Sample Scenario For Film Writers

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 792, 12 October 1929, Page 27

Sample Scenario For Film Writers

Pitfalls Are Many In Talkies’ Script

SCENE FROM NEW FILM ■ T is not the policy of major film companies to read unsolicited scenarios, and in nearly all cases printed cards stating the scenario is returned unread or because “only successful plays and novels are accepted’’ are sent amateur scenarists. The technique for talking pictures 'in comparison with the old silent productions and the stage is different. Below is set forth an opening scene in the United Artists picture, “Three Live Ghosts,” as it appeared on the talkie script. Scene I. Interior of Mrs. Gubbins's livingroom. As the scene fades an old clock is heard starting to strike the hour of eleven. Fade in on a closeup of a flat old board surface. Dim lighting. From near the top of the screen, at either side, long claw-like shadows of two pairs of hands creep into the scene. When these shadows are well into the picture, the hands themselves enter and move slowly downward toward the centre of the screen and are seen to be women’s hands, one pair

wrinkled and old, the other those of a young woman. As the fingertips are about to meet Dissolve to a long shot of the room. There is almost total darkness, the only course of light being a pencil of sunshine filtering through a crack in the window shade. In the foreground two vague figures are faintly discernible, sitting crouched over a table. Against the background wall their huge exaggerated shadows are darkly outlined by the beam of light. Into this eerie atmosphere two phosphorescent orbs creep stealthily along the floor toward the camera and stop in the foreground. By now the eyes have grown a little accustomed to the faint light. Objects in the room begin to be perceived dimly, although the shadows on the wall are still the predominant feature of the scene. The foreground figures now take the form of two women whose hands were seen in a previous scene. The lips of one shadowy figure move. The old woman speaks'. So it must go, in full detail, leaving nothing unexplained or not described.