Picture-Play Magazine (Oct-Nov 1915)

Hints for Scenario Writers By Clarence J. Caine It is assumed that the majority of those who follow this department have had some experience in preparing scripts for the market, but for the benefit of beginners even the most simple questioning pertaining to photo-play writing will be treated at some time or another in the future. Any scenarioist who is in doubt as to anything which comes under the head of script writing is welcomed to write in and state his trouble. Questions will be promptly answered through this department or personally. Address all correspondence to Scenario Writers' Dept., Picture-Play Weekly, Street & Smith, Publishers, New York City. THE BIG THEME. ^HE present war has probably inspired more beginners, to try their ind at big themes — those whose ideas e the ideas which concern millions of ;ople — than anything else in the hisry of the game. The beginner learns : some important international queson, and at once sees a possibility in it. e weaves a plot about it, and, in his \n way, settles the matter. His way i settling it, however, would probably ; quite different from the way a statesan would handle it, and, if we may iv so, would not be quite as logical ;cause of his distant position from the jliestion proper. Xo film company cares to consider ivthing along these lines from the free .nee at the present time. It is true iat one of the big manufacturing conjerns recently completed a film dealing I ith the advisibility of this country preparing for war during times of peace, ait the idea originated in the mind of Ine of the owners of the concern — a loan big enough to treat such a subject rith authority, and he personally conducted the scenario. ! The amateur must try for a theme riat is big enough to hold attention, or trite ones will not make for sales, •ut he must also realize just how big , theme he is capable of developing, nd make his selection accordingly. If <t gets one just the right size for him. !*e will find it much easier to work out, imd, on his next attempt, he can un£rtake a little larger one. CONSIDER THE PLAYERS. There is a limit to the sharpness of iny player's expression, no matter how huch of an artist he or she may be, nd the author must realize this in writng his scripts. We have seen certain cenes in which a player would have to be a wizard to "get over" the expression the author called for. Not that the expression itself was so difficult, but the action called the player to a position in the scene where he would not easily be noticed. Of course, a good director would remedy this weakness, but there is no reason why the script writer should not attend to it himself at the very beginning. There are other examples of where the author did not consider the limited possibilities of the players, noticeably in close-range scenes. Often in a finished production you will see a close-up scene which does not carry any idea to you, and which, therefore, seems superfluous to the picture. In such a case you may be sure that the writer had some idea to carry, but overestimated the ability of the player and director and made the effect so subtle that they failed to "put it over" successfully. THE INDUSTRIAL FIELD. There is a little-known field which a few experienced writers have cornered all by themselves and which they bid fair to keep, because it seems to be theirs by right of discovery. It is the industrial field. An industrial picture is one that is made for advertising purposes. It requires the services of a photoplaywright in making only if the advertising facts it contains are to be sugarcoated with a little story. In case an author is assigned to write a story of this kind, he must manufacture his idea to fit the product about which he is going to write, and must then make his action as interesting as possible, seeing that it all revolves about the commodity which he is helping advertise. It is without a doubt, the hardest kind of a story to write if it is to be made interesting. William Lord Wright, photoplaywright department writer for the New York Dramatic Mirror, was one of the pioneers in this field, and, with a few more old-timers in the game, does most of the work of this kind on the market. THE MAN WHO ADOPTS FEATURES. Under the title of "The Six Best Sellers on the Screen," an article appeared in a recent issue of Motography, by Harvey Gates, which tore the mask off certain prevailing conditions in the film game. It tells certain facts about the adapting of well-known works of literature which have not been exposed before, and which should prove highly interesting to all writers, both new and old. The article, in full, follows : A free-lance scenario writer whose name is practically unknown to the theatergoing public, recently applied for a position on the scenario staff of a well-known film company. The editor had seen his work and liked it, so he was hired. On his first day as a staff man, the scenario editor called him into the office. "Mr. Blank," he said, "have you ever read So-and-so's work, called " here he mentioned the name of a popular novel of a few years ago. "Yes, I have," answered Mr. Blank. "Well, take this copy and see if you can work up a four-reel feature from it." Mr, Blank took the book, looked at it a moment, and asked : "Have you read it?" "Yes," returned the editor. "Why?" "What do you think of it?" "Well," was the . noncommittal reply, "it's got a pretty good punch. Of course, there are too many lapses of time and the characters jump around a good deal. Personally, I think there are too many characters to begin with. And