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THE TALKING PICTURES 127 CHAPTER XXI THE TALKING PICTURES How they are made—the limitations—timing the picture— range of subjects—their future. This little book is intended for the man who writes photoplays and the talking picture does not properly lie within the scope of this volume, but a few words on the subject will lead to a better understanding of the situation and its relation to the photoplay or silent drama. The talking picture is no more than a sketch or play reproduced by means of motion pictures and the phonograph working in synchrony, that is, the phonograph says "Curse you, Jack Dalton" at the same moment that the pictures show the player enunciat- ing these words. That, at least, is the theory, but in practice it frequently happens that the phonograph is ahead of the picture or vice versa. Thomas A. Edison is not the inventor of the talking picture, nor does he claim to be, but his perfection of the phonograph for use in connection with his form of the device enables the record to be made at the same time that the picture is. In many forms the record is first made close to the horn and then, while the record is run off the players again repeat the speeches while they are photographed. At the time this chapter is written certain mechanical difficul- ties confront the maker of talking subjects. Perhaps the most important is the limited duration of the phonograph record, neces- sitating the breaking of scenes on the stoppage of one record and starting fresh on the next where the scene runs longer than the six minutes that the record runs. Various schemes are being tried, but with this we have nothing to do, our interest lying on the play and not the mechanical side. For a time at least, the scenes of the talking picture must be held indoors, because of the weight of the apparatus and the at- tention it would attract on the street. Talking pictures are written precisely like any other stage play since the talking picture is precisely that, but as a rule the action or stage directions are written in more fully than with the drama