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_1. Asking the Impossible or the Impracticable_
It is a constant source of mingled amusement and dismay to editors to
read some of the impossible or impracticable things that amateur
photoplaywrights wish to have done in the course of the action of
their stories. Three things are responsible for this common fault in
photoplay plotting: the writer's very limited knowledge of the
limitations of the photoplay stage; an intense desire to be original;
and the fact that, having seen in the pictures themselves so many
evidences that the manufacturers do not let the question of expense
stand in the way of attaining spectacular and realistic effects, they
go blindly ahead and introduce scenes to take which would so
enormously run up the cost of producing the picture that the expense
involved would be out of all proportion to the value of the scene as a
part of the story.
Better to illustrate these points, we reproduce a paragraph from an
article by Mr. R.R. Nehls, manager of the American Film Manufacturing
Company:
"Ordinary judgment should tell a writer about what is possible in the
way of stage equipment to carry out a plot. We can provide almost
anything in reason, such as wireless instruments, automobiles, houses
of every description, cattle, etc.
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