Reel Life (Sep 1913 - Mar 1914)

©C1,629:J427 Reel fife, AWEERLY MAGAZINE OF KINETIC DRAMA AND LITERATURE PUBLISHED BY , MUTUAL FILM CORPORATION, NEW YORK W@w York, Nove3al)8r 13, if 13 CLARENCE HERBERT NEW, Editor WM. H. PECKHAM, Business Manager MUTUAL FILM CORPORATION, Publishers, 71 West 23rd Street Five Cents the Copy Circulation This Week 25,000 $2.50 by the Year. A recent advertisement in a weekly paper of very large circulation read something like this: One young woman made $19,000 last year by writing scenarios for moving-picture plays. With a little practice, you can make as much. Send $1.00 for our book which explains in detail exactly how to make this very comfortable income. Etc., Etc. The result of this and similar advertisements has been to set thousands of young men and women, all over Ae United States, scribbling, typing and sending out their little argosies, freighted with rosy hopes doomed to bitter disappointment. The person who claims to make a scenario-writer of any inexperienced amateur— or the literary bureau which advertises its ability to teach the art of writing magazine fiction — obtains his or its money under absolutely false pretences. In the first place, the art of writing fiction — literary or dramatic — is something which no university, school or individual has yet succeeded in teaching — or ever will. The art of constructing the English language — of writing it easily and fluently — is something which every grammar-school pupil is supposed to have acquired with more or less proficiency before he even enters high-school. Additional proficiency is acquired not by higher school or university teaching — ^but by constant practice alone. And when the desired proficiency in writing any language has been acquired, the student is almost as far from writing fiction as he was in the primary school. No one may write the sort of compelling story which holds a reader's interest into the small hours of the night — until he knows something of human life — people — types — varying manners and customs, etc. Getting back to the advertisement first mentioned, a certain young woman may have made $19,000 in one year by writing scenarios. Not having definite statistics as to the accomplishment of that talented prodigy, we are unable to deny or confirm the statement. But we'll venture to say that she probably will never duplicate the accomiplishment in a single year, and if we were in the habit of making bets, we'd wager more than one dollar that she is an experienced scenario writer under regular contract to one »of the film manufacturing companies. Probably not over ten per-cent of the scenarios accepted for production by any of the film companies are written by outside unknown free-lances — and even that ten per-cent are usually rewritten and staged by the regular staff writers or Directors atached to each Motion Picture Studio. There will be, in the future, probably a somewhat better opening for outside writers — because the larger Corporations are now establishing regular Editorial Staffs for the examination of manuscripts, just as the magazines do. But the amateur scenario-writer is subjected to far greater restrictions than the short story author who contributes to the magazines. The scenario-writer must first have all the ability of a playwright for the legitimate stage. Added to that, he must have the unusual ability of producing his story — keeping the interest clear and unflagging — without the assistance of written or spoken words. The entire action must be unfailingly indicated in pantomime. To do this in a practical way, requires more than a casual knowledge of just how the pictures are taken at the studios — the way the scenes are set — the possibilities of scientifically-faked photography — the sort of scenery available for the particular studio to which the play is sent. A scenario, for instance, which requires the use of a square-rigged sailing ship or the foundering of a steamer, would be useless to a Director whose "props" did not include such a ship or constant access to it. A studio whose specialty has always been roughhouse comedy is very rarely in shape to handle costume-plays of a specified historic period. For these reasons, the scenario-writer who is determined to succeed at this particular game — whom even such remarks as these do not discourage — would do well to make the personal acquaintance of some producing Director — secure permission to watch a few plays being staged — and get some idea of the technicalities involved before attempting to write his first scenario. Otherwise, he is probably wasting his time and making no progress toward the desired cheque. As for reputation, the scenario-writer gets very little — beyond being known in the moving-picture business to some extent. Hundreds of the young men and women who have been misled by the scenario chimera have a real ability which might easily bring them comfortable incomes and a wide-spread reputation in the regular news-stand magazines. The game is not an easy road to wealth — few games are. But it's a great deal easier and more satisfactory to play than scenario-writing. In starting out upon his career of crime in the magazines, the writer's only necessary equipment is an unlimited supply of poStage-stamps and patience. Success is bound to come if he lives long enough — and keeps at it. But the scenario-wniter — 'northing \like as well-paid — ^must have an amount of technical knowledge which can only be gained by experience.