papers announced, the principal object of the pictures was “to disseminate information as to what becomes of the money that is received from the sale of Red Cross stamps at holiday time.”  So we see that the distinction lies in the amount of plot or story-thread which each carries, and that a mere series of connected pictures without a plot running through it obviously cannot be called a photoplay any more than a series of tableaus on the stage could be accurately called a play.

Therefore, learn to think of a photoplay as being a story prepared for pantomimic development before the camera; a story told in action, with inserted descriptive matter where the thought might be obscure without its help; a story told in one or more reels, each reel containing from twenty-five to fifty scenes.

The spectator at a photoplay entertainment must be able promptly and easily to discover who your characters are, what kind of people they are, what they plan to do, how they succeed or fail, and, in fact, must “get” the whole story entirely from what he sees the actors in the picture do, with the slight assistance of a few explanatory leaders, or sub-titles, and, perhaps, such inserts as a letter, a newspaper cutting, a telegram, or some such device, flashed for a moment on the screen.  The more perfect the photoplay, the less the need for all such explanatory material, as is the case in perfect pantomime.  This, of course, is not to insist upon the utter absence of all written and printed material thrown on the screen—­a question which will be discussed in a later chapter.  It is enough now to emphasize this important point:  Dialogue and description are for the fiction writer; the photoplaywright depends upon his ability to think and write in action, for the postures, grouping, gestures, movements and facial expressions of the characters must be shown in action, and not described as in prose fiction.

Action is the most important word in the vocabulary of the photoplaywright.  To be able to see in fancy his thoughts transformed into action is to have gained one goal for which every photoplay writer strives.

CHAPTER II

Who can write photoplays?

In almost everything that has been written up to the present time concerning the technique of photoplay writing, considerable stress has been laid on the statement that, notwithstanding preceding success in their regular field, many authors of popular fiction have either failed altogether in the production of acceptable photoplays or have had almost as many rejections as, if not more than, the average novice in short-story writing.  That there is much truth in this cannot be denied; but that a trained and inventive fiction writer—­particularly a writer of plot- or action-stories—­after having once learned the mechanics of photoplay construction, should fail of success in photoplay writing is, obviously, not at all necessary.  A discussion of this point should help to impress on the student just what sort of preparation will be of the greatest assistance to him in the work he is taking up.