CHAPTER II

Plot material is the tell-tale dust of Deeds that lies heavy behind the curtain of Commonplace Events; in the crevices pried open by Ambition; in the niches worn by Crime; and in the knot-holes gnarled by Nature.

Where to Get Plot Germs

OBSERVATION; READING; EMPLOYMENT OF FACTS; THE DAILY NEWSPAPER; DANGERS; PROPRIETY; ORIGINALITY; THE “TRUE STORY;” IMPORTANCE OF NOTES; TITLES; PLOT CLASSIFICATION.

DAILY life is filled with dull routine and monotonous detail; but drama is contrary to actual life, in that it picks and chooses the events it requires for its purposes, isolating, magnifying and suppressing them according to its needs. Drama demands that there be a keynote of human interest, a bond of vital relationship, in the life of man, or the revealment of a soul’s supreme moment under pressure of struggle.

To have one’s eyes open in his search for plot material is not sufficient; the plot seeker’s imagination must be sensitively alert, and his emotions prepared to throw some feeling into the impression. Thus equipped, he may acquirevisionsthru observation, and not mere mental photographs. Bear in mind that this matter of creating Literature and Drama draws just as heavily on the emotions as it does on brains. The imagination is the frontier post between the two.

(EXAMPLE 48.)A plot germ resulting from observation: A man sits in his office looking out of the window when a blinding flash assails his eyes. It proves to be a boy passing the window opposite with a bright can in his hand which refracted the sun. A plot germ instantly suggests itself: He visions an old house, set back from the road; surrounded by shrubbery; he is the hero who sits in his own home some distance away; the flash; he gets his glasses and sees a woman in distress—there is productive material for a play. Scarcely a vestige of the original suggestive matter remains.

It is more beneficial for a student of literature or drama to associate with the works of a master than with the master himself. Few successful artists are successful teachers; theirsuccess lies in their having absorbed andforgottentechnique. Thus in hearing and seeing drama and reading literature, the promising student should normally feel all that is noble and great within him rise—like a host on the wings of inspiration—to meet and do honor to the master creatures of thought and feeling created by the playwright and author. Exaltation is the coveted gateway to inspiration, thru which every artist-creator must pass.

(EXAMPLE 49.)A visit to the drama might yield a plot germ in the following manner: Let us say we saw Douglas Fairbank’s noteworthy impersonation of Bertie in “The New Henrietta.” We were inspired at once with a story surrounding “The Boy Who Couldn’t Be Bad”—which is the title and theme of our incipient play.

In employing facts to any large degree, the photoplaywright will encounter danger in two particulars: (1) The morecommonplacethe plot material, the more subtile the dramatic art necessary to make it attractive as a play; (2) The moreextraordinarythe fact material, the greater the tact requisite to make it seem plausibly real. The simple rule is, Dramatizeyour facts before you employ them! Develop the dramatic habit in all your five senses; better still, create a sixth and call it the Sense of Drama.

Little tragedies, romances and dramas are constantly happening in the circles of people with whom we come in daily contact—therein lies danger, however. More than a mere change of scene or character is necessary. The actual, intimate happening must form, if employed in any degree, but a suggestive plot germ, or only an episode in an entirelynew story. The best way to avoid disaster in this relation is to see to it that the development and elaboration of your resultant plot is not the same as that of the incident upon which it was based.

(EXAMPLE 50.)The almost daily sight of an old character who is brow-beaten by his entire family, inspires speculation as to how he lost his nerve and prestige, possibly a fortune too? For the purpose of our plot, we say that he gambled away his fortune. He had a theory of beating the market. He and his wealthy son-in-law become friends, and before anyone realizes it he has induced his son-in-law to put his whole fortune back of the old theory!

The daily newspaper is perhaps the mostprolific source of plot germs. Take special note that this does not meancompleteplots. The question of originality arises—for suppose other seekers choose the same news clipping for development? In answer to this, it may be said that not two persons in a thousand—providing they employ only the suggestive germ and do not try to follow verbatim the news story—will take the same point of view, will assume the same mood, will employ the same plot development, or will choose the same plot manifestation. True originality consists in doing the much-done thing in a new way. Be sure that you are not trite, then go ahead.

The newspaper is most useful, perhaps, as a source of novel situations, which are in constant demand in the development of the photoplay. We arrive at a pass in the progressive building of our plot and find that we are about to use an incident that has been worn threadbare. If our press clippings are classified, all we have to do is to turn to the proper classification, and in all probability we will make a discovery worth while.

(EXAMPLE 51.)Suppose we are seeking some new way of catching a thief, some of the following ought to be illuminating: (1) Clue to Leegson Murder; (2) Join Dictograph to Telephone; (3) Police Hoax Brings Gunmen’s Capture; (4) Women Sleuths Catch a Fugitive; (5) Bomb Throwers Trailed by a Boy. Here are five items of plot material, plot germs and dramatic situations.

Beware of “true stories” as plots. They lack the essential ingredients of the fiction story, or dramatized play. They are loaded with deadly personal detail that is usually too localized for the world-sweep of the photodrama. They need most of their prime facts ripped out and to be larded with choice bits of invented detail. True stories make excellent anecdotes; but not one in a thousand bears any resemblance to a complete photoplay plot.

Plot material is useless unless it is stored in sufficient quantities to enable the consulting plot seeker to make use of it without being cramped in his selection. Photoplaywriting is too arduous labor to resort to slip-shod methods such as trying to remember items of plot material. It is part of the author’s business to store up energy and ideas. The application of a simple system, along the line ofthat which follows, will permit the playwright to catalog, classify and file all of his plot material (notes, clippings, pictures, etc.) in a manner that will enable him to file or find any conceivable item instantaneously.

(EXAMPLE 52.)This classified plot directory and catalog is elastic and universal. The ambitious student may readily carry it to completion along the lines indicated. There are easily a thousand sub-divisions possible. There are 7 grand divisions: (I) The Heart of Man; (II) The Ambition of Man; (III) The Flesh of Man; (IV) The Soul of Man; (V) The Mind of Man; (VI) Not-Man; (VII) Humor. We will divide but one of these grand divisions: (I) THE HEART OF MAN—(1) Man; (2) Woman; (3) Love; (4) Marriage; (5) Children; (6) Family; (7) Home; (8) Friendship; (9) Separation; (10) Re-union. The sub-divisions of (4) Marriage: (a) Name; (b) Money; (c) Bigamy; (d) Deception; (e) Beauty; (f) Blunder; (g) Runaway; (h) Miscegenation; (i) Morganatic; (j) Eugenics.

A final suggestion as a source of plot material (as well as a harvesting of titles for plays and stories) is a persistent search for, and a diligent setting down for future use, of happy phrases, which may be heard, read or conceived by the playwright. He will find that a large percentage of these phrase-titlesare the nucleus of plots in themselves. In most cases they suggest the coveted big story.

(EXAMPLE 53.)The Tides of Fate; When a Man Cannot Pay; Give Him a Chance; Somebody Had to Do It; To Those That Have; Who Live in the Past; The Quality of Youth; For A’ That; For Good and All; One Chance in a Hundred.

Plot material is the stuff that souls are made of; it is the composition from which careers are moulded; it is sparks from the forge of nobility and salt distilled from the tears of humanity. Plot material means a record of man’s activities outside of the four dull walls of Convention and beyond the dominion of the Commonplace.

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