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THE PHOTOPLAY 9 As the submission of manuscripts to the studios increased and it became apparent that the flood had just commenced, someone familiar with current and standard literature was employed to detect the impostor who sought to sell stories written by others, to read the submissions and select the good from the bad and in general to place his literary intelligence at the disposal of the other studio workers. Since their duties were in part editorial, and for want of a better title, they were known as Editors. The editors quickly saw that they could be better served if the writers were instructed in the details of picture making. They could not only plan their plots better, but suggest the layout of the scenes. The plot alone was seldom offered in such shape that the scenes were suggested and in order to plan the scenes intelligently, some knowledge of the methods of picture making and some hint as to exact form were needed. Instruction sheets, generally known as Form Sheets, were sup- plied without charge to all who asked, but this practise has been abandoned and the desire of the manufacturer is now to check in so far as possible the vast number of faulty scripts that pour into the studio in every mail. Most of the correspondence school courses are copied from or at least based on these old form sheets, but the work has been done by men not fitted by their own knowledge to combine the various sheets. These schools, through their methods of advertising, have done the business real harm in that the statements made to the effect that no skill or ability is needed to write plays has encouraged literally thousands of ignorant and incompetent persons to sub- mit their scripts and has given others, for whom there might have been hope, the fatal belief that writing photoplays is a sim- ple matter requiring no special qualification or preparation. This is a very grave error. There was a time when the idea, no matter how crudely presented, was eagerly sought, but that order has changed. The successful writer of the moment is as well equipped technically as the novelist or the dramatist. He writes in strict accordance with the rules of construction and he observes with care the hundred and one details that go to make the perfect script. It is entirely true that the gift of fluent literary expression is not required, and in this photoplay opens a field to many whose ideas are good, but who are unable to write flowing English, but there is demanded instead the knack, inherent or acquired, of thinking and writing in action, of planning effective situations instead of rounded sentences, of devising dramatic moments and periods of suspense instead of writing glowing narrative and brilliant description.