The Art of the Photoplay

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1913. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER V. Sample Scenarios. INASMUCH as this is indeed a picture age--when illustrations are essential, for making, selling, buying, study, --we hereby offer two scenarios of opposite types, for the reader to see the exact form in which two scripts were presented to the editor and the director. Love Incog, and The Chap From Broadway were produced as written (under different titles), by two different companies. It may be of interest to know that both scripts were accepted without the author's name attached, and in competition with more than one hundred others considered in the same manner. The writer of this book directed both productions, and every scene was carried out exactly as indicated in the business of the manuscript. Very few titles were given, in the photoplay script, because the stories worked themselves out without the need of explanatory printing. It cannot be definitely decided, in advance, as to just what titles are needed, and so they were left to the discretion of the producer, to be placed in afterwards. It must be understood that this form of presentation is not dogmatic; the writer merely presents his own theories, after many years experience with successful scenarios, the actual work of selecting casts, staging the photoplays, handling the advertising of different companies, managing the sale and distribution of films and features. The forms indicated here cover all the essential needs for an acceptable scenario, in as small space as possible. The ambitious and studious playwright can doubtless devise his own improvements on these suggestions, after observing what has already been accomplished with definite system and care. LOVE INCOG. An Original Comedy For Photoplay. Synopsis. Harry Parsons, temporarily embarrassed by some ba...