FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128  
129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   >>   >|  
the bust and the close-up. This is a very close view of the boy's hands, but it cannot be called a bust because of the fact that it is an action scene. The close-up compares with the bust in much the same way that any painting with supposedly human, moving figures compares with those pictures which come under the "still life" classification. This illustration of the use of the bust and the close-up is taken from an actual script, prepared by one of the Vitagraph Company's staff writers. It will be noticed that the "description" of the scene following the bust scene is "44--Back to wide-angle of room," instead of "44--Back to 42," which it would have been had this Vitagraph writer followed the same rules of technique as were used by the writer of the script from which the example on page 159 was taken. The Vitagraph writer follows the same rule in writing the description of close-up scenes, also. Either form is correct, and it is optional which you use. There are certain technical terms as well as methods of writing for which there are no hard and fast rules, and this accounts for the fact that some writers will say "leader" when others use the term "sub-title," and so on.[18] [Footnote 18: Compare the Vitagraph-made working scenario in Chapter XX with the one-reel scenario reproduced in Chapter V.] Shortly before one of the present writers was appointed scenario editor for the Edison Company, Mr. Bannister Merwin, who for several years was one of Edison's chief contributing writers, gave up his work in this country and went to England to live. He is now active in the British film world and also a director--or "producer," as Mr. Merwin still calls it--for one of the largest English motion picture manufacturers. The present writer found that Mr. Merwin's work had left a considerable impression upon the methods of work of the various Edison directors, and, indeed, he has always been regarded as one of the leading authorities on photoplay technique. The three paragraphs which follow are taken from a letter written by Mr. Merwin to Mr. Epes Winthrop Sargent, and published in _The Moving Picture World_. Several important points in connection with the scenario are briefly but interestingly discussed. In connection with what we have just been discussing--the close-up--it may be said that, as Mr. Merwin himself says, all writers make use of the close-up at certain points of different scenes; but what this author-director s
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128  
129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
Merwin
 

writers

 

Vitagraph

 
scenario
 
writer
 
Edison
 

methods

 

present

 

description

 

Chapter


writing
 
scenes
 

director

 

technique

 

connection

 

compares

 

script

 

points

 

Company

 

discussing


Bannister
 

active

 

British

 
producer
 

motion

 
picture
 
English
 

largest

 

contributing

 

author


England

 

manufacturers

 
country
 
considerable
 

photoplay

 
paragraphs
 

Several

 

important

 

follow

 

letter


Picture

 

Sargent

 
Moving
 

Winthrop

 
written
 
authorities
 

briefly

 

impression

 
published
 

discussed