, but we cannot wreck passenger
trains, dam up rivers, and burn up mansions merely to produce a single
picture. There is no rule to guide you in these matters save your own
common sense."
Now, the foregoing paragraph was written by Mr. Nehls some six years
ago. We include his opinion in this volume, however, because it is
absolutely necessary to consider expense when planning a story for the
screen. On the other hand, it must be said for the benefit of the new
and talented writer who really has or can evolve big situations for
his stories that never in the history of the motion picture have
manufacturers been so ready to do the big thing in a big way as they
are now. That is to say--and this whole statement should have your
most careful consideration--the only thing that a manufacturer
considers today is the question of whether or not a certain effect,
scenic, mechanical, or whatever it may be, is _worth_ the money which
would have to be spent to obtain it. It would be folly to say that
train wrecks, burning houses, destroyed bridges, and the like, are
"impossible" in a film story, after every patron of the picture houses
has seen on the screen everything from the wrecking by earthquake of a
whole village to the burning of a huge sailing vessel--have seen, in
very fact, almost everything that it is possible to see on the earth,
above the earth, or in the waters under it.
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