11—­Back to 9—­

     Tom lays reading-glass on desk, looks at his brother
     accusingly, and then thrusts check close to his face.

Leader—­“RALPH, YOU FORGED THIS CHECK!”

Back to scene.

     Ralph looks at Tom despairingly, his face betraying his
     guilt.  Tom hangs head in shame, at thought of his brother’s
     crime.

12—­Hallway, showing door of library—­

     Wilkins, the butler, kneeling before library door, his eye
     glued to key-hole.

13—­Portion of library, same as 4, seen through key-hole—­

     Ralph is explaining to Tom how he came to owe Blakely the
     money, etc.

Now let us take up the different points just as they have been introduced in the foregoing example, and briefly explain each.

The leader is shown, first of all, simply as an example of an ordinary before-the-scene leader.  In writing a scenario such as the one of which this might be a part, if you introduced the cut-in leader in Scene 11, there would be no necessity for giving also the ordinary bald statement-leader before Scene 9.  The fact that “Tom discovers his brother’s crime” is made plainer by Tom’s own spoken words, in Scene 11, than an ordinary leader before the first scene in the library (in this example) could make it.  In the middle of this scene (9) Tom reads his brother’s unsent letter, and you write “On screen, letter,” following this note to the director with the letter itself.  After the letter you write “Back to scene,” showing that the scene in the library is not ended and that the action which is broken by the flashing on the screen of the letter is continued just as soon as Tom lays the letter down—­that is, as soon as it disappears from the screen.

The “bust” comes next, but since we wish to compare the bust with another technical device, the “close-up,” let us pass it by in detail for the moment.  But you must remember, when introducing a bust, that it is a separate scene, and must, therefore, be given a separate and distinct scene-number.  The bust breaks the scene in the library as Tom scrutinizes the check through the reading-glass.  The letter previously shown also broke the scene, or interrupted the action; but the bust, being considered as a separate scene, is given a scene-number—­10.

After the bust (10), Scene 11 takes us back to the library; but we do not follow the scene-number (11) with “Maxwell’s library, same as 4” (4, as the example shows, was the number of the first scene played in the library).  Instead, we write “11—­Back to 9,” which shows that the action in the library is picked up and continued from the point where it ended (on the screen) when the bust picture was flashed.

11.  Masks