Picture Play Magazine (Sep 1921 - Feb 1922)

The State of the Scenario Market What of the market? This in answer to many inquiries from photoplay writers, real and near. When this was written the market was bad indeed. The industrial depression which hit the country, along with exorbitant freight rates, unsettled rate of foreign exchange, et cetera, all had much to do with retrenchment policies put into effect by the various film-producing companies both East and West. The true state of the market could not always be ascertained because, with the influence brought to bear from the advertising departments, some journals were not prone to publish the brutal facts. For several months many of the motion-picture studios on the Pacific Coast, as well as in New York City, were not running full force ; several important studios, in fact, were closed, and others had only one or two companies at work where formerly there had been six or eight. This fact was bound to affect the market. When film units are not working there is no need to buy stories. The new and drastic rulings on censorship have also necessitated the rejection of many stories, thus aiding in the unsettled state of the market. Hence the story market — that is, the market for program stufl: — has suffered in consequence. It may have improved by the time this appears in print. Conditions are sure to better themselves by late autumn or early winter at the very latest. But the demand for originals is becoming more and more pronounced, and the barter and sale will be going briskly forward before the snow flies. For our readers who wish to engage in screen writing we publish a booklet called "Guideposts for Scenario Writers" which covers about every point on which beginners wish to be informed, and which will be sent for ten cents in stamps. For those who have written stories which they wish to submit to producers we publish a Market Booklet giving the addresses of all the leading companies, and telling what kind of stories they want. This booklet will be sent for six cents. Orders for these booklets should be addressed to the Scenario Writers' Department, Picture-Play Magazine, 7.9 Seventh Ave., New York City. Please note that we cannot read or criticize scripts. A Marked Change There has been a marked change in the attitude of the producer toward the short-length comedy story since the beginning of the year. Some of the leading comedy producers are coming into the story-material market in so far as it aft'ects the larger magazines in direct competition with the featurescenario department. A few months ago the comedy division of the Universal Film Manufacturing Company, of which W. Scott Darling, recently of Christie's, is now the head, established a new high price for short-length stories when they purchased for Lee Moran "Whose Wife Is Kate?" a short story by Cleveland Moffett and Harvey Thew, for the sum of fifteen hundred dollars. For the story immediately following upon this they pmrchased "Robinson's Trousseau" from H. C. Witwer, the sporting writer" and humorist, which also recently saw the light of day in a well-known magazine, for an even larger sum. For some years it has been the policy with comedy units to use either stories which have been written by staff authors or those which are submitted as original scripts purely and for which a comparatively nominal price has been paid. The high-water mark for this class of story has been around two hundred and fifty dollars, and ^the story had to have exceptional merit to receive this. Fifty per cent of the magazine stories which are available for motion-picture material make very _ scant feature material. The policy in the past has been to allow the continuity writer to insert one or more sequences to "pad out" the plot. In some cases the theme permitted of elaboration, but more often the inserted material was obvious padding. The day has come now when the short-length comedy producer, realizing that he has a genuinely humorous theme in a short story which he may use as the foundation to build his "gags" or bits of business, will go out into the magazine markets. Many stories which are hopeless as feature material will fall into that class. They can now be pruned of extraneous material for a two-reeler where they had to suffer obvious padding out for even the five-thousandfoot program feature. This is not discouraging to the original writer who as yet has not "made" the magazines. It simply means that comedy producers are realizing more every day that they have to have a genuinely humorous and logical story to start with. Then the director, continuity writer, "gag man," and the comedy star, who is generally a gag man in himself, can build' bits of business into the story that have a reason and are in place and not merely a series of incidents strung together with subtitles. The Only Pull is Hard Work There is one sentence in a letter from Edith V. Schliemann which should be invaluable to other aspirants to scenariowriting honors. It. is, the only pull is hard work. One must stand alone in movieland as elsewhere. One must deliver the goods to succeed. There is no "pull," such as many outsiders seem to believe. There is no excellence anywhere without great labor. Just keep working if you feel you are inspired to write stories. As to choosing between Continued on page 10