New-York tribune., 1921-12-25
Harry Durant
Gives Advice to
Young Writers
1t May Not Be Pleasant.
but II Will Save You a
Lot of Time and Trouble
By Harriette Underhill


ing person. He says, 80 all those who
are trying to write for the screen
don'tl" Mr.. Durant ought to know
what he is talking about, for he is
editor-in-chief over at the Famous Play
ers-Lasky- Paramount Offices, and it is
part of his duty to read 100000
manuscripts yearly. Take it from Mr..
Durant, they are odd! In fact, Z be-
lieve he said that out of $4,000 un-
solicited stories never had he found
one available. Mr.. Durant said,
every play, novel and magazine pro-
duced or printed in English is care
fully reviewed and most of the Euro
pean plays are translated and analyzed
The heads of the different departments
are especially trained to select the
best stories which the world offers.
A Needle in
A Haystack
"Out of all this careful searching and
sitting we CLEAN very small percent
age of available material The reason
for this is not hard to find. 1t means
that there is SO very little written
which is worth while. A great many
will snort in dersion at my statement
but it's true, nevertheless. How often
do we hear that the movies are get
ting to be something terrible! 1t
isn't true. They are better than they
ever were before. The standard is
gradually being raised higher and
higher. If this were not true no one
would go to pictures any more" lot
of people will not agree with Mr.
rurant here, but we believe he is quite
right about that. If you do not agree
with him, just go to see few re-
issues of, say, 1917 models, and then
see Row you feel about it.
Lo the Poor
Motion Picture.
Nov, this talk about poor pictures
and bad stories is all tommyrot. There
Is a greater percentage of good in the
movies than in any other form of crea-
tive work If you don't believe that
just ponder over the fact that not 10
per cent of all the plays produced are
successful nor are 10 per cent Of the
books published, nor 10 per cent Of all
the music written, and surely not 10
per cent of the pictures painted are
worth looking at"
And then Mr.. Durant goes on and
proves that while fully 90 per cent
Of the product of the other creative
arts is still-born rs per cent of
motion picture product is cuccessful.
"All of which is a final answer to our
critics, it seems to me-"
And again Harry Durant said, eff you
are trying to write for the screen, don't
do it," but he didn't add: Certainly,
this means YOU" He said, "The quality
of the material which we must have to-
day is of such high order that it isn't
possible for satisfactory story to be
written unless the author is especially
fitted for the task.
Listen to the
Requirements
ITO be especially fitted means that
the author must be endowed with 6
creative and constructive mind; that
he must know plot and dramatic situa.
tions; that he must continue suspense
as his story progresses, and that hi
must, from first to last, be able tt
visualize his story in the pictures
therefore any mind which cannot turr
out an idea big enough to become ;
1our-act play or novel or serial of 80,
000 words-well, then that mind is no
big enough to turn out the sort of
story which the screen must have to
day. In other words, I want to dis
courage every one from trying to writ
Tor the screen unless he or she has tn
gift OF good writing, an unerring dra
matte sense and an intimate knowledg
of screen technique. In the old day
thinking out one or two reel idea wa
simple, but to-day we are confronte
with the growing demand for six-ree
used to require no more ability to plo
out one-reeler that it did to write
little story for the high school paper
To-day it's different--to-day we wan
productions on the screen to compar
with Main Street in the book trad
and Lightnin' in stage productions
II hope what have said will stop
lot of people from trying to write fo
the screen. It's awfully tough on bot
OF US. Once we ran a contest for stor
ideas. In four months we had 1000
submitted, and there wasn't one whic]
was satisfactory.
Gould anything be tougher for thos
who have the mistaken idea that it,
cinch to write for the movies? An
in the name of humanity oughtn't som
one to stop them? Surely some on
ought to stop them, but can some on
or any one do it? I doubt it,"
AT the HiDnndrOr,o