THE KINEMATOGRAPH PLAYWRIGHT.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1354, 3 February 1912, Page 10

THE KINEMATOGRAPH PLAYWRIGHT.

AN INTERVIEW WITH A MANAGER. Those stories without words, the dramatic records of tho films, what joy it must bo to compose them. Never to spend days of agony hunting for the best opsning. paragraph, never a sleepless, nigjit alter a hard day's work wandering wltfthcr the remark made by Eleanor in the eleventh chapter was in accord with the view of her character given in the first tea. Just to know what really happened, to say "Aud then, of course, they did so and so," and to leavo it at that, trusting the manager and the actors for all the rest., and yet to know that your story will have a wider circulation, a more inslant welcome tlian is over given to the laborious tale bound within two flat boards. Who would not be a kincraatograph novelist? But what chance is there for the teller of tales if ho ventures into that kinoma world where his readers have long since preceded him j is there a market here for his curtailed wares?

"There is quite a good opening for suitable plots," said the "art director" of one of tho great film firms when this question was taken to him by a London representative of the "Manchester Guardian." "There is always a demand for them, and in this office we-Want stories of lifo in England, Scotland, or Ireland, 'riiey may bo historical stories or tales of tho present dav, realistic or romantic, but' they must havo a British background. There are thousands of stories to be told, typical stories of British life that would be of intense interest to people in other countries who have' no conception of what England is like, and to people m other parts of this country who,know little ot the lives of their neighbours. It is not a succession of scenes that is wanted, but a plot that will give life and interest to a beautiful setting. Historical stories ot England or Scotland are also wanted, but they are difficult to arrange, because in the big romances of history the stage >s crowded with important figures, and when a play is told without words, and very rapidly, tlio audience is' easily confused, finding itself at the end of the story in a state 'of comnlote bowilderment as _t< what it was all alxrnt. Historical stories are best written round some episode witli only two or three chief actors. The kinomatograph is developing two new arts, one for the actore who, have to put the. essentials of a threo hours dialogue into perhaps eighteen minutes of action, and one for the writers who must discover new rules for developing the plot and revealing character without the aid of words. The main thing Hie. story-teller has to I keep in mind is the mtoe?t o?. suspense. It is alwavs difficult to know what will best please' an audience. One may work up a historical play witli. the greatest regard to accuracy of detail and beauty of' sotting, only to find that t.ie people prefer some simple funny story,. or perhaps in three theatres in one neighbourhood the same programme will meet with an entirely different reception. \\c hn(l that people are tiring of the hero who is chased through a series of exacting <idI ventures. Thrv like tho changing scenes, but they feel that they know the end of the storv; cither lie ivill be causht or lie will escape, and it does not matter either I way. Thev still, however, find great charm in the thrilling situation which keeps them in breathless suspense, especially when they are watching some such scene as a mother's eager attempts to save her child, from a burning hpuso or from'drowning. The successful --writer of kinematograph plays should • understand tho working of the machine, aqd one wonders whether'the Shakespeare of tho hlms is to bo found just now serving his ap : prenticeship to the-craft in somo London theatre. The great question for storytellers is whether the profits of supplying these plays are very great, and it is here that disappointment comes. wo pay from £2 to ilO for a good .plot, eaid the kinematograph manager, and I don t mind telling you that I have never been sent a plot that was worth £V). Sometimes, though tho construction is not good, the plot is worth working up, and in that caso w<? pay for the idea. In fact, we have paid for asuggestion that a poem which was well enough known-would provide a . good.' series course, any utorv wo take' must bo 'original, though wo havo on occasions.been offered tho story of some -films shown.;by : another company, a plagarism which we detected at once. Fine scenes ara of no uso to us unless each also tells a story, and unless thero is a strong thread connecting them. .Tho human interest must predominate, and tho story must move. There aro any number of good stories to be worked out from the classics, and we havo just prepared a series of Dickens stories, with tho actual _ setting that Dickens had in his mind." If the inventor of kinematograph plays is more hampered in many ways than tho ordinary playwright, if no has to condense his action, lie has also a much wider scope in the setting of his story. Tho theatre manager lias to arrange his stage very carefully; ho is cramped for room and limited to a few scenes, and half tlio things ho. would like to'show can never be produced on any stage;: but the kine'matograph takes the whole world as its theatre, and everything that happens beneath the sun is food for it, and food too for the- writer of its plays. ■