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CHAPTER LVI 277 even eager to laugh, but do not know just when to start. A slightly more pronounced action may start the laugh, or a leader may connect the idea with the action to eitlier bring the laugh or to strengthen the laugh already started. 20. In Chapter XXXIX there may be no laugh or only a small one when the girl drops ice cream on Jim's coat. The cut-in leader to the effect that he does not mind, because it is a borrowed coat, will connect the thought with the action and not only gain a strong laugh" but pave the way for a still stronger laugh a moment later when the girl repeats the performance. It is only human to dance when another pays the fiddler and Jim's calm acceptance of the damage done Bill's coat will bring the laugh if we know that it is Bill's and not Jim's coat. We do know, but the reminder at this precise instant will precipitate the laugh. 21. These leaders must be written with the utmost care. It is not sufficient merely to say something. What is said must be the sen- tence that will most briefly and most forcefully remind the spectator of the fact. The use of slang, sayings of the street and the like are to be avoided, not only on account of the foreign trade, as already explained, but because the life of a film is apt to exceed in length the newness of a current phrase. No matter how aptly it may apply, do not use it. You will see this rule constantly violated upon the screen, ,but that is no reason why you should also offend. If you need a smart phrase get one of your own. 22. Straight leaders between scenes should be limited to fact and time leaders. Here the anticipated action is even more apt to lose value than in drama. If, in the foregoing example, you had written "Jim tells Grace he doesn't care what she does to Bill's coat," the surprise would be gone. All that would remain would be the ques- tion of just what she did to the coat, not the question of what the scene would bring forth. 23. Scenes in comedy should be brief. Any scene too long con- tinued becomes tiresome; a fact sometimes utilized in drama to gain intensity. In comedy intensity is not required. It is better to get your laugh, go to another scene and come back to the first one if necessary. It is better to cut a long scene into two or more parts and have short, snappy scenes. It not only individualizes the laughs, but it makes for the suggestion of speed. 24. It is this fact which has led to the fiction that all comedies should contain about a hundred scenes. Having heard this state- ment made repeatedly and without qualification of any kirKl, the novice is too apt to suppose that one hundred regular scenes are meant and he gets two or more reels of action, mostly padding. 25. Even studio men doing special writing for one particular di- rector seldom, if ever, turn out one reel with a hundred scenes. They are more apt to write sixty to seventy scenes and permit the director to make the rest of the cut-backs on his joining slip. If you cannot cut-back skillfully use fewer scenes still. The director then can get a