New-York tribune., 1916-06-18
TWO VIEWS OF THE FILMS
oinors bv One on the Inside and by One on the Out

All the companies could get better
scenarios
If ideas were not so frequently
stolen, either wholly or in part
If the companies paid a decent price
for decent work.
If their pay for scenarios in any way
measured up TO their pay for stars, di-
lectors, settings, etc.
If outside contributing authors stood
some chance Of making sales to com
panies who have their own staff writ
ers.
If outside contributing authors were
treated with some degree Of respect.
Supply meets demand. The demand
has been for junk, and junk has most
assuredly been supplied.
am an outsider and may be wrong,
but this is the way the film question
looks to me.
Originally the motion picture was re-
carded as an entertainment for "the
poorer classes" The laboring man,
the semi-educated, the illiterate, we're
expected 10 enjoy this silent drama.
Naturally, anything was good enough
for them. Men went into the business
who knew nothing about it, and found,
despite their ignorarzre and incompe-
teucy, that they had a gold mine. An
industry which offers tremendous prof
it's without demanding previous ex-
perience or any high degree of eff
cheney becomes, Of course, the" in
dustry. There was rush. Men from
every field Of endeavor who had a
few thousand dollars to invest hurried
into this new thing.
These men, like the Klondike hunt
ers, didn't go into it TO improve the
pictures, any more than the gold hunt
crs went up TO improve the Klondike.
They were all after gold-just gold.
and they got it.
Some of the people in the business
had never read play, much less writ
ten one, so they called on the world
TO send them material. The bait offered
was SO 20 S25 for a one-reel story.
People who had never before had a pen
in hand turned out stories. The COM
nanies bought them, made them into
pictures with bad settings and worse
acting.
Gradually. however, it was discov-
cred that Intelligent. people could be
induced to come to the photoplay il
letter plays were offered. Cleverer
producers. more experienced directors,
more artistic photographers came into
the field
IL was found that backgrounds need
cd 20 he realistic and beautiful. They
paid for them.
II was found that efficient workers
were needed such as directors, man
ayers, etc. They paid for them.
1t was found that good acting was
indispensable. Stars were secured. If
reports be true-they paid for theml
But for the people who give the pro-
ducer the "meat" as Mr.. Lasky says
of the photoplsy, what has the pro-
ducer done7
The companies still advertise "We
pay from SO 10 800 a reel"
If a writer took from six months to
q year TO construct fve-reel picture,
as Mr.. Lasky very. rightly would like
TO do, he'd certainly have to go to a
star and beg for food and shelter while
he wrote.
DO the producers suppose that any
person who can write play, novel,
CT a serial, the returns from which
offer a real livelihood, will spend his
six months or more writing a scenario
when the prospects at its completion
are either an illegitimate appropriation
OF his idea or a magnanimous $500
check?
Litt6rateurs may be idealists, but
they arc not idiots
A STUDENT OF THE DRAMA