The Washington times., 1914-11-06
THE BEST
Photopldy Department in
WASHINGTON
Motion Picture Art
To Amplify Plays
And Illustrate
Good NOOelS

A new branch of usefulness for
the motion picture has recently been
suggested that seems to have more
than the usual merit New fields
that the motion picture might enter
are cropp ng up all the time. Most
OF these have to do with the devel-
opmeut of the art IN an industrial
way, however. 1t would seem that
in repro lucing in film OF novels of
strong PLOT and the amplification of
stage plays with a film story, some
tn ng that is distinctly novel is pre-
fented and way being opened for
the giving the photoplay a firmer
foundation as the supplement OF
both the stage and the library.
Few people are ever fully satisfied
with the way popular novels are
dramatiZed for the spoken stage.
The limitations of the stage scenic
ally and in point of representing
the Tassage of time, makes ii alb
solutely essential to curtail the ac-
ton Of a play to a few scenes and
sometimes to even change the plot
of the novel to fit the play. The
only way in which the passage Of
is through the lowering of the cur
tain for a brief period or a change
of the entire scene. As this often
entails a change of makeup for the
priR inal actorS-at least a change of
cloth ng-it means that the enter
tainment is thereby heightened.
No such limitation IS found in the
motion picture. The passage of time
can be represented by a change of
iS in Cfo M
leader on the film which makes the
statement that so many months or
years have passed. In the same way
il IS not essential to have the ac-
ton of the play confined to three or
four scenes. There are seldom less
than 100 scenes in an ordinary 1000
foot reel of film, and in some of the
longer features the number of scenes
runs to more than 500. There Is
practically no limitat on to the num-
ber, as a matter of fact A scene is
shown just long enough to permit
the action necessary to the play TO
take place.
In the stage play the idea is to
confine the action to as few scenes
as possible. To make this possible
I'm the case of dramatiZed books
the whole course of the story must
be changed to fit the theater and
the time limit Few novelists
think of the dramatization of their
stories when they are writing
them, with the result that the man
who adapts them to the stage is
required to almost write a new
story. Archibald Clavering Gun
ter is one of the few authors who
confined the chief episodes of his
stories to such few scenes that
the dramatization came nearer be-
ing like the book than was the
case in many other plays.
With the motion picture II is
possible to take the story from the
very beginning and faithfully eX-
ecute every scene of dramatic IN
terest. 1t is not, of course, pos
sible or practicable to show every
incident in the book. 1t is not
really necessary. But it is possible
to show the essential scenes. The
stage drama atization of owen Wis
ter's The Virginian" and its re-
cent production as screen play
forms one of the examples of this.
1t will be remembered that the
stage play started with the dance
where the Virginian and Nebraskan
perpetrated their practical joke OF
changing the babies. This Is only
a minor feature in the book. The
incidents leading up TO this are
told on the stage in the CONVERSE
ton OF the actors. There are bCt
four scenes in the play and all
the action must be confined 10
these four scenes. The result is
hat d great deal of good action
that owen Wister put into the
novel is absolutely lost in the
stage version.
On the other hand the film YER
sion of this book, which was seen
this week at the Garden-and can
be seen there today for the last
time-follows the book with much
greater fidelity. The story opens
with the application Of the Nir-
ginian for a JOB. 1t shows Ine
school teacher in her Vermont
home trying to make living CIV
ing music lessons. which is very
6istasteful to her. 1t shows the
arrival of the school teacher and
the episode of the drunken stage
driver who drives the stage INTO
a water hole and brings about the
of the Nirginlan ana
the heroine through the cowboys
rescue of the young woman from
her very uncomfortable posluon
in the water filled stage. This
TO detail is carried out
the film. OF course
there is nothing like the number
OF scenes in the film that are TO
be found in the story. But there
are enough to follow the story in
q much closer way than the stage
play does.
Rrcently there was a play pro-
ducod in Washington in which one
OF the characters declared that after
motion picture actors
make love TO tn. actresses on the
screen for year Or two il would
be a great pleasure 70 hear them say
Il once. Much the same sensation
ran BE- secured in witnessing the
stage production pC q book play
after seeing the film and reading the
book. You get the whole idea in the
tho book. see the action in the film
and hear the dialogue on the stage.
That is one of the ways in which
tho film and the stage work to-
IetbcT. Here is the other:
In the production OF a play that
Is written as Il play and IS not
ramatizcd book. il is frequently nee
sssary TO have the characters tell
IF some action that has gone be
Tore in order i work out the plot
action ii is impossible 10 show on
The staEe for the same reasons II is
impossible 10 reproduce all the az
-ion found in a book When this
play is made into At screen drama,