e put on,"
said one prominent producer, "with a stop-watch in one hand and a
yard-stick in the other." It is the number of feet of film used, and
not the number of words contained in the scenario, with which the
director is concerned. There can be absolutely no set rule--in from
ten to fifteen words you may say all that is necessary in the
description of a scene that will use up three hundred feet of film.
Another scene which consumes one hundred feet may require five times
as many words, or more, to make perfectly clear to the director a
short but very important bit of business. If you leave out the
non-essentials, you will save on the number of words, but you should
never hesitate to tell all that is necessary in order to make clear
the motives and actions of your characters.

_Simple, Clear English._--The scenario is really nothing more than the
synopsis rewritten in detail and divided into scenes. Observe that the
paragraphs of action are written in the present tense to help YOU keep
the action simple and vivid and PRESENT. Absolutely nothing is to be
gained by attempted "fine writing," yet it is true that the best-paid
writers today are for the most part the ones who are giving attention
to clearness and precision of detail and description when writing the
third division of their scripts. But description does not mean
hifaluting word painting--_it means clear, concise setting forth of
exactly what a thing is_.

_The Uselessness of Dialogue._--Dialogue, naturally, is out of place
in the scenario. If Frank asks Ethel where she hid the letter, and she
replies by opening a volume which she takes from the bookcase and
taking it out, that is all that is necessary. Do not write a line of
dialogue which tells just what Frank says to her, except as may be
required for an occasional cut-in leader. Neither is it necessary to
say what words of hers accompany the action of taking the letter from
the book where it has been concealed. Yet there is one way in which
dialogue may serve a useful purpose in writing the scenario. If by
writing a single phrase you can tell the _editor_ and the _director_
as much as you could by writing several lines of action, there is no
reason why you should not use the line--not as dialogue, however, but
as stage directions.[20]

[Footnote 20: Note the introduction of occasional bits of dialogue in
the "action" portion of the O. Henry story in Chapter XX.]

_Exterior Backgrounds Valuable._--In p