Moving Picture World (Jul - Aug 1918)

68 THE MOVING PICTURE WORLD July 6, 1918 i»:»:n::t:iti;tt::::;:;:::::::t::;::;::t»;::;ttt:::::::::i»:i:»i»t»iittc$ Conducted by EPES WINTHROP SARGENT NOTICE. Owing: to Illness, Mr. Sargent will be unable to reply to any Inquiries whether a return envelope accompanies the questions or not. No exceptions to this rule can be made, perhaps, (or several months. Camouflage. BECAUSE the synopsis is merely the story or a story, it does not follow that the story should not be told with care. It is still more important that you stick to the story and refrain from seeking to impress the editor with your literary skill. Too many beginners, and not a few better practised writers, seem to think that if they can interest the editor in the way the story is written they can make I This is a"n error. Most editors can tell the difference between verbiage and plot. If you have your heroine make a pie do not devote several paragraphs to telling how delicious that pie is. That will not show on the screen. You may make the editor's mouth water, but you are trying to sell him a story and not a pie, ><> advertise your story and not the pastry. All that will show on the screen is that the heroine makes a pie. Tell that and then go on to the next fact. l>o not enlarge upon the pie or how adorable Dora looks with her cheeks flu-h.,1 with the heat from the stove and an adorable dab of flour on her part little nose. The color will not show and the star may have a beak like a parrot. Tell about the pie and then what happens to the pie, but out tiie rhapsody. This holds doubly good in the case of a comedy story. Hon t try to make the editor laugh at your iconls. but at the a your words conjure up — and It is seldom that the two go tor. Tell what will be lui.i <i can be as solemn us a hen pecked man at the marriage of bis best friend and still Impress the editor, but try to Wl line that will be food enough to print an 1 you II Und that it should I* .1 of filmed unci that you sent it to the wrong, man. dive the editor a good plot and he will not car. whether you are a III ms or the graduate of a correspond I. All he wante is plot, a clear, understandable plot, and the ll : Willi words the better. This dins not mean that you should cut down to the barest mention of the facts, but that everj npltfy the plot rather than >our cleverness ol i Do not say tl heart and their t at thl rather that Mario bn aks bei u J add that Den is heartbroken. The former phra e may sound smart, but the 1 the facts in their order. You will have all y iu can do to Ret the story down plainly and attractively without trying to druss it up with smart phrasing and meaningless ■ices. You can tell your story plainly and ret \mdly. There Is a die the attra ntation of facts and an effort to be smart. You must be interesting if you would Interest the editor, but interesting him in the story and not In your method of expression. Don't Grouch and Work. Don't try to do Creative WOrt whin vol tee] that the whole world is wrong. You'll probably write sour toricH that no one wants, and you'll not be sufficiently cynical to be clever. You don't have to bubble over with Joy In order to write good stuff, but the better you feel the better your story is apt to be unlts3 long practice has made n doing your stunt no matter what your personal feelings. Don't ever argue that you feel too rotten to do anythliiK else, so you II write a story. That may work after you hi "ii the Job a dozen years, but It never works with the beginner and it is apt to leave an after effect that is not easy to eradicate. Hold to Your Character. ' Don't get the Idea that you ran make too many people Interesting. If you can interest an audience In Just one person, that is all you do. If you are writing for a star, it Is even more important that all the other persons and events be made a background for the star, yet writers will persist in wandering from the traek and writing In a lot of side developments In which the star has no part whatever. This will not do. The audience must be presented a single question, and all of the action must contribute directly toward the answer. Side action is interesting only as it applies to the response to that question. The fact that Jim chokes John is interesting only because If he succeeds in his attempt at murder John cannot marry Jane as you want him to, not so much because you are Interested in John as because Jane Is, and you are interested in all that concerns Jane's happiness. It is this centralization of interest that makes a play. The lack of it spoils all chances of success. Pick out your chief character In advance and write all of your action around that character. Do not try to write three or four lines of distinct but related action and then unite them at the finish. Be clear and explicit. Study the Wants. If you bear that a certain company wants stories of a certain type, study that type of story. Don't shoot in a lot of stuff you think might suit Make certain that It does suit exactly. Not long ago we advised a writer that a certain type of story was wanted. The result was a slapstick comedy that was hardly strong enough for a reel when the demand was for a light comedy-drama in five reels. The author simpjv went ahead without investigation and sent in the product, still ignorant of the company's actual wants. It does not pay, as a rule, to write material to suit one particular company, but most assuredly it does not pay to send in any old idea on the off chance that it might possibly get by. You can at least select from the material at hand the types of stories best suited to the advertised needs. Write Ready Mades. We know of an author who is filled with an ambition to write for a certain star, and he will not be deterred by the fact that this star has a personal author who prepares all of her scripts, generally from published novels. As the star has a marked personality and the author writes to suit this personality, it follows that the stories are not available for the use of others, and so the effort is completely wasted unless persistence is at last rewarded in the shape of a staff job. The star system makes for the special staff writer. Pray for the abolition of the star system and the use of star stories, and in the meanwhile write stories that are stories and not merely vehicles for a certain star. The Chaplin business heads are particularly irritating in this respect. If an author queries the company he is cordially invited to send in, and then he gets his script back with the statement that all Chaplin comedies are specially written. Naturally, in view of this fact, he Imagines that he has been asked to send iu that any suggestions he has to offer may be appropriated. In reality the business end, through a mistaken idea of friendliness, welcomes the BCrlpt, which is then turned over to the script department which gives the reply which should have been sent iii the Brat place. It is not dishonesty, but merely a bungling policy of trying to make friends for the brand which has a decidedly reverse effect. Propaganda Stories. It is useless to try the upon market with propaganda material. Most of this material is written by arrangement Willi those interested in the propaganda; particularly with propaganda not having to do with the ut ion of the war. The outsider cannot know the particular points the propagandists wish to emphasize, ami so their stores are apt to fall short. The general scheme is for the propagandists to interest some company in the making of a story. The producing company either has the story written or nfers to some author whom it thinks can do the work. In either case the continuity writer confers with the society as to the exact points to bo brought out and the plot is change! and revised until these points are clcai l> emphasized. The free lance VNriter Stan nee at all unless ho works with strong influence at his back. This applies with double force to the war propaganda. Here the story must be carefully written and exactly suit. Merely riding your own hobby will not V Get Action. Don't write the synopsis of a story until you have sat down and have seen it aited befori your mental gaze. The ideal way to write a synopsis would be llrst to do the continuity and then make the synopsis from tin continuity, offering the synopsis only for sale. Then you will be certain that your story can be made in action. It has happi than ones that a company has bought an Interesting only to Dud that the Idee oannol bi told in action. This has result.. 1 in a him so stuffed with leaders that the story fails to score, lie author and not the poor Judgment ot the editor is blamed for tin result. Tie t that you are writing synopsis and not con tinuity does not release you from the need of writing material that can l„. v, ;i continuity Without trouble. You still need technique, even though you may not seem to use it. In Summer. lion't get the Idea that Just because it Is hot weather you cannot write. If you it. looking for an excuse to loaf, that Is as good an ,.xcu,, laps, but than is no real excuse for loafing. Write In the bar llllder the trees, If you will, but keep on writing, or you will II nd when the weather cools off again that you must do much of the work over again, Better ten minutes work once a day, even day than a hundred minutes work on. e a week most weeks. ,,,., ,t„. bablt of regularity and you will find that work becomes a pleasure or at least, is robbed of much of its drudgery. In the summer ably will be lowered by the excessive heat, but if It getB so hot that you cannot think you would do well to see a physician Take a couple of weeks off, If you will, but do not lay oB the entire summer. You'll be all out of practice in the fall. Reversed Emotions. If you only knew it, you should be obliged, sometimes, to the man who sends back your script. It might be worse II he made it. TECHNIQUE OF THE PHOTOPLAY By EPES WINTHKOP SARGENT A book replete with practical pointers on the preparation of stories for the screen, answering the hundred and one questions which immediately present themselves when the first script is attempted. A tested handbook for the constant writer of picture plots. "Stralght-from-the-shouldcr" information from an author with a wealth of real "dollars andcents" experience. By Mall. Postpaid, Three Dollars Published and For Sale by THE MOVING PICTURE WORLD, 516 Fifth Are., N. T. Schiller Bid*., Chicajr* Wright 4 Callender Bldg., Los AnplM