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10 TECHNIQUE OF THE PHOTOPLAY The first requisite in writing photoplay is imagination. With- out this trait none may hope to succeed. The trained fiction writer can take an old plot and with graceful style and vivid word painting cause it to appear to be completely new, but in photoplay the plot is the foundation of success. Style cannot disguise the age of the idea, there must be some freshness to the plot; some original twist or completely new development that renders the work acceptable. In this respect the photoplay writer is at a disadvantage beside the creator of fiction or even the producer of dramatic plays. Imagination, prolific arid creative, is the first demand, but this must be supplemented by an ability to weigh the values of a situ- ation. The author of photoplays must be able to gauge his story so nicely that the interest of the spectator is held in growing tensity until the climax breaks. What the fiction writer must do in words, the photoplay writer must do with business and situation. In the years of development between 1909 and 1913, upward of ten thousand persons have sought to win success as photoplay writers. This is a conservative estimate. Some Editors place the figures at nearer 50,000. Some write one or two plays and give up in disgust when these do not sell. Others are more per- sistent, but of all who have made the venture there are not more than fifty persons outside the studios, who look to photoplay writing for their support or who are competent to gain a decent income from the writing of plays alone. The payment for photoplays is increasing steadily, but with it comes a demand for a grade of work commensurate with the higher payment. In magazine work the man who gets five cents a word is expected to write a vastly better story than the man who is paid but half a cent. It is the same in photoplay. The writing of photoplays, then, is no short cut on the road to success, nor is it a pastime lightly to be taken up when the spirit moves. It is not possible to read any book or course and at once write scripts that will sell. Success is to be gained, save in exceptional instances, only through close study, hard work and long practise. It is not possible to sell many if any scripts the first year, but photoplay writing is a pleasant avocation, if not a profit- able vocation, and careful study and hard work may lead to studio connections and good remuneration. The amateur of yesterday is the expert of today and without exception they are the ones who were willing to study and work hard.