We of the cinema profession are still the pioneers. The "older heads" among writers and producers of motion pictures today are men and women who have been with the picture profession since it was in its swaddling clothes. And while it is undeniably true that we may draw wisdom from the experiences of stage dramatists from the days of the old Greek tragedies down to the present, it is also true that we are working with an entirely different medium, and one which has a far wider field of possibilities.
Yet the very lack of a tradition by which we may be guided should make us cautious, should engender a determination to give thoughtful consideration to every step we take in the development of a photoplay story. Thousands, and hundreds of thousands of dollars are spent upon the production of a single photoplay. Unless we, as well as the producer, are pretty certain of the logical development, the "picturability" of our work, we can expect little consideration from the men who are literally gambling fortunes in their efforts to produce photoplays that will meet with public favor.
The intelligent, successful, stage dramatist would not think of building a play around a theme, locale and conditions of life with which he was wholly unfamiliar. Either through personal observation, or painstaking research, the playwright schools himself to feel perfectly at home in the atmosphere which he promises to use. Yet, not a day passes but that the scenario editor's desks are cluttered with manuscripts which reveal a total lack of comprehension of the atmosphere, locale, time and thought in the place or period around which the photoplays are written. And then we wonder why our beloved scenarios are returned so promptly, with rejection slips attached!
When we have our cult of experienced photoplaywrights more fully developed, a group of men and women whose lives and thoughts are devoted to a study of the screen, its technique and requirements, we shall have specialists in theme and style, such as the stage has had, and such as it now has.
