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246 ADAPTATION AND RECONSTRUCTION purchased a faulty assignment or who may have avoided it through failure to make registration within the proper time. 9. This chapter, then, does not take up adaptation as a subject to be pursued as a separate study, but aims to give some hints on adaptation to the author who may be called upon to do this as a part of his more creative work. Adaptation is the making of a novel, short story or play into photoplay form. Reconstruction is the rearrangement into good form of a faulty play. 10. The first step in adaptation is to get thoroughly acquainted with the story, its people and the author's mode of thought. Not only must the author's language be read, but the characters must be realized. You must note how they act in the conditions shown that you may make their thought and action correct in the scenes not shown as action in the book, but which must be done into action for the screen. The adaptor must form a clean-cut and vivid image of each character, its modes of thought, appearance and character. He must know thus intimately each of the characters and not merely those who take the leading parts. In a book the author casually writes that Mary feels under obligation to Jim because he saved her life at the .beach last summer. This is not told in photoplay in a leader. It is shown as a part of the story, and unless you know just how Jim would act in the role of lifesaver you may make him a strutting fool instead of a modest hero or the reverse. 11. The next step is to become thoroughly familiar with the plot. There will be a main plot and probably a lot of side material that is permissible in a story but which will clog the main plot in photo- play. You must isolate these from the main plot and then consider their value in relation to the main theme. If the matter must go in, you must seek to make it a part of the main plot and not complication. Often much of this material may be dropped with decidedly good re- sults. An example of this is offered in the story of "Uncle Tom's Cabin," in which the dramatist generally discards the story of Cassie and Legree for want of space. 12. Dissect the narrative from the plot as you would the flesh from the bone. With the plot bared, select only that which will form a direct and complete story, remembering that the more story you have to tell, the less footage you will be permitted for action. If you so form your plot that you require two reels of explanation for a third reel of action the proportion is too great. ]Much of the plot you. may discover to be in almost casual allusion, but capa,ble of yielding rich action. With the discarding of some of the minor plot you may be able to eliminate minor characters, as well, without detriment to the story. 13. Having decided what you will retain, arrange the material in chronological order. It is seldom, if ever, that the plot will run in exact continuity in a book and seldom in a play. The heroine snuggles against the hero's manly shoulder and sighs: "Ah. Reginald, how the soft, warm air with its tang of the sea reminds one of that