CHAPTER IV

Every scene should develop the plot a step in advance and contribute to the climax, or it has no reason for being in the play.

Development and Continuity

EACH SCENE CONTRIBUTES TO CLIMAX; ELEMENT OF TIME AND CHRONOLOGICAL SEQUENCE; PROBLEMS OF CONTINUITY; THE CENTRAL THEME; THE RETURN; INSTANTANEOUS SEQUENCE; TIME INDICATIVES.

AS we have learned, that which happens in our play happens NOW. All time is present time, therefore all things must happen chronologically correct. Whatever period of time we carry our audience back to in our first scene constitutes the beginning of all things, as far as our present purpose is concerned. Affairs relentlessly and inevitably move forward. In this relation, special care must be taken in the screening of simultaneous action in different scenes. Perfect continuity can bemaintained always by having the contributory scenes obviously bear upon the principal theme, or that which is held in suspense.

(EXAMPLE 57.)In “The Master of the Lost Hills” our principal scenes are those picturing the hero himself. The contributing scenes are those showing the peril that threatens him. Scene 95 discloses Shelburne dodging missiles as he barricades door; 96 shows angry mob outside; 97 gives a rear view of the house showing his personal enemy building a fire against shack. Subsequent deeds follow this simultaneous action.

In the photoplay we have no wait, as in stage drama, while the scenes are being shifted, therefore we must have perfect continuity of time. We cannot digress with irrelevant matter; we must fill in with contributive material always. An episode is an isolated incident that has no place in the photoplay. The plot begins with the cause of it all and can never pause until it has arrived at a satisfactory solution. Lapses of time should never appear to be gaps or voids, but become well rounded periods suggestively filled by artistic construction. We have seen how only forward or simultaneous action can win conviction of actuality. A very fine phaseof this principle is essential when a vital causal action demands an immediate view of the effect. In other words, instantaneous sequences must follow instantaneously.

(EXAMPLE 58.)A man is about to commit suicide in one scene; he lifts the revolver—the next scene shows his frivolous wife, the cause of it all; laughing and chatting in the next room; she springs up suddenly in horror—another scene shows the instant following the shooting. Or, a man breaking thru a door in one scene, appears instantly in the next scene.

This method of showing immediate continuity is also employed to accelerate action and maintain suspense. It is called the “cut-back,” which term has the objectionable quality of suggesting “going back.” What we do is to revisit, orreturn, to a scene previously screened. The strict application of the “cut-back”—or Return, as we shall hereafter designate it—is in the case of a rapid sequence of action wherein the Return reoccurs for an extended period in almost every other scene. We find its abuse in the “chase” picture, which by some directors is still considered drama. Rarely we find that one scene need sustain the action for a longer period than isapt to be interestingly safe. In that case we must break up the scene with one or more Returns of another scene, or action, that has a contributive effect on the thematic scene which we have broken. A long scene may be broken effectively by the insertion of a Close-view. All of these constructive possibilities must be resorted to in building the effective plot. In other words, we must test each scene by visualizing it before we write it out. Our rough draft is our plot, that may be changed to meet, create and strengthen dramatic exigencies. Remember that we must suggest even more than fiction, since we must tell the director and actor what must be done, as well as show the audience a moving drama!

Definite actions, or tasks, that take considerable time in the execution, are readily encompassed by the Return, or the introduction of new material of a cumulative nature.

(EXAMPLE 59.)A mob’s march of a mile or so; the burning of a house containing prisoners; the digging of a tunnel in order to escape; the cutting down of a tree in which the hero is perched—progressive stages in the task are shown, alternating with scenes bearing upon the result that readily present themselves to the playwright.

A play should progress even when it appears to go back.This seeming paradox is concerned especially with the employment of the Vision. It means that every scene should contribute action—and every insert supply data—that advance the playin the mind of the audience, by indirectly clearing away some obstacle that has stood in the way of its further progress, or by supplying material that heightens lingering suspense, or by directly adding new action that impetuously drives the development toward a climax.

(EXAMPLE 60.)In “The Lost Melody” we are shown, thru a vision, the picture that is passing thru Douglas’s mind NOW; its presence was necessary to clear away the great obstacle that barred Douglas’s reformation (the Climax); the play bounded forward in interest as it was visualized.

We do not advance far in the construction of our photoplay plot before we realize that variety is the spice of its life. Simplicity of theme is essential, but simplicity of plot seems out of the question. This, in a large measure, is true. It is the parting of the ways from the short story, for in that the single, simple plot is essential; in the photoplay the complicatedplot is not only best but next to essential in creating cumulative suspense. Our theme should be so simple that we may state it in a few words. It is the subject-matter of the play; the Climax is its direct outcome; our hero is with it thru thick and thin because his body and soul are made of it; it is the play.All else is contributive matter.The theme is comparable to the main line of a railroad that is fed and sustained by way-stations and branch lines; if we expect to reach an important destination we can arrive only by way of the main line.

Continuing this view of the complications as tributary material suggests a method of plot building that has exceptional merits. We shall call it the building by dramatic sequences.

(EXAMPLE 61.)We shall quote “The Coming of the Real Prince,” in this connection again. A sequence includes a definite section of action marking the dramatic crises in the play. In the instance of this play a caption has designated each sequence. 1. Annie’s Widowed Mother Left Penniless Opens a Boarding House; 2. Better Times But No Sympathy From a Busy Mother; 3. Annie Finds Solace in “Cinderella”; etc. We take 1. Annie’s WidowedMother Left Penniless and append all the tributary scenes we can conceive; possibly not in the exact order in which they are finally employed; (a) Arrival home after the funeral; (b) Failure of the boarding house; (c) Servants discharged; (d) Annie becomes the drudge. And so on, in each sequence until the Climax is reached.

The only rule is to keep as close to the central theme as possible, for the completed action must be so perfectly woven that all matter fits as a perfect whole with no suggestion of patches, so artistically is the construction hidden.

The element of time is the secret of logical sequence in the photoplay—always make certain that the following scene is without question the scene that follows. Perfect continuity insures perfect illusion.

One of the big little problems that lies before the playwright is to invent a time indicative without the monotonous mention of time at all—at least by means of such trite Captions as “The Next Day,” “Two Years Later,” “That Night,” etc. Lapses of time in the continuity of essential action are inevitable. It is vitally necessary to an appreciation of the dramatic significance of a scene that theaudience know whether a day or a year has elapsed. The Caption alone proves to be the only reliable source of information. The real difficulty lies in eliminating the aforementioned type of time indicative.

(EXAMPLE 62.)The solution seems to rest in incorporating time significance to the entire Caption phrase, or at least in transposing the actual time words from an isolated position to a relative place in the Caption itself. Instead of, “The Next Day. Ridgway Returns Tho Forbidden Ever to Trespass;” why not, “Tho Forbidden Ever to Trespass Ridgway Returns the Next Day”? It is infinitely stronger. “Alice Reconciled to Fate HAS BECOME Gov. Marsten’s Secretary.” “Mrs. Dalton Learns the Truth AFTER TWO MONTHS’ Deception.” “AFTER the Operation.” “SUMMER Brings Hope for Dalton.” (The capitalization is for the student’s benefit only.)

Plot building is simply carrying a dramatic premise to a dramatic conclusion.

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