Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-06-09
By HARRY o. HoYT

Henu OF the WI
Tn THE foregoing lessons we have Sc
Il lected our story, introduced the charac
ters and in rough way developed the seen.
ario action. This Is all mechanical with the
exception of creating a plot If this were
all that there is to Il scenario every one
would be an expert photoplay writer. For
| tunately for those who make their living
| by writing scenarios, however. there is more
| to 1t than appears on the surface
Continuity is something which is easily
| acquired and practice Will make 1t perfect.
story development as far as laying out
| scenes is concerned also Is comparatively
simple. The difficulty lies in putting a
body, a substance, into scenes and sub
titles
1t has been said that man need but
write heart interest dramas to have his
wares in demand This Is largely true
We know one young lady who has big
market for all she writes She Is able to
weave n story with that intangible some
thing called heart interest securely caught
in its threads
Heart interest What is IL? Pathos is
not heart interest, any more than bathos.
So many writer's seem to think they nave
heart interest story II one OF their
characters weeps like Niobe through all
the five reels. This Is not true. There Is
no formula there is no set rule by which
we can make our readers heart interest
writer's Heart interest Is laughter and
again 1t is tears; 1t is n mixture OF both,
and yet 1t Is neither. 1t is the essence
the soul of the story.
We believe that the secret of writing
heart interest stories comes rather in the
contrast of smiles and tears our emotions
are stirred by the most insignificant touches
in a drama, things which seem almost apart
from the story itself, things put In to cre-
ate atmosphere. A little girl begging for
trNe 10 trt,n rgsrIN ranli iza md
appreciate subconsciously that such people
exist.
If the multi-milionaire steps from his
club to his limousine and strikes the prof
fered hand of the little child aside we have
secured heart interest, and 1t has been due
to the contrast of the rich man who could
give and wouldn't and the poor child.
In a recent Metro picture entitled THE
Bigger Man" the producer showed man
talking to board Of directors. This man |
rontrasted the conditions of the poor and |
the rich The scene dissolves out, showing |
ten little hands reaching up for a loaf of |
bread, another dissolve shows a mother at
tempting to split the loaf among five hun
cry children.
From there the scene dissolved back TO
he man talking and out again and into
l fashionable restaurant with n beautifully
sowned woman feeding sweetmeats to a
'omeranian dog, seated in n chair beside
,nce. That one scene raised the play to
he greatest heights and created a depth
II feeling such as n hundred leaders or
iubtitles could never have accomplished.
Heart interest is not physical any more
han 1t is mental II is almost spiritual II
s the crystallizing of the finer emotions
which lie deep rooted in all of U.S.
When we talk of atmosphere we are
ecessarily referring to one of the adjuncts
t heart interest. In order to develop at
1osphere we are compelled to draw n sharp
istnction between our characters. We | |
ave hero and a villain a good woman I
nd bad woman. In other words we have {
ontrast. Whenever these characters clash I
'e are developing heart interest. S
We must excite the audiences sympathy 1
Dr our heroine and their hatred for our :
tllan We get bathos II we carry 1t too
lr. III a woman Is perfectly willing to
e down and allow man to walk UP and Il
own her frame at each and every oppor.
unity, we soon become disgusted with her Il
Ick of spirit. If the onion magnate with II
is millions of dollars orders some poor II
ian to Jail who blocks his path a certain y
mount of sympathy is developed If we -
'peat this incident number of times in 4
irious forms we don't create any impress
on of greater strength. We are merely L
ling something that is unnecessary, in L
her words overstatng our case. Il
Atmosphere is intangible Personality is
: difficult to depict on the screen as on Z
e stage. Our characters must necessarily Il
overdrawn. At the same time with theN 1
wer day in motion pictures comes de- L
and for real, live, human characters. flesh
i'd blood people, such as we all know and
net every day. ,
1t is necessary to create living atmos-
ere to vivify the surroundings in which
ur characters live and move In a recent
Dry we attempted to visualize the locale
our scenario. and came to the conclusion /