PICKING WINNING PICTURE PLOTS

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1052, 16 August 1930, Page 25

PICKING WINNING PICTURE PLOTS

Drama, in its various classificati oils, predominated last yea) s production programme from 11 of the principal U.S.A. studios. This is according to a survey by an American 'paper compiled to determine the number of different types of stories selected for production during this Period.

The analysis shows that of 32S features produced by these studios, 107 TVere adapted from plays; 13G from original stories; 47 from novels, and “8 from magazine stories. Straight drama, with its 12 subdivisions, leads with 161 features; comedy drama, with six classifications, Quotes 60 features, while action and a dventure combined only display 20. Novelty subjects number 15, straight °*nedy (including farce, adventure, action), 19; war stories were 5,

and musical comedy (in four classifications) rated 48. With society dramas and comedy dramas heading the list, totalling 55, there were another 155 subjects with big city locales. Outdoor films totalled 54, while war trailed the list with but five such stories. It is estimated that before 328 stories could be finally selected that more than 5,000 scripts were carefully considered and put through the elmination process. More than 10 times this number were submitted tea the producers, but were never read.

of sources from which the 32S feature pictures * en into this survey originated. Adapted from Original Magazine >'ame of Studio Novels Plays Stories Stories National . . 42 5 20 9 S 12 14 3 Fox 6 7 4* Radio . S S 20 ' 7 . — 5 8 3 L mte <i Artists . . 31 2 7 2 — arncrs 20 10 3 4 1 3G 3 3 30 3 universal 1 3 0 19 3 Columbia 4 1 22 4 Total ... .. 328 47 107 136 33