Photoplay plot encyclopedia; an analysis of the use in photoplays of the thirty-six dramatic situations and their subdivisions. Containing a list of all the fundamental dramatic material to be found in human experience, including the synopses of one hundred produced representative photoplays, with a detailed analysis of the situations used in each. Practical suggestions for combining situations, for testing the strength and novelty of plots, and for building plots; and an index referring to each producer, author, star, story and situation mentioned in the text (1922)

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PHOTOPLAY PLOT ENCYCLOPEDIA PREFACE It is the purpose of this work to supply the author, especially the photoplaywright, with a handbook of reference, which will be stimulating in its suggestiveness and at the same time a means whereby the nov- elty and the strength of a plot idea may be judged. By using the classification of fundamental dramatic situations form- ulated by Gozzi, Schiller, Goethe, De Nerval, and best of all by Georges Polti, to whom the present writers acknowledge their indebtedness, we are at once simpli- fying and widening the possible flights of imagination. And in going further, and into a virgin field, with the data accum- ulated by Polti, we hope to make more specific and useful the law he formulated. Let us state the law in question here at the outset, that we may progress to its application and interpretation more read- ily. There are only thirty-six funda- mental dramatic situations, various facets of which form the basis of all human drama. Lest this seem dogmatic, it must be remembered that there is nothing arbi- trary or cabalistic in the number thirty- six. As Polti says, the number might be smaller or greater, but thirty-six seems to be the most nearly accurate. Various writ- ers on the subject have endeavored to dis- cover a new situation to add to Polti's list, but all of their efforts have been feeble and ill-considered in comparison with his scholarly work. It is not the purpose of the present volume to add anything to the data rediscovered and formulated by M. Polti, but rather to carry that knowledge into a new field—that of the Photoplay — and to give the photoplaywright a compre- hensive and accurate knowledge of the na- ture of each situation that has been used in photoplays, how it was used, whether it has been used to exhaustion in certain forms, whether it opens a new and interesting line of thought to the writer, etc. In this way the work will lead you into wide vistas of the imagination, many of them untraveled by the writers of today, and will indicate the pitfalls that are every- where awaiting the unwary author. This work must be regarded as a work of reference. It is a stimulus rather than a formula, and at all times the writer must avoid seeking plot material ready-made for his use. Properly assimilated and under- stood, the work will help you to judge the worth of your own ideas, will suggest ways and methods of development, and will guard you against the danger of imita- tion and repetition. It cannot, nor can any other book, think for you. It is true that all plots are combinations of situations, and that this work will deal with the fundamental situations in a com- prehensive way and will indicate possible and worth-while combinations. But the student must not come to it hoping to find plots ready to use. The real work is left to the creative author, and only in the degree that you possess creative ability and dramatic imagination—the imagination, that is, that leads you to create dramatic characters and to place them in interesting conflicts with one another—can this work serve you. PLAN OF STUDY. 1. In the following chapters, the fac- tors other than Situation involved in writ- ing photoplays are dealt with. This is an important part of the work, and should be carefully read before proceeding further. In these chapters you will be cautioned against the artificial manufacture of plots as mechanical combinations of situations. Theme and Characterization will be dis- cussed, and methods of evolving plots will be touched on. In addition, a comprehen- sive explanation of Situations will be made. It is therefore important that you read with understanding every word in the introductory chapters before proceeding.