The photodrama

As one of the pioneers in the most wonderful art-science of the age--the motion picture industry--the writer feels doubly qualified perhaps to throw some light upon a subject eq...

In all expressions of true art we find the portrayal of a message from the soul, mind and emotions of one man to those of his fellows. The message may be graven in stone, wrough...

The very first impulse that comes to the photoplaywright, as a true exponent of literary art, must be stifled--he cannot clothe his message in glowing words that will ravish the...

We find the presentation of the photoplay in manuscript differing widely from that of both fiction and stage drama, in that it represents a mechanical point of view. Whereas the...

Do not seek to write photoplays that are sufficient in themselves and do not need the aid of tricks of the trade, devices or artifices. Such plays must need be crude because, ev...

Technique and rules, idea and action are as chaff on the threshing floor of the photodrama compared to visualization, which is the precious kernel to be sought. Visualization is...

If we will view characters and characterization as elements of interpretive and contributory matter, along with inserts, setting and action, it should aid us in building perfect...

Here the playwright must pause and look his fellow men, his friends, his parents, his children, his wife, and his conscience square in the eye. They are one and all his intimate...

In no literary effort is technique more important or essential than in the construction of the photoplay. There are arbitrary rules that must be followed and conventions that ca...

So many volumes have been written merely _describing_ the photoplay, representing it primarily as a _manufactured article_ and larding the treatises with an appalling number of...

_A photoplay Plot is the unpolished material for a COMPLETE decisive action; it is composed of cumulative and interesting incidents rising to a dramatic climax, and terminating...

To the producer a plot is material capable of being dramatized thru visualized action into a life-like story. To the playwright a plot is suggestive material capable of being de...

Daily life is filled with dull routine and monotonous detail; but drama is contrary to actual life, in that it picks and chooses the events it requires for its purposes, isolati...

The great question in the minds of the audience is, What will be the outcome of it all? Audiences generally take all beginnings of plays for granted. No ambitious playwright, ho...

As we have learned, that which happens in our play happens NOW. All time is present time, therefore all things must happen chronologically correct. Whatever period of time we ca...

We have learned that we must create interest with the very first scene by significant action, and that our characters must win admiration or dislike upon their first appearance,...

_Drama is the presentation of man laboring under the stress of an Emotion that personifies Pathos; a Passion that flames into Struggle; or a Desire that embodies itself in Deeds...

Photodrama is--as we all know--a coherent series of animated photographs projected life-like and life-size on a screen, realistically visualizing a dramatic story. The one word...

In drama we make no attempt to reproduce facts, but to induce reality. Illusion is all things. The dramatist deliberately sets about to make the hour that an audience gives to s...

Sequence in photodrama may almost without exception be called consequence, so continuous and binding are the presence and relationship of cause and effect thruout the photoplay....

The most poignant dramatic effect is that obtained by contrasting a character with his most coveted--tho ungratified--condition. The most powerful situations are those in which...

Unity resolves itself into a rule of reasonable cause; Harmony becomes solely a matter of consistent effect. Unity has to do with selection, and is a part of the plot; Harmony w...

_Above all things Drama is human--it has its hours for laughing and weeping, for strife and death; it is governed by both free will and destiny--it calls its moods Drama and Mel...

Photoplay audiences arrived at a stage of mature understanding and appreciation of the photodrama long before the manufacturers and producers had emerged from the jungle of crud...

Typographical display in preparing manuscript will effect its immediate understandability. A careless and unintelligent display will require extra time and patience on the part...

_Donnelly bullying stenographer over an error. Boy enters; announces Dalton; Donnelly shakes head emphatically can’t see him; boy says it is urgent; Donnelly looks at him a seco...

_Dalton advances and begins confidently. Donnelly stops him. Dalton amazed; walks to map and points out bridge. Donnelly angrily refuses to listen. Dalton turns; delivers eloque...

_Mrs. Dalton sewing a man’s shirt; kisses sleeve tenderly; turns in surprise and pleasure as Dalton enters; looks into his eyes; questions him anxiously; looks at clock. He pats...

_Mrs. Donnelly reading to Florence; pauses occasionally to lavish affection; they register approach of motor. Mother sighs; child brightens. Car swings up; Donnelly alights; sco...

_Dalton leave-taking; marked change in his appearance which he tries to hide from wife. He looks at clock saying it is time he was at office; kisses her and child; exit. Mrs. Da...

_Same boy as in 2 at switchboard; looks up name in book; same employe as in 4. Passes thru; pantomimes throwing person out bodily at boy’s question; boy shakes head emphatically...

_Enter Dalton still reading; pauses; realizes no one is there to welcome him; shrugs shoulders and sits down shaking his head; suddenly espies note in mirror; seizes it with a l...

_Crowd held back by guards, evidently railroad employes. Donnelly car drives on; Mrs. Donnelly orders car stopped and alights, inquiring the trouble; face convulsed in horror; a...

_Mrs. Dalton on stretcher in foreground; she becomes conscious; cries for Arthur. But everyone seems to be working over form on cot a few feet away; a doctor steps aside; Mrs. D...

_Guards pushing back the curious. Dalton, now completely mad, enters hatless and wild-eyed; looks about till he sees people on beds; gives a cry and tries to pass; guard pushes...

_Mrs. Dalton on her knees sobbing before pallet. Doctor is telling Mrs. Donnelly of predicament; she instantly points to car; doctor calls his aid and instantly the cot is lifte...

_Florence standing alongside and looking painfully at what is approaching. Men enter with stretcher. They are halted this moment by appearance of Dalton who lifts cover from Art...

_Arthur in bed; opens his eyes and speaks; nurse motions toward door; Mrs. Dalton enters; Arthur half turns away to mother’s great grief. Dalton enters listlessly; maniacal cunn...

_Dalton conversing with boy to latter’s discomfiture; asks cunningly, pointing toward Donnelly’s private office, if he has children. Boy annoyed nods and indicates height of chi...

_Arthur in reclining chair; crutches beside him. Dalton in corner working on obvious bomb with time clock connection; looks around crazily now and then, gathering the outfit in...

_Dalton’s face slowly emerges from bushes; now hideously maniacal; opens valise and hurriedly arranges mechanism of bomb; clock in plain view; connects wires already strung; hea...

_Boy reading; registers bell; shakes his fist at it; reluctantly shuffles thru door other than that marked “President.” Enter Dalton cautiously; hurries to and thru president’s...

_Enter Dalton, softly locking door; Donnelly alone at desk; does not look up; Dalton throws key thru window as Donnelly looks up; covers him with revolver as he rises angrily; D...

_Dalton sits facing Donnelly whom he has bound and gagged; both men with clothes half torn off. Dalton approaches pointing to photographs; tries to speak; breaks down and weeps...

_Mrs. Donnelly has just entered with Florence with packages which they put on table before Arthur; it is a big iced cake and delicacies; Florence claps her hands and kisses boy;...

_Shocking change in Donnelly; hair almost white; jaw sagging as he slumps in seat. Dalton points malignantly to time with gun; gives way to terrible memory. Donnelly now turns s...

_Donnelly now exhausted and still more terribly changed; hair matted on brow; all arrogance burnt out of him; brutality gone. Dalton now walking about room in a ferment; suddenl...

_Dalton’s face has lost its madness and has become like Donnelly’s; he approaches Donnelly, his gun falling to the floor; he tries to speak; Donnelly nods; like a flash he untie...

(_Be sure to have auto moving toward train._) _Follow swaying, madly-driven car containing Donnelly and Dalton. Obvious explosion of tire; auto stops; both spring out in dismay....

(_Following car._) _Both men working in half exhaustion; suddenly Donnelly collapses and pitches off the side of the car. Dalton tries in vain to push car alone up steep incline...

_Dalton making his way groggily over it in dangerous manner; looks down once while resting and draws away in horror, realizing that dynamite is there; glances at watch; register...

_Dalton has fallen at last between the tracks; structure (artificial) of bridge may be seen several hundred feet behind; train plainly in sight bearing down on him. He has been...

_Dalton, his arm still raised waveringly; streams of blood running down it; he collapses. Mrs. Donnelly and Florence among first passengers to appear. Doctor comes forward and t...

_Dalton sleeping in chair, his arm, in bandage; Florence enters; signals someone; Donnelly enters tenderly carrying Arthur; Dalton opens his eyes; sees Donnelly caressing his bo...