To be sure, this does not mean, as we explained in the chapter on
Plot, that the sequence of your scenes must be the simple,
straight-forward sequence of everyday life, in which one character is
seen to carry out his action without interruption from start to
finish. Quite to the contrary, photoplay action must often interrupt
the course of one character so as to bring another personage,
or set of personages, into the action at the proper time to
furnish the surprising interruptions and complications--and their
unfoldings--required to make a plot. But all this really _is_ the
progressive, logical development of the story in good climacteric
style.
Elsewhere in this volume we have spoken of the way in which the action
progresses in the twelve- to sixteen-scene comic pictures in the comic
supplements to the Sunday newspapers. Take for example the well-known
"Bringing Up Father" series of "comics." Commencing with the basic
situation, the action moves progressively to a logical conclusion, the
climax coming, usually, in the next to the last picture. The last
picture is the surprise-denouement--the event which naturally and
inevitably follows the climax. There is, of course, a wide contrast
between one of these series and a "dramatic" photoplay; but the same
principle that governs the evolution of the story in the comic
supplement should be applied to the working out of your photoplay
story.
Pages:
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157