The technique of the photoplay ([c1913])

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ADAPTATIONS 125 buy ideas, but all studio staffs possess not only technique but an intimate knowledge of the resources of the studio and the capa- bilities of the players. They know that Miss Blank would be bet- ter in Romeo and Juliet than in As You Like It, because she does not look well in tights and that while Mr. Dash is a heart breaker in evening clothes or well tailored business suits, he would look like an ass playing Romeo or Orlando, so they will adapt Romeo and Juliet, but they will write Romeo for Mr. Twostar, who can wear romantic dress and not look silly. The outside writer would try and fit Dash because he and Miss Blank generally play opposite each other. If you have ideas for sale, offer them. If you lack ideas, do not seek to vend the ideas of another. But it is to be supposed that some of the students of photoplay seek studio positions and that some will realize their ambition. Others will profit through making adaptations for the practice they gain in technique, and for their benefit a few suggestions are offered. First of all, study the book. Read it over several times until you are thoroughly familiar with the incidents and characters. Let the latter become as real to you as flesh and blood persons. Read back of the printed lines for their modes of thought and their emotions. Note each incident not alone by itself but in its relation to the other incidents. You will probably find a thread of main plot and one or more side issues. Mark which each is. Next, mentally or on paper, arrange the incidents in chronologi- cal order. It is seldom that a novel or story is written in exact chronological order, but a play must follow that order exactly. Perhaps the best example of this is to be found in the Vita- graph's three-part Tale of Two Cities. Dr. Manette's story, which is found well along in the book, Js not related as a story, but the incidents of which the story treats are assigned their proper place in the film. We cannot, as in fiction, turn back in the middle of the story to relate matters that happened before the first chapter. If Geral- dine is not the daughter of the wealthy 'Samuel Sinclair, but a foundling left at his door one stormy night, we cannot explain this in scene nineteen, where Aubrey Armstrong, her sweetheart, learns for the first time of her origin. It might be put in with a leader, but it will give a greater dramatic value in visualization if we know all along that the child is a foundling and are sorry for both Aubrey and Geraldine, so first show that dark and stormy night no matter where the author places the incident. A photoplay should be like a calendar with each day in its proper