ne's natural supposition is that Mary has
thought it over while "plodding wearily" toward town, and, remembering
the comfortable bed which awaits her at the old home--even though the
next morning will bring more ill treatment at the hands of the
step-father--has returned to make the best of it. After reading three
more scenes, however, we learn that Mary had not only reached the
town, but had gone so far as "the big city," from which she had
returned after a fruitless search for work. Scene 9 is really supposed
to take place two weeks after Scene 8!

Now, laying aside the fact that no scenes are introduced to show what
happened to her after she went to the city, the script does not even
give a scene showing her boarding a train to go, so there is nothing
even to hint that Scene 9 did not take place on the same night that
Mary left home.

The point of all this is that, had this script been accepted at all,
and even had not the producer chosen to introduce any scenes showing
Mary in the city, a leader of some kind between Scenes 8 and 9 would
have been absolutely necessary. This, of course, was an amateur
script, and the whole story was impossible from the standpoint of
logic and the sequence of events; but in more than one picture that
has been shown on the screen we have noticed the omission of a leader
at a point in the action where one was very necessary, as a
consequence of which the spectator was left--for the space of two or
three scenes at least--to guess at what was what.

It is worth remembering that you are not an accomplished
photoplaywright until you can produce a story that is thoroughly
understandable _all the way through_ by action and inserts. You are a
clever writer, undoubtedly, if you can produce a "leaderless" script.
But it is no indication of cleverness merely to _leave out_ a
leader--only to find, when your story is produced, that the director
has found it necessary to add what you have simply cut out or never
put in. He is a foolish and short-sighted writer indeed who gives any
director such an opportunity to doubt his knowledge of photoplay
technique.

In this connection, let us quote Mr. Frank E. Woods, who, besides
being well known as a critic, photoplaywright, director and supervisor
of productions under Mr. David W. Griffith, is an acknowledged expert
in editing motion pictures.

"Many a picture," says Mr. Woods, "has been ruined by inadequate
sub-titles. The makers of the picture have