eliberately to try to discourage anyone who is
so foolish and so undeserving as to enter the field of photoplay
writing without the fullest intention of doing his best to win for
himself the very highest position in that field to which his talent
and ability to work can advance him; and we have no apologies to
offer. Few who have not followed the progress of the moving-picture
industry realize the enormous changes that have taken place in the
last four or five years. This is especially true of the branch of the
business having to do with the preparation of the script. To those who
have been in constant touch with the work, it seems only yesterday
that the professional photoplay writer, outside of the producing
plants, was an unknown factor. At last came the time when the
manufacturers started to advertise for ideas on which to build their
plays. "Ten to one-hundred dollars paid for motion picture plays,"
these advertisements read. They were alluring enough even to the man
who already had a steady position in another line of work. They told
him how he could add from "ten to one-hundred dollars" a month to his
regular income. At least, they _seemed_ to promise that, especially
when coupled with the assurance that "no previous literary training"
was required. These advertisements looked attractive, also, to the man
whose income was not regular. Small wonder that within a few months'
time scores, hundreds, rushed blindly into a field where even writers
of established reputation would have failed--and did fail--without
preliminary technical training. Even those who succeeded in getting
their efforts accepted by the producers found that the check was more
likely to be for ten dollars than for any amount in excess of that.

_4. Advance in Requirements_

The real change has come within the past ten or twelve months. A sort
of weeding process has been carried on by the various manufacturers,
and as a result they recognize certain writers as being capable of
supplying them, at more or less regular intervals, with the kind of
scripts they want, quite as certain magazine editors have lists of
story-writers to whom they look for the bulk of their fiction.
Gradually this list of trained and capable, and consequently
successful, writers for the screen is growing larger, for daily some
new writer is demonstrating that the freshness, brightness, and
ingenuity of his ideas warrant the editor's putting him on the list of
those from wh