powerful our theme may be, no matter how strong our characters may appear, they will both fail if there is not the gripping, compelling dramatic action that will gain interest immediately, and sustain it throughout the, story.
As Professor Baker has rightly told us, we must first win the attention of our audience as promptly as possible, and then we must hold that interest steady, or increase it, until the end. Analyze your theme with this in view. Has it the Punch that will attract attention at the outset, and sustain it through five or seven or more reels? It must have drama, and truly dramatic action, if it can respond to this test.
Robert Louis Stevenson had something to say along this line of thought that is worth considering. While he was discussing drama; it applies particularly to theme, as well. He said:
"It is sometimes supposed that drama consists of incident. It consists of passion, which gives the actor his opportunity; and that passion must progressively increase, or the actor, as the piece proceeds, would be unable to carry the audience from a lower to a higher pitch of interest and emotion. A good serious play must therefore be founded on one of the passionate cruces of life, where duty and inclination come nobly to grapple."
Make your theme one that will deal with one of these "passionate cruces" of life, and you will have drama; you will gladden the heart of the continuity writer, the director and the actor. For you will have given them material upon which genuine screen drama may be based. You may take the serious view, or the lighter vein, in your handling of the problem, but in either case be sure that it is elemental, compelling, sustaining.
Drama has been aptly described as "the expression of a will which knows itself." In your Handbook you have
