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4 INTRODUCTION or assurance. They write a few plays, carelessly and without thought. They send these to the studios and they are returned. They waste time and money on a school course or on a revision bureau, then they abandon the work in disgust. 12. Not "everyone" can write acceptable plays. Back in 1909 and 1910 the motion picture business was in its second stage of develop- ment. Photoplays had progressed from the fifty-foot comedies of 1896 to the full-reel lengths of 1903. Most of this stuff was written in the studio, generally by the man who directed the production. Now and then outside ideas were taken and paid for at the rate of from two to ten dollars. In those days ''anyone" could sell to the studios some such idea as this: Write a story about a little boy who goes about with a pin in the toe of his boot, kicking people. He kicks a policeman who is telling an old lady where to go, and they both fall down. Finally the boy is chased into the river. / This required no great effort, but if the suggestion was new to the studio it could be elaborated into a play. By 1908 this source of supply had failed to keep pace with the improvement in the pictures and there began to appear alluring advertisements that read "$10 to $100 paid for plays." 13. At once the studios were flooded with ideas and crude plays. Men of judgment and literary skill were employed to read and reconstruct such ideas as were accepted. To lighten their work they issued free instruction sheets, wrote articles for the magazines appealing to writers and, where it seemed that the author was worth while, they supplemented this with personal correspondence. All ideas were relatively new then and it was not required that the script be in exact form, since the editor expected to reconstruct the story for the director. 14. Today most companies demand not alone a good story but one in proper form. The men who sell the bulk of plays are those who know how to write out their ideas so that any qualified director can, by following their scripts, make an acceptable play. In addition most studios maintain staff writers to write original stories and reconstruct the work of others. The day of the tipster has passed. No longer is it possible to dash off stuff and sell it, nor do Editors spend much time giving free instruction. They are too busy with more important matters, and there are other sources of information now. The widow, the cripple and the girl who suddenly finds herself compelled to go to work (all familiar types to the Editors) must now learn their profession before they can practice it. 15. The developments of the future, it would seem, will still further help the practiced writer. Frank E. Woods, who as "Spec- tator" in the Dramatic Mirror did much to advance script writing in the early days, and who was the first to force upon the makers of film an appreciation of the need for good stories, is now chief assistant to David W. Griffith. In a recent letter he savs: