ays in addition may
be taken as another warning against the _over-use_ of this effective
technical device:

"My present notion of the best construction for long feature stories
follows somewhat the lines of the stage play. The line of climactic
development should be a series of ascending waves. After each crisis
or climax there should be a slight lull. And the first few hundred
feet, like the first ten minutes of a play, should be devoted to
getting your audience acquainted with your characters and their
relationships. To place a very important action in the first few
hundred feet before the audience knows who the characters are or what
they are to one another tends to create confusion. People will later
say, 'Oh, was _he_ the one who did that?' Of course the characters
must do things in these first few hundred feet, but they should be
things that express their characters interestingly rather than things
that have important significance in the plot development. Perhaps I
put the point a little too strongly, for there are always exceptions,
but you will know what I mean.

"The thing is to look at one's own work from the viewpoint of the
audience, and continually ask one's self such questions as, 'Is it
clear? Can I follow it without confusion of mind? Does it constantly
keep my interest stimulated?'

"Now the question of breaking one's scenes with close-ups and varied
shots from different angles. Of course, we all do this in preparing
our scripts. But lately I have wondered whether it would not be better
to leave the breaking up of the scene to the producer, except in very
obvious cases. You see, I am now speaking as a producer as well as a
writer. The value of the close-up almost always is governed in
practice by floor conditions. I mean by this several things. For one
thing, if the cast is not the ideal cast you have had in mind when
writing the play the character you have set down for a close-up may
not be able to express what it is essential to express in that
particular close-up. The producer must then find some other means of
punctuating the situation. For another thing, no producer is likely to
build a set and handle his people in it in exactly the way you have
conceived. For that matter, no two producers are likely to handle the
set and the characters in the same way. It follows that very often the
producer can secure a natural close-up in the course of the action
where you have called for a special close-up