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How to write photoplays

Chapter 20: LESSON XX. General Instructions.
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About This Book

A practical, step-by-step manual for crafting silent-film scenarios, covering technical studio terms, idea development, plot formation, and scenario formatting. It explains scene construction, continuity, close-ups, leaders and subtitles, inserts, and stage settings; advises on cast lists, synopses, manuscript preparation, censorship and copyright, selling plays, and production considerations. Lessons address pacing, reel length, emotional effect, crisis and climax, and camera-friendly storytelling, and offer guidance on presentation, common pitfalls, and business practices for submitting work to producers and editors.

LESSON XX.
General Instructions.

After you have written your play you should read it over very carefully, cut out all unnecessary words, and eliminate any scenes, or parts of scenes, that are not actually essential.

Take your time in writing your play. Go over it several times before sending it to the Producer. Every time you read the play you will no doubt find some place where you can improve it.

Read it over, revise it and change it until you think it is in the best possible form in which you can put it.

If there is any part of your play that does not seem clear, you should change that part until there is no doubt in your mind that it cannot be improved upon.

You should study the moving picture proposition in all of its phases. Considerable knowledge can be acquired from close observation and discernment. Familiarize yourself with the chief points and essentials of the moving picture play, as you see it in your favorite theatre. Criticize the different plays you see, and, if you observe one you do not like, try to ascertain why and what is at fault. Study the sequence of scenes, the exits of the different characters from one scene and their reappearance in another.