Again, today, one company at least—­the Essanay, of Chicago—­has broken away from the old rule of making pictures run to one, two, or more even reels.  They decided to let all their photoplays run on until the story was logically told (with the aid of the printed inserts) and then to end it, regardless of the length to which it had run.  Then, instead of announcing in the trade-papers that the picture was in so many reels, or parts, they simply stated that the screen-time of the picture was so many minutes, or an hour and so many minutes.  From this, the exhibitor may easily reckon the approximate length of the picture.  The important point in this connection is that it would seem that the foolish old custom of making a picture run to an arbitrary length, either by padding it out or by cutting it down, regardless of all reason and logic, will soon be a thing of the past.  The harm done to certain productions in the past by forcing them to adhere to a certain number of feet—­so many even reels—­can hardly be estimated.  Imagine stage plays being written to run so many even hours, instead of ending logically when the story is fully and consistently worked out!

At any rate, today, and especially in the case of those concerns which call for the synopsis only, the free-lance photoplaywright has a much better opportunity to centre his attention on turning out a good story, without having constantly to keep in mind the matter of how many reels of film it will take to tell it—­which, of course, is as it should be.  Thus, as has just been shown, the gradual breaking of the restrictions on footage has resulted in proper screen-publicity being given to the cast.

2.  The Time for Showing the Cast

The methods adopted by producing companies in presenting the names of characters and players on the screen are varied.  Indeed, no set rules are followed.  The producer’s whole object in each case seems to be simply to present every cast-announcement of this kind in as striking and artistic a way as possible.  Some companies list the characters at the very outset—­or all the principal characters, at least—­with the names of the players.  Others open with a statement-leader, which gives, so to speak, the “theme” of the story to follow, this leader being at once followed by the name of the leading male or female character, sometimes with and sometimes without an additional descriptive statement.  With the particular method followed by the producer the author is little concerned.  His best plan is simply to make out a complete list of the people in his story, following one of the forms given later in this chapter.  At the present time, nearly every big concern employs a sub-title editor whose duty it is to eliminate, alter, or add to the writer’s own leaders and inserts, and this person also “fixes up” to comply with the firm’s rule any additional wording that may be attached by the author to the names of his characters when the cast is made out.