imposed on. It's just plain downright loafing or else a confession of weakness. No matter how much you may see it done, don't get the habit. Work, Some More. We've been expecting it, and it has happened. It came the other day and it says : You say work and nothing but work will bring success. You say you have worked a long time. Yet Elaine Sterne got a prize in two contests and your name was not even mentioned. She's been working less than a year. In the first place we did not try for either contest in spite of invitations to come in. Had we won the prize a lot of people would have said the contest was "fixed." Had we entered and failed there would have been more and other comment. In the second place Miss Sterne, in spite of her unusual success, must do her full stint of work to gain permanent success. It Is the average that counts in the long run and Miss Sterne will have to keep on working just the same as the veriest novice. We are inclined to think that back of her year in photoplay stand long years of preparation. The fact that she won $1,500 in prizes during her first year does not mean that work is not necessary. Don't ease up your conscience with any such fallacious argument. It is only through work that success comes and nothing that is offered in bottles, books or packages is "just as good." Accept no substitutes. Van Powell on Comedy. A. Van Buren Powell is contributing a genuinely funny series of letters to the Photoplay Author. They are supposed to be from a bell boy who' graduated into the office of a film company to a friend who is still hopping bells and trying to write scripts. The last letter sums up the comedy idea : If you kan think up a funny comidy with me for the hero insted of you ship it along. And remember it aint comidy to have a gink tip up on a bananer piel and slam his koko against a krait of egs fttst oekaws you think of it. But if you maik him to do it whial he Is bringin his gurls old man sum sigars to make a hit so he kan marie the chicken and if the egs belong to the old geezur — then its comidy. Rite sum and I wil tel you if you hav got the idear into your knut. In other words, it is not the action alone, but the relation of the action to the story that makes for comedy. Once this fact is thoroughly assimilated, the rest is merely a matter of practice and imagination. Changing. Suppose that you take a cupful of vinegar. Taste it. Now put in some tarragon leaves. Taste it again. Not quite the same, is it? Now a dash of tobasco ! Another change in the taste. Some mustard ! Still more change. Add some salt ! Again a new solution. And yet it is vinegar for the greater part. Take an old theme. Add something new. Add more new stuff. Add other novel factors, it looks different. It's jussas easy ! Look at it. It is the old theme still, but Last week a lady wrote that she was not a subscriber, buying her paper on the news stand, and did not know if her letter would be replied to. We do not know just what the writer intended by "personal interest," but we are interested in any person who is making an honest and sincere effort to master photoplay. It does not matter whether or not that person owns a copy of Technique or is a subscriber to this paper. If you have knots you cannot untie, send them along, but send an addressed return envelope, too. Our "personal interest" grows cold when it comes to addressing envelopes. We were helped over the bumps when we started and we want to pass the help along, and the only thanks we ask is that you do not ask the same question twice and that you ask questions intelligently. Don't be afraid to come in, but do not send synopses or scripts. Our price for criticizing a reel is $25 and it is not worth anything like that sum. Be Explicit. Here is a scene from a recent submission. It is selected from several examples because it is brief and simple. The scene runs : 18 — Sitting room — John enter with Harry. He takes money from table. They both exit. Who takes the money from the table? On form it would seem to be John, for he "enters with Harry." therefore it is supposed that he leads in the next action. Had it read "John and Harry enter" there would be a question of doubt, but the phrase suggests that John leads in the action and it is to be presumed that he continues to lead the action. As a matter of fact, a little further along Harry is directed to give John the money. The writer spoke of Harry last, therefore the "He" refers to Harry and not to John. Of course the later scenes explains the matter, but it does not always happen that there is a later scene to explain. It would be just as easy to write : 18 — Sitting room — John and Harry enter. John takes money from table. Both exit. This is definite ; explicit. It is well, from the very start, to cultivate the habit of explicit statement. In the long run it is easier to write in this fashion Old Themes. It is to be expected that the novice will, unconsciously, hit on old ideas at first. These are the ones that first suggest themselves to alt writers, and until experience is gained, the beginner does not know that they are so very old, but there are some other plots that are based on stories so old that there is no excuse for anyone using them, and it can only be supposed that the person offering them does so, knowing that he is offering old material. Only the other day a man wanted help. As a sample of what he could do he used the story of the mustard plaster that is put on the wrong man. Another is the woman who thinks there are burglars in the house, but it proves to be the cat. Under date of July 11, 1664, Samuel Pepys writes in his diary : About eleven o'clock, knowing what money I have in the house, and hearing a noise, I begun to sweat worse and worse, till I melted almost to water. I rung and could not in half an hour make either of the wenches hear me ; and this made me fear the more lest they might be gag'd. * • * At last Jane rose and then I understand it was only the dog wants a lodging, and so made a noyse. Once before his wife was alarmed by the noise of rats and he records that his wife's maid came to the Navy Office to call him home. It is a far cry from 1664 to now, and yet thirty or forty scripts a year are sent in carrying this same idea. And yet, perhaps, the same idea might be gotten over now if there was an actual alarm at the door if some inebriate should see on the door a sign, "meals at All Hours," placed there by some joker. Learning. One recent visitor came to request that he be given access to some studio that he might study production and thereby learn how to write scripts and he was surprised to be advised that it was not to be done that way. There are others who feel, with him, that if they only could see pictures made they could write, but there must first be the serious study of the rules of technique. Each time we go to Jacksonville the players bring their scripts for comment, and it is seldom that they observe the simplest rules, though they constantly appear in pictures. Studio experience, like sample scripts, is good only when applied intelligently. Some of the best writers never saw a picture produced, so do not grieve over your supposed lack of opportunity. Personal Interest. This morning came a lady who sought to enlist our "personal Interest" in her work, because she had purchased a copy of Technique. A Suggestion. Writing from a small town, a correspondent said : About all I can afford to invest in the writing game — outside my time, is the subscription to The Moving Picture World and one or two shows a week. I suppose that is all I really need, but there is a nightly change of bill and sixty cents a week looks large just now. Perhaps there are others in much the same situation who might profit bv the reply. Here is the essential part. The fact that you have only time to spend might lead you to invest part of that time very profitably. Most houses do more or less advertising. Many cannot afford a press agent and yet the manager cannot do the writing himself. Suppose you offer to do his press work for him in return for your admission and access to the material sent him by the various manufacturers? If you make really good, perhaps later on you can make the position pay something, but meantime you are not only studying the films but the audience and the mass of literature that is sent out by the makers. If you can write simply and interestingly, you can do more than the average exhibitor can, and perhaps he will make you welcome. Certainly he should.