to follow—and interest and entertain them from the very first moment. Just the right time, place and set of circumstances must be chosen for such beginning.
26. The elder Dumas said, "Any one can relate a dramatic situation; the art lies in preparing it, getting it accepted, rendering it possible." By getting it accepted, Dumas meant getting it accepted in the minds of the audience. I find it difficult to agree with Dumas that "any one can relate a dramatic situation," for it has been my experience that unless one is definitely trained in dramatic values, it is exceedingly difficult to do so. I venture to say that Palmer Plan students look back to the period before their study of the Handbook and realize that it was at that time by no means an easy matter to relate a dramatic situation.
27. I firmly believe that the careful and analytical study of the point of attack will be of surprising assistance to the photoplaywright in assisting to avoid scattered action, in arriving at a desirable compactness of unity and in logically and consecutively building strong, tense screen plays.
17
