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CHAPTER I 3 immediate financial return, it is useless to undertake the study of photoplay writing. 7. The technique of the photoplay is like the technique of speech. A study of and adherence to the rules of grammar and pronunciation will enable any person to speak correctly; the clown as well as the thinker. But it is the thought expressed in this correct speech that alone gives value to the words. 8. The mathematician and the primary pupil may alike add two and three and gain a total of five, but only the former can perform the higher operations and devise new and more simple methods. In the same way the rules of photoplay form tell you how to express yourself properly, but they cannot enable you to think, and it is thought and the expression of thought that is of value. Patrick Henry might have said "I will die before I longer submit to the despotism of the King." His skill in the formation of phrase brought forth the immortal "Give me Liberty, of give me death." The idea is identical, but the expression of the idea differs. In photoplay it is the same. You must not only have the idea, but! you must be able to present this idea in its best and most favorable I light if you would gain the best results. 9. This book, then, does not teach you to write photoplays. It teaches you how they should be written, sets forth the rules and makes such suggestions as can be given from the experience of others. It offers all the help that can be communicated, but it does not profess to make you an author. It will assist you in learning correct form and aid you to avoid the common errors, but it cannot shorten by a single instant of time the length of your study period. 10. The would-be athlete does not hire some substitute to put up the bar-bell or work the weights for him. He knows that this will benefit the substitute but that it will not do him a particle of good. A qualified instructor can show him how to handle the bell and tell him what weight exercises he should employ to gain the most perfect and even development, but the work must be done by the man who would gain the benefit. It is precisely the same way with photoplay writing. You must first develop your imagination to the highest point of efficiency and then train it to work along the proper lines. Each time you exercise your imagina- tion you develop it, just as in working with the weights you develop your muscles through use. 11. Few outside of the editorial offices realize the harm that has been done through the advertisements of schools, sales and revision bureaus. From the infancy of the business the lay press has carried the advertisements of tliese swindles and the public has grown familiar with the statement that "anyone can write photoplays," that "no literary experience is required," and that a play can be made salable through the expenditure of a few dollars. As a result. too many aspirants approach the work with a spirit of contempt