in action in the scenario, if you send one—­and to give editor, staff writer and director all the help you possibly can without for a moment making it appear that you are trying to teach them their business.  This does not mean that if you know your business you need hesitate to send in a scene-plot diagram as your suggestion for a certain important set, or supply historical or other needed data, or give your own idea of how best a certain effect can be obtained.  All broad-minded and progressive directors are glad to receive such help.  But do not attempt such suggestions until you have thoroughly mastered the technique of photoplay writing and have also seen on the screen many examples of how different effects have been procured in the past.  It is not out of place to say now what is enlarged upon in a chapter to follow:  The screen is, after all, the greatest of all schools for the would-be professional photoplaywright.

Here are some wise words from Mr. Epes Winthrop Sargent, in The Moving Picture World: 

“The successful seller of synopses first makes his story interesting, not through inflated literary style, but through clearness in the exploitation of idea.  He makes his second point through the fullness of the necessary detail.  His third point is made through the omission of unnecessary detail.  His last advantage is that he knows when to give scenes that are out of the ordinary and leaders that will be useful to the continuity writer.  He undertakes to sell no more than an idea, and, selling an idea, he does not confound it with history nor expect the buyer to be a mind reader.  That is the great trick in synopsis writing.  Learn what to put in and what to leave out.  Learn to tell what the continuity writer needs, and learn to omit the things that will suggest themselves to the imagination of any intelligent plot-handler.”

6.  The Form of the Synopsis

An examination of the scripts of some amateur photoplay authors shows that there is a frequent tendency to misunderstand the form in which the synopsis should be written.  This may be due to the writer’s being impressed with the necessity for not making his synopsis too long.  At any rate, the examples we have in mind are written—­the story is told—­exactly as the scenario should be written, only even more briefly and without being subdivided into numbered scenes.  Thus, instead of writing:  “Blake conceals himself behind a boulder and, as Tom is about to pass him, steps out and orders him to throw up his hands.  He compels Tom to surrender his revolver and cartridge belt, hastening Tom’s actions, when he momentarily hesitates, by firing a shot close to his head;” the writer may say:  “Blake sees Tom approaching up path.  Hides behind boulder.  As Tom is about to pass boulder, he is held up by Blake, who makes him strip off gun and cartridge belt.  Tom too slow in actions, so Blake shoots past his head.  Tom drops belt and gun on ground, etc.”  Obviously, the mistake consists in not writing the synopsis in narrative form.