Screenland (May-Oct 1931)

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30 SCRE ENLAND The script girl holds a responsible job. Here's Alma Thompson laying down the law to the "You and I" company. If an actor loses a button from his coat it may hold up the production — unless Alma checks up. Lewis Stone's O.K.! simply HOLLYWOOD has an important place for the girl with brains. She needn't he pretty — she may be plain as plain. But if she has beauty, all the better ! For one of Hollywood's most interesting, most difficult, and most necessary jobs calls for the head for detail that seems to be a peculiarly feminine attribute. The movies could not get along without the script girl. Remember the old, old days (the pre-script girl era), when a screen actor might leave a room wearing a pair of fur chaparejos — to return in half a minute wearing a pair of leather pants? Remember when an actor would be riding a spotted horse on the first part of a short journey, and be seen at the end of the ride dismounting from a steed that had turned coal black? Of course, every cinema goer knows that pictures practically never are taken in the sequence in which they finally appear. Sometimes it is expedient to start work on the picture by "shooting" the very last scene. And the script girl is right there when the shooting be write down everything. Even if you don't look like Garbo there may be a place for you in the screen studios When the MOVIES DEMAND BRAINS More Than BEAUTY The script girl need not be pretty but she must be smart! By John O'Hara gins noting every minute detail. Camera angles — wardrobe — furniture— spots on clothing. Details — details — details ! Better let Miss Alma Thompson, one of Hollywood's leading script girls, tell about it. "I've been at it for ten years. In other words, for ten years I've been checking up and keeping tabs and minding p's and q's. One of the best examples of what my work consists of was in the filming of 'You and I.' "Robert Milton, the director, had ordered a retake of a scene in an artist's studio. The scene had been shot eleven days before, and Mr. Milton called me, as he always does, and told me to get out my notes. Retakes are the most difficult part of my job, by the way. Retakes are a constant challenge, because it's impossible to remember every detail, and it's manifestly impossible to For example, in an artist's studio scene there would be palettes with dabs of paint on them. If an artist should see 'You and I' he naturally would be interested in all the details, and he would remember the dabs of paint, the {Continued on page 123)