scene. And on the other
hand the producer may find that he needs a special close-up scene at a
point where your conception of the movements of the characters has not
made it appear necessary. Anyhow, the close-up is an interpretation.
If, as I hold, the producer is an interpreter, would it not be better
to leave this matter of close-ups to him, and write your scene
straight, with emphasis on the points that should be brought out most
strongly? I don't say that this surmise is right; I merely am
wondering. In any event, we do not want to see the close-up overdone.
We don't want too much of the Griffith staccato. It leads to what a
certain friend of mine once called Tom Lawson's method of
muck-raking--'The method of universal emphasis.'"

It is interesting to note in the first paragraph of the quotation from
Mr. Merwin's letter that he advocates giving, in most pictures, "the
first few hundred feet" to a proper introduction of the characters and
to laying the foundation, as it were, for the story proper. This is in
marked contrast to the method of a few years ago, when one-reel
pictures were the rule, and when very little footage could be spared
for such introductory scenes. Today, with very much longer pictures,
there is no excuse for any writer's ever feeling himself cramped for
room in which to make clear everything that the spectator ought to
know in connection with his characters and his plot.

Finally, in connection with the _story_, as written by you, and the
_picture_, as put on by the director, we again quote Mr. Sargent:

"If you _need_ a close-up, write it in, numbering it as a separate
scene. If you do not need a close-up, don't write one in, even though
you see innumerable close-ups used. Let the director make these as his
fancy or judgment may dictate. He can see just where and how the use
of the close-up can help the _pictorial_ quality of the picture. You
are apt to concern yourself only with the narrative value of the
close-up, employing it only where it is necessary in order to get the
_story_ over clearly. You cannot possibly imagine the scene exactly as
it will be set up or played, therefore you cannot tell where and how
_pictorial_ close-ups or other effects will be useful. Leave that to
the director and he will handle the numbering according to his special
system. Number _your own_ close-ups, because they are separate scenes
even though they are in reality a part of other scenes."

What this crit