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LEADERS AND INSERTED MATTER 51 laugh is as well worth while as a thirty foot scene with one laugh, provided that the laugh leader is not used more than twice and preferably only once in a half reel comedy. It is good practise for both beginner and the advanced student to spend spare moments in taking ten and twelve word leaders and reducing them to four or five words. But the leader can also be used to "break" scenes as where a day or a week or a year elapses between two scenes, possibly both played in the same setting. Here the leader is a drop cur- tain and "The next day" is as effective a break as the curtain would be. In using time leaders try and get a variety of phrases. Do not say "The next day" three or four times in the same script. Use "The next day," the first time and then "In the morning" or "The following night," or whatever it may be. "The next week," "A few days later." "As time goes on," "With the passing days" and similar expressions will greatly aid in varying the monotony. The time leader can be used to break scenes, but it is better, where possible, to break with another scene if the time is short. Taking scenes eight and ten in the script in chapter six, we might play them as eight and nine by writing in a leader. "A few hours later. John completes his invention," but since we can use the scene with Nell and her father, which is all action, it is much better. In the same way you must break scenes where the action can- not long continue without growing tiresome. The heroine goes to her room to change her dress. We cannot remain and watch her, yet the action cannot continue until the change has been made. She starts to change, we cut to the hero waiting for her, come back to see her ready dressed, and the action goes on. As a leader we might say "Nell changes her dress," but the cut-back is better. It is a matter of judgment when to use a leader and when to cut-back to cover. Letters and telegrams are largely used, the telegram being used where possible because of the brevity due to the cost per word. Common sense must tell the author when to use a letter and when a telegram may be substituted. If the letter is to be used, it is often better to use a paragraph from a letter than the entire letter. No girl, for instance, would write: Dear Jane: The wealthy John Smith will visit your town next week. Lovingly, SADIE. That would be absurd, but no more absurd than some of the letters we actually see on the screen. This would look much better: