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Talking Pictures
collected so many rejection slips* that he claims he "could paper the side of a wall" with them.
The central ideas sought by studio story readers are strong, realistic, pictorial, and human. Lack of a focused central dramatic idea is the major fault of most amateur stories. If that idea, or basic story situation, has novelty and force, and if it can be expressed pictorially in an interesting manner, development into a fine photoplay is possible and probable. It matters not whether it was adapted from a play or a novel or conceived initially for studio purposes.
Action is the password of all drama and most especially of moving pictures. If a photoplay does not move, if its forward dramatic progression is halting or broken, it is of little entertainment value. It takes a trained mind to construct human conflicts which in their consecutive passing through a story give the illusion of reality.
Most amateur writers lack this ability, and it is a common fault among them to try to disguise weakness of plot by a recourse to beautiful description. An experienced writer like Sir Walter Scott could balance his materials so that the long but very beautiful description of a forest glade in Ivanhoe enhances his plot development without retarding action. The average amateur, however, resorts to description usually because he has nothing more vital to offer.
One director threw down the last of forty manuscripts he had read in one week. Disgustedly, he said, "I will trade you forty gorgeously beautiful Hawaiian sunsets out of all the collection for one good sock in the jaw!"
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