The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1923-08-18
reliance TOBE
SUCCESSFUL FILM
WRITER IS SMALL
Dean Declares One in 1900
Who Write Movies Can
Be a Winner,
BY JAMES W DEAN

NEW YORK, Aug. 1S.-OuIy one IN
II 900 who write original stories for
the screen have any chance Of theiT
stories being produced Those figures
were given to me the other day by
Dr. Daniel Carson Goodman well
known author-producer-
IN the first place, scenario writing
cannot be taught" Dr. Goodman said
1T must be learned learned through
the eyes Only one who has worked
IN cutting ROOM assembling film, or
as a director or as an actor in the
studio is qualified to write scenarios.
The finished picture must be VisuaIZed
as it is written So must the me-
chanics OF making the picture
faThe hope that is held out to anna
teur scenario writer's is only a will-o-
the Wisp.''
1 believe DIR. Goodman knows what
ne is talking about He had some
statistics at hand to show that the
chance of an original scenario writer
having his or her story screened is
one in Il 900. It is my belief that the
ratio is much larger, probably one In
a million.
All PRODUCING companies
Have Their Scenario Readers
All of the big producing companies
have scenario readers. These readers
for the most part are occupied in
turning successful plays and stories
by recognized authors into scenarios.
The thousands and thousands of
scenarios received from amateurs are
rubber-stamped and returned without
much consideration.
Some show of attention must be
paid to these amateur scenarists to
keep their good will. for there are
many thousands of them and they
are all faithful attendants at movie
theaters. 1t would hardly do to tell
them that they have no chance to
help in lettering the screen.
On the other hand, as DR. Good
man points out, THE motion picture
business is an art Of many mechanical
things that are its fundamental struc-
ture. Then how can one be taught to
write for the screen unless he serves
an apprenticeship and acquires a mas
terry of these mechanical things?"
Granting DIR. Goodman his argu-
ment. there still remains another OBJ
stacle. That is. the means of be-
coming an apprentice.
Few of the motion picture pro-
ducers Of today have any conception
of art in any form. They have not
studied the means of developing the
motion picture along the lines of it's
natural growth as an art They sit
in their swivel chairs and wait for an
author or playwright to gain recogni-
ton in another art. Then they buy
the stories and plays Of those recog-
nized names because of their CONNER.
cial value.
To put it otherwise, the names of
Ibanez. Lewis, Belasco, Hughes.
Chambers, Balzac. Dickens. Hough.
Rinehart and others stand for some
thing in the world Of the stage and
letters. The movie producers borrow
the prestige of those names and
the titles of their works and do moth
ing to develop geniuses native to their
own art. Thus the motion picture re-
mains an infant. a copy-cat and
.bootlicker of the other arts.
Glenn Hunter to Be
Starred in Big Movie
Glenn Hunter is to be starred in
the film version of West of the Water
Tower" one of the current best sell
lers. 1t ought to make a good pic
ture. Hunter seems to this writer to
be peculiarly adapted to the role Of
Guy Plummer, hero of the story
Yet, here is a case in point OF the
above discussion. The fact that West
of the Water Tower" is immensely
popular as a book probably had more
to do with its reaching the screen than
the fact that a suitable role was found
for Hunter.