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CHAPTER XLIV 223 coming down the street. When we come back to the library the father is there, Silas is ushered in and the rest follows. 11. No infallible rule can be offered, but the best practice is to break with some other scene if time and fact are not important, to use a fact in preference to time or to use both if necessary. Thus in the scene above we can break with a scene in which Silas is seen on the street, with a leader in which we state that he demands Mary in marriage, with the fact that it is the next day or the announcement that it is the next day and that Silas demands Mary's hand if he refrains from foreclosing. The scene will give the smoothest continuity, but the facts may make for clearness in the plot. 12. Another phase of continuity is continuity of the character. Much of this phase of faulty continuity seen upon the screen is less often due to the faults of the author than to the work in the cutting room, where entire sequences of action may be replaced with a leader to aid the condensation of a play to a specified length. It is no uncommon thing to see a hero stroll out of a drawing room and at once appear in his own rooms, no longer in afternoon but in evening dress. This might awaken admiration in a quick change act, but photoplay is not supposed to be a protean sketch. 13. Watch, well this continuity. It is the height of absurdity to show John and Harry locked in deadly combat at the end of scene fifty and show Harry in a bath robe and slippers in fifty-one, while fifty-two shows John, now in evening clothes, telling May all about it. Something must be done to cover the lapse of time. A leader saying that it is evening and that John tells of his victory will ex- plain the change of clothing and also reveal the result of the struggle. 14. In the early days continuity was frequently carried to excess. If May went to call upon Bess, she was first shown in her own home, then leaving her house, coming along the street, ringing the bell at Bess' door, being admitted and finally she came into the reception room. When she went home again the elaborate proces- sion of scenes was reversed. Today this is no longer practiced, to the material betterment of the picture, but it is necessary to pre- serve the continuity of character to avoid shock. In a previous paragraph it was shown that playing two scenes in one setting with- out a break brought about a trick effect. In the same way there have been shown plays in which the same character was seen at the end of one scene and the opening of the next in so much the same position that it seemed as though one set had been substituted for another in the twinkling of an eye. 15. For the preservation of continuity these suggestions may be offered as a general guide and not as infallible rules. 16. Two scenes in the same setting, without interruption, though occurring at different times or using different characters or the same characters in different costumes, will appear on the screen as one scene. A cut-back or leader should be employed.