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"Writing the Photoplay"

"
We have already pointed out that in most studios the work of writing
leaders and inserts is now attended to by one specialist--the
"sub-title editor," as he is usually called. Just as much care is put
into the preparation of everything in the nature of an insert as
attends the making of the scenes of the picture.

_1. Why Inserts Are Used_
Before the advent of pictures of five and more reels, with their
consequent greater room for inserted matter in addition to the
necessary scenes, the general opinion was that the perfect photoplay
had no leaders and needed none. Certainly, such a picture would be
ideal if a photoplay were to be a motion picture and nothing more than
that, since it would be so perfectly acted and so self-explanatory
that no inserted explanation of any kind would be necessary.
Practically, however, the only photoplay that can be made without the
aid of at least a few leaders or other inserts--that is, that can be
nothing but pictured action--is one on the order of the Vitagraph
Company's one-reel release of several years ago, "Jealousy," in which
the entire picture was made in a single set. In it Miss Florence
Turner was the only actor, telling the whole story clearly,
coherently, and with strong dramatic force, and making every phase of
the plot clear, the only outside assistance she received being the
momentary appearance of two other hands than her own--a man's and a
woman's--through the curtains covering the doorway.


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