The technique of the photoplay ([c1913])

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26 TECHNIQUE OF THE PHOTOPLAY Just as the S T /4 by n paper is the only size to use, so are the ten and eleven envelopes the only proper sizes. The smaller No. 9 will just hold a small script, but they are unhandy. Larger sizes will not travel well. Do not, in any circumstances, use photomailers, as some still do. Printed paper is an expensive luxury, not a necessity, more especially at the first. Instead get a rubber stamp with your name in a 12 point gothic or other plain type and the address in ten point. Do not get smaller sizes, and avoid fancy type faces. Legibility is to be desired rather than ornamentation. A typewriter eraser, some clips and a supply of postage stamps will complete your initial outfit. Do not, at the start, get a cheap spring postal scales. Get your letters weighed at the post office until your business warrants the purchase of a regular post office scale with a beam and sliding weight instead of a spring and pointer. The scale will cost you three dollars, but you'll save that in postage in a couple of years if you send much out. Later on you will need some sort of manuscript record, but at the start you'll know the history of each script by heart. Many systems have been devised, but one that has given satisfaction to this writer for the past twenty years is in use by many prominent fiction and photoplay writers and gives general satisfaction. Get one of the wooden card-file boxes that may be had of al- most any stationer for fifty cents. With the box you get one hun- dred record cards and twenty-five index cards with tabs rising above the edge for one-fifth the length of the card. Procure also a ten-cent dating stamp. Reverse these index cards so that the blank face is presented to the front of the box. On the first of these write "Live." The back card should be lettered "Paid" and the one just before that "Accepted." Letter the others with the names of the companies with which you hope to do business. Give each script a number. If you do not wish to start with number one, start with 51 or 101, but after that number in con- secutive order. Put this number on your script and number one of the white record cards. These cards have a red line at the top and then ten blue lines. Number at the left hand side of the top, above the red line. Then type in the title of the story. On the first blue line type the name of the company most likely to accept that style of story. On the second that of the next most likely company is written and so until you have exhausted the list of likely buyers or have written the ten names. Send the story to the studio first on the list and with the dating stamp mark in the date.