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CHAPTER XXIV 89 25. The scenario is the schedule of happenings, but it must be dressed up. It has been repeatedly stated that literary style is not re- quired in writing photoplays. This is true. The most fluently written script would be worthless if it did not tell a story, but there is a style in photoplay, though as yet not one person in a thousand realizes it. As the matter stands producers are but dimly realizing that they can get more help from the author than the bare plot. They do not want to realize it, for this makes them less vitally necessary to the studio than they were when the director was the sole arbiter and made a script well or badly as he chose. Style in photoplay is not the literary grace with which your explanations are phrased. It is the complete- ness with which you convey to the director the little touches that give individuality to the expression of your story. Bannister ]Merwin, pres- ent Editor of the London Film Company, but once the star writer for the Edison company, puts the matter rather radically when he writes in a recent letter, covering the sample pages reproduced in the appen- dix, as Examples K. 26. Perhaps you will note that I try to put the emphasis on the psychology of each situation. It seldom seems to me to be necessary to get down to the exact details of the physi- cal "business"—unless such details are essential in making the action clear. In other words, I believe in leaving the actor (wherever possible) free as to his method of express- ing the situation. But it does seem to me to be absolutely essential that the actor and the producer should be shown what viust be expressed. I am of the opinion that plot is the least important part of a photoplay. As I see it, the proper way of writing a photoplay is to get, first, a general theme, and then de- velop your characters. Live with these characters until you know them like old friends. Then let your characters de- velop your theme for you. As an artist in technique, of course, one must see to it that the characters develop the theme in an interestmg and convincing way. Only by this method is it possible^ to escape frorn the "groove" stuff which so many companies are now inflicting on a wearied world. And, for that matter, it is the method i one follows in writing worth-while fiction and stage plays. Given an understanding of the picture technique, why shouldn't a writer dig down into life by the same method that he would employ in writing a stage play or a novel? 27. We are by no means in agreement with Mr. Merwin as to the lesser value of plot. This we believe to be the first and most vital necessity, but there is an equal necessity that the plot should be told as a page from life and not as a puppet show. You can either give the psychology in business as will be shown in Chapter XXXIII or you can give the psychology as INIr. INIerwin does and leave the action to the player and director. Either method will do, but the great point is to give the actor and his director a clear and exact idea of what you are trying to show in action. You write action, but you must either write action that shows the thought behind it or write the thought and let