Keep
your eye--your "picture eye"--on your characters as they move about
and carry out the actions which you have planned to have them perform;
but describe those actions, as well as the motives which actuate them,
in just as few words as possible. Do not trifle with the tendency to
be wordy, or even to introduce too many scenes.
The time is rapidly coming when the production of a photoplay will
mean the earnest and intelligent cooeperation of the author, editor,
and director. But there is a very decided difference between including
in the paragraphs of action everything really necessary to the proper
understanding of the motives actuating the different characters and
the indiscriminate introduction of extraneous details that neither
assist in telling the story nor help in making it interesting.
_Over-Condensation._--On the other side of the golden middle-ground
lies the weakness of too great brevity, and this is the very fault
that some otherwise good writers at times permit themselves to
display. Their plots are strong, and their work is so well and
favorably known that their scripts are accepted; but because they have
over-condensed it becomes necessary for the editor or director to add
to the business of a certain character, or possibly to devise
explanatory inserts.
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