]
Shortly before one of the present writers was appointed scenario
editor for the Edison Company, Mr. Bannister Merwin, who for several
years was one of Edison's chief contributing writers, gave up his work
in this country and went to England to live. He is now active in the
British film world and also a director--or "producer," as Mr. Merwin
still calls it--for one of the largest English motion picture
manufacturers. The present writer found that Mr. Merwin's work had
left a considerable impression upon the methods of work of the various
Edison directors, and, indeed, he has always been regarded as one of
the leading authorities on photoplay technique. The three paragraphs
which follow are taken from a letter written by Mr. Merwin to Mr. Epes
Winthrop Sargent, and published in _The Moving Picture World_. Several
important points in connection with the scenario are briefly but
interestingly discussed. In connection with what we have just been
discussing--the close-up--it may be said that, as Mr. Merwin himself
says, all writers make use of the close-up at certain points of
different scenes; but what this author-director says in addition may
be taken as another warning against the _over-use_ of this effective
technical device:
"My present notion of the best construction for long feature stories
follows somewhat the lines of the stage play.
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