Screenwriting Advice From The Past: Midway in the Photoplay [Part 6]

If you are a screenwriter, you should know about Anita Loos. Loos was one of the most influential writers in the early stages of American cinema, associated with 136 film projects per IMDB.

Married to writer John Emerson, the pair wrote one of the first books on screenwriting in 1920: “How to Write Photoplays”. I have been running a weekly series based on the book. You can access those posts here. Today: Midway in the Photoplay [P. 101]:

By showing more and more action, you will elaborate your plot in the best way… The audience wants to see every thing important to the story in the picture.

Two takeaways here:

* Note the use of the words showing and see: This reinforces the fact that movies are primarily a visual medium. Remember: Motion. Pictures. Both words imply visuality.

* “The audience wants to see every thing…” Interesting they use the word ‘wants’. That is different than the verb needs. And therein lies a good point: While a script reader may want to know everything, they do not need to. If they did, our 100 page screenplays would thousands of pages long for the simple fact the universe in which our stories take place does not shut down when we’re not there. No, they exist 24/7/365. Our job is to pluck the choice moments, the events that matter most and in combination create the most compelling, interesting story possible.

I did stand-up comedy for a living for 2 years and one of the most important lessons I learned was this: Always leave them wanting more. You do too much, the residual feeling on the part of the audience can range from exhaustion to boredom. That idea of ‘less is more’ is nowhere more relevant than in a screenplay: Give them what they need, not what they want.

Next week: More on from Anita Loos and John Emerson’s book from 1920.

If you live in the U.S., you can read “How to Write Photoplays” via Google books online here.