ect of his thought appearing in a corner of the scene, and
disappearing as he smiles. Visions are resorted to usually to indicate
the thought of a character, and should be used only sparingly, if at
all.

CHAPTER IV

THE PHOTOPLAY SCRIPT: ITS COMPONENT PARTS

We know what a photoplay is; now what are the component parts of a
photoplay script?

Simply because the word "scenario" has been so long used loosely as a
name for the full written outline or story of the photoplay, it has
come to mean the entire manuscript--or photoplay script, as we prefer
to call it--completed and ready to be submitted to the editor.
Accurately, however (see the preceding chapter, Photoplay Terms), the
"scenario" is only one of the three or four distinct parts of a
photoplay script, as will be developed in full presently. "The
Photoplaywright," a department conducted by Mr. Epes Winthrop Sargent
in _The Moving Picture World_, was at first called "The Scenario
Writer;" however, Mr. Sargent, like most writers and editors, has
abandoned the use of the word "scenario" as applied to the complete
script. "Scenario" is the name now properly given to the continuity of
scenes, or "the continuity," as many are calling it in these days of
more precise nomenclature. Furthermore, various trade publications are
now urging writers and all others interested in the work to substitute
the word "photoplay" for "scenario," as being more comprehensive and
exact when applied to the complete manuscript. In strict accuracy,
however, even "photoplay" is not a sufficiently explicit term when
applied to the manuscript only, while either "photoplay manuscript" or
"photoplay script" is; for, as all writers may learn to their cost,
the "script" is not always destined to become a "play." To some,
however, this distinction may seem like splitting a hair nicely
between its north and northwest corners. At all events, the "photoplay
script" is an exact and descriptive term and may well be used by all
interested.

What is of fundamental technical importance in a novel, a short-story,
or a play? The story itself--the plot. And so also it is in the
photoplay; only, and the reasons must be obvious, its importance in
the photoplay is even greater. Without the plot, the writer's script
will remain forever a script, a mere piece of hand- or typewriting; it
will never be transformed by the magic wand of the director into a
film picture. Remember always that the photoplay