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290 MULTIPLE REELS it is well to stop at a point where interest may be held through un- satisfied curiosity just as the "To be continued in our next" always falls at tlie seemingly most irritating point. At first it may be diffi- cult to plan the crises that this may happen, but it can be done with a little practice, just as the fiction writer, knowing the divisions into which his serial will be divided, himself plans the action so that these interruptions will come at the most important and interesting places in the story. 15. As a rule the end of the first part should end with a crisis but slightly less interesting than the climax of a one reel play, and each succeeding part should end on a climax of considerably greater value than the previous ones. This should not be difficult since you can draw from the existing crises for strength, ,but it is not altogether a simple matter to lay out the five reel story properly, and yet, unless you can do so, it is useless and wasteful in time. It is not sufficient merely to write five thousand feet of action. You must write five reels of constantly increasing interest, and each reel must move more quickly than the one before to a crisis of even greater interest than the last. 16. The reason for this is simply explained. The film story pre- sents neither sound nor color. Action and action alone is its sole excuse as well as its chief charm. But action that is not constantly accelerated is apt to grow monotonous, and the longer it continues the more intolerable does the condition become. . This is not ma- terially different from the condition already noted wherein a scene too long continued becomes tiresome. There can be no retrogression, there must be progression, for a condition that does not advance but remains at the same level is retrogression. The story must grow in interest with each succeeding reel if the attention of the spectator is to be held and his approval gained. 17. It is for this reason that a photoplay is seldom offered in more than five or six reels. There are exceptions, but even here the mere fact that a play is in ten or twelve reels does not make it a play that is as interesting in that length, and one of the first of these, a production of "Les Miserables," in thirteen reels was cut from thirteen to nine and then to six with increasing benefit. For that matter a majority of the plays shown in five reels would give greater pleasure if shown in three or four. The chief charm of the photoplay is the rapidity with which facts may be presented through the absence of dialogue or printed description. The stage play running three hours can be condensed to a half-hour, two part story and still pre- sent in action much that is told on the stage in description. An entire novel may ,be presented in three or four parts. If longer time is taken it is merely that the action may be stretched out to cover the additional footage. If there could be established a board of censors to require that films should be released in relatively prooer footage there would be fewer five reel releases and larger audiences in the theatres. If you write five reel stories, write five reels of plot action