the names of the author of the story, the writer of the
scenario, or continuity, the director, the cameraman, the "art title"
maker, and the supervising producer. However, most writers and actors
feel that the manufacturers are quite welcome to go as far as they
like in this direction, so long as they continue to give the credit
due to those who write and enact the story.

Undoubtedly, one reason why the manufacturers hesitated about giving
all this information on the film in the days of the single-reel
photoplay was that they had the matter of footage to consider. With an
even thousand feet to a reel, and a reel to a story, no footage could
be spared for preliminary announcements without crowding the
story-part of the film. Today, with one-, two-, three-, and a few
four-reel pictures, and feature productions of from five reels up,
less attention need be paid to the matter of footage consumed by both
preliminary statements and the regular leaders and inserts, as further
pointed out in Chapter XII.

Again, today, one company at least--the Essanay, of Chicago--has
broken away from the old rule of making pictures run to one, two, or
more even reels. They decided to let all their photoplays run on until
the story was logically told (with the aid of the printed inserts) and
then to end it, regardless of the length to which it had run. Then,
instead of announcing in the trade-papers that the picture was in so
many reels, or parts, they simply stated that the screen-time of the
picture was so many minutes, or an hour and so many minutes. From
this, the exhibitor may easily reckon the approximate length of the
picture. The important point in this connection is that it would seem
that the foolish old custom of making a picture run to an arbitrary
length, either by padding it out or by cutting it down, regardless of
all reason and logic, will soon be a thing of the past. The harm done
to certain productions in the past by forcing them to adhere to a
certain number of feet--so many even reels--can hardly be estimated.
Imagine stage plays being written to run so many even hours, instead
of ending logically when the story is fully and consistently worked
out!

At any rate, today, and especially in the case of those concerns which
call for the synopsis only, the free-lance photoplaywright has a much
better opportunity to centre his attention on turning out a good
story, without having constantly to keep in mind the matter of how