Writing the Photoplay

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Writing the Photoplay

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Title: Writing the Photoplay
Author: J. Berg Esenwein and Arthur Leeds

Release Date: March 3, 2006 [eBook #17903]
Language: en
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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WRITING THE PHOTOPLAY
by
J. BERG ESENWEIN Editor of "The Writer's Monthly"
and
ARTHUR LEEDS Late Editor of Scripts, Edison Studio
The Writer's Library Edited by J. Berg Esenwein
Revised Edition

The Home Correspondence School Springfield, Mass. Publishers Copyright 1913 Copyright 1919 The Home Correspondence School All Rights Reserved

[Illustration: The Lasky Studio of the Famous Players-Lasky Corporation, Hollywood, California]

Table of Contents
Page
CHAPTER I
--WHAT IS A PHOTOPLAY? 1
CHAPTER II
--WHO CAN WRITE PHOTOPLAYS? 5
CHAPTER III
--PHOTOPLAY TERMS 17
CHAPTER IV
--THE PHOTOPLAY SCRIPT: ITS COMPONENT PARTS 29
CHAPTER V
--A SAMPLE PHOTOPLAY FORM 34
CHAPTER VI
--THE MECHANICAL PREPARATION OF THE SCRIPT 55
CHAPTER VII
--THE TITLE 72
CHAPTER VIII
--THE SYNOPSIS OF THE PLOT 87
CHAPTER IX
--THE CAST OF CHARACTERS 111
CHAPTER X
--THE SCENARIO OR CONTINUITY 131
CHAPTER XI
--THE SCENE-PLOT AND ITS PURPOSE 204
CHAPTER XII
--THE USE AND ABUSE OF LEADERS, LETTERS AND OTHER INSERTS 218
CHAPTER XIII
--THE PHOTOPLAY STAGE AND ITS PHYSICAL LIMITATIONS 245
CHAPTER XIV
--HOW TO GATHER IDEAS FOR PLOTS 255
CHAPTER XV
--WHAT YOU CANNOT WRITE 267
CHAPTER XVI
--WHAT YOU SHOULD NOT WRITE 282
CHAPTER XVII
--WHAT YOU SHOULD WRITE 304
CHAPTER XVIII
--THE TREATMENT OF COMEDY 324
CHAPTER XIX
--GETTING THE NEW TWIST 347
CHAPTER XX
--COMPLETE FIVE-REEL PHOTOPLAY SCRIPT--"EVERYBODY'S GIRL" 363
CHAPTER XXI
--MARKETING THE PHOTOPLAY SCRIPT 408
APPENDIX A 416
APPENDIX B 417
GENERAL INDEX 418

List of Illustrations
The Lasky Studio of the Famous Players-Lasky Corporation, Hollywood, California Frontispiece
Page
Producing a Big Scene in the Selig Yard
Film-Drying Room in a Film Factory 8
Essanay Producing Yard; Two Interior Sets Being Arranged for a Historical Drama
Players Waiting for their Cues in the Glass-Enclosed Selig Studio 58
Paint Frame on Which Scenery is Painted
Checking "Extras" Used in Rex Beach's Photodrama, "The Brand" 108
View of Stage, Lubin Studio, Los Angeles, California
Wardrobe Room in a Photoplay Studio 158
The Reception of King Robert of Sicily by His Brother, the Pope
Same Set, with Players Getting Ready for Action 208
William S. Hart with Part of His Supporting Company
Harry Beaumont Directing Fight Scene in "A Man and His Money" 258
Arrangement of Electric Lights in a Photoplay Studio
An Actor's Dressing Room in the Selig Studio 308
Preparing to Take Three Scenes at Once in a Daylight Studio 358
CHAPTER I
WHAT IS A PHOTOPLAY?
As its title indicates, this book aims to teach the theory and practice of photoplay construction. This we shall attempt by first pointing out its component parts, and then showing how these parts are both constructed and assembled so as to form a strong, well-built, attractive and salable manuscript.
The Photoplay Defined and Differentiated
_A photoplay is a story told largely in pantomime by players, whose words are suggested by their actions, assisted by certain descriptive words thrown on the screen, and the whole produced by a moving-picture machine._
It should be no more necessary to say that not all moving-picture productions are photoplays than that not all prose is fiction, yet the distinction must be emphasized. A photoplay is to the program of a moving-picture theatre just what a short-story is to the contents of a popular magazine--it supplies the story-telling or drama element. A few years ago the managers of certain theatres used so to arrange their programs that for four or five days out of every week the pictures they showed would consist entirely of photoplays. On such days their programs corresponded exactly to the contents-page of an all-fiction magazine--being made up solely to provide entertainment. The all-fiction magazine contains no essays, critical papers, or special articles, for the instruction of the reader, beyond the information and instruction conveyed to him while interestedly perusing the stories. Just so, the all-photoplay program in a picture theatre, at the time of which we speak, was one made up entirely of either "dramatic"[1] or "comedy" subjects. Films classified as "scenic," "educational," "vocational," "industrial," "sporting," and "topical," were not included in such a program.
[Footnote 1: The photoplay has come to have a language of its own, which we must observe even when, as in this case, we lose somewhat in finer word-values. In their lists of releases (photoplays released or made available for public presentation at a specified date), manufacturers usually classify as "comedy" subjects all photoplays which are without any serious dramatic moments or situations. Thus, in the lists of releases published in the various trade journals, what are obviously "comedy-dramas"--some of them, such as certain of the Douglas Fairbanks