Picture Play Magazine (Oct-Nov 1915)

30 PICTURE-PLAY WEEKLY studying intelligently and going through a routine that is supposed to be study in a half-hearted manner is great, but we have covered that point before. Regarding "technique" we have little to write, but what we will write will count. We think we will simply quote the definition from Webster — viz., "The method of performance in any act." That tells the story ! Technique is merely a handy name used for the means used to get results. Now, let's forget "technique" as a word, and consider its definition in our own terms. "The means used to get results" in a photo-play scenario are numerous. At first the person who essays to write for the screen has no idea of what the general outline of a scenario looks like. By watching the screen, and possibly looking at ' a sample scenario, he gets that. Then he discovers that he must have something to write about. Right at this point is where "ideas" — that we say are so valuable — come in handy. Granted that he is a smart writer, and secured these before he considered technique, he still has many obstacles before him. He may have in mind something which would be wonderfully clever on the screen, but he "don't know how to write it into his script. "Though he does not realize it in most cases, this is one point where he lacks the "means to get results" or "technique." Right at this point he should study the difficulty at hand, and find a remedy for it. That will supply him with a little more ability along the "means needed for results" line than he had before he struck the snag. If he dodges the issue, and finds some other incident which is easier to handle, he has passed up a chance to learn some of the wonderful workings of the mystic "technique." Experience alone will perfect a writer in technique, but even old-timers who have won their spurs are never free from problems like those which confront the amateur when he tries to put his action into scenario form. None of us are ever too old to learn, especially in such a fast-moving industry as motion pictures. While we are on the subject, we also wish to impress upon the minds of our readers the value of using the simplest possible language in your scripts, and employing "technical terms" only when they are absolutely necessary to convey your meaning to the director and editor. Do not be led astray by the belief that you will be considered a professional if your scripts are filled with "technical or studio terms," and that will have more chance of selling therefore. What the manufacturers want, and what they are willing to pay for are new plots and stories developed clearly and logically, and written out in scenario form, so that a director can take a script and turn out a picture without having to make numerous changes. A PANORAM SCENE EXPLAINED. The word "panoram," in relation to a scenario, seems to be bothering many writers. This is a very simple matter, and we wonder why it should prove complex to so many. A panoram or panoramic view in motion pictures means a scene taken along the same lines as a still panoramic view would be. For example, if five persons were sitting at a table and each were to register a separate emotion which you wished to convey clearly to the audience and leave it impressed upon their mind, you could not do it very well by showing them seated at a table which was located quite a ways back into a scene. To show five close-ups in succession would also be confusing, so you would simply call for a "panoram scene" and have the camera move from one to the other at the table without a break in the scene. The same style is used in many outdoor pictures to photograph long stretches of the open. It can also be applied to interiors where two or three rooms compose the set, and where varied action is going on in each at the same time. FRUITS OF EXPERIENCE. J. G. Alexander, an Allentown, Pennsylvania, photo-playwright, sends us some of the conclusions he has drawn from his own experiences, and they are so good we pass them on to our readers. Here they are: "The construction of the photo play has many elements that enter into the drama of the stage, except that there is no dialogue and everything is action. Just as in the spoken drama, dialogue must be compulsory and not story, just because the author wishes to impart something to his audience, so in the photo play, the use of leaders is like the use of story in the drama. Leaders should not be used, except where it is impossible to register clearly the action to an audience. A properly con structed play, with a real plot, will n l very few leaders. Of course, some 1 necessary, but remember that just 1 they break up the continuity of act! in the picture, so will they also h;| a tendency to break up the spectatel continuity of thought. Therefore, I to make leaders word pictures, so tlj the cut-ins will be part of the set I themselves, and will not jar the psycl I logical side of the audience. \Vh< I time leaders are used, make them cc 1 vey a picture to the mind. For el ample: In a recent picture, action w| transpiring in a desert location. T I author wished to jump to night on tl same location, a time leader was neal sary, the one used being "That nigl 1 It jarred. How much better if the f(I lowing leader had been used: 'Nigl. covers the desert.' It conveys a grapl I picture to our minds. We are still (J the desert, as in previous scene, we s 1 night descend over scene, and our min<| are ready and receptive for the ne:f scene. Again, the extra words requi 1 practically no more footage. If leade I are necessary to a clear understandin I use them, for at all times the audiemj must have a clear idea of the pictur but don't slam them in to break up. 1 the plot is strong enough and develope right, the leaders will inject themselvc naturally ; but make them graphic, i keeping with the personality of the chat' acters and play if cut-ins, and wor pictures conveying pictures of lapses o time if time or break leaders. "Continuity, that factor which hold the interest, and the lack of which de stroys same, should be watched closeh Don't lose your characters, and finalh when the audience, being absorbed ii the action of the present, has forgottei them, jump back abruptly to where yoi left them. Give every scene a logica reason in sequence to the scene previous and remember the audience are no writing with you, and the characters annot planted in their brains as in yours they only have the screen to go by Also, don't insult an audience's intelligence, by making a character appear in a dense forest in a hunter's uniform and in the next scene in his club, dressed immaculately and sipping an iced drink, oblivious to the charms of nature except as regards the mint leaves in his glass. Make the action logical, give him a reason for being in each place, and, as he hasn't 'seven-league boots' nor an electric valet in the