FILM STORIES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 229, 27 September 1930, Page 5 (Supplement)

FILM STORIES.

ADVICE TO WRITERS. THE "TEN" COMMANDMENTS. Thousands of novels, short stories, and plays, hundreds of original scripts and thousands of works in foreign languages reach the principal film studios every year and have to be read by large special staffs. Finding suitable material for the screen is so highly competitive that one big company has attempted to reduce the work of its readers to a formula. This is referred to as "The Ten Commandments for Studio Readers," and might not be uninteresting to that vast number of individuals who are writing or are planning to write for the screen. These "commandments" are as follows:-— 1. "Your most important duty is to find great ideas. You'll find them buried under tons of mediocre suggestions. One story with the sweep of a 'Big Parade' is worth ten peppermint drop romances." 2. "Read at least two newspapers daily. Photoplajs sell best which are based on timely topics. A great hit may lurk in a two-inch Press dispatch." 3. "Analyse all material on the basis of the players who are working for tls. 4. "Remember you are dealing with a pictorial medium. Don't get too excited about drab stories with all the action set in a single room. The motion picture requires an even balance of movement and colour to be successful." 5. "Make a close notation of all books you see the public reading, on street cars, •in tlio libraries, etc. Make it a point to ask your personal friends as to. their literary favourites at the moment. If a story you personally don't like is making a hit with the public, that last fact is more important than your own opinion." 6. "See at least two full-length motion pictures each week, one from this company, one by a competitor. Note the reactions of tlie audiences and analyse reasons why the story was popular or disliked." 7. "Everything else is secondary in your work to the finding of a strong dramatic situation. A story can be badly written and almost illiterate, if the author only creates an interesting clash between his principal characters. I Don't worry about lack of literary qualities, descriptions or gorgeous Hawaiian sunsets, eta Those details can be added in the final photoplay. Your main job is to find novel and dynamic central situations." ' 8. "Prove your ability to recognise creative material by writing and submitting to us stories of your own." 9. "Be proficient in one language besides your own. The competition for good stories has become so keen that ■the supply written in English was long ago insufficient." 10. "Above all, train yourself to recognise sincerity in a story. . Talking .pictures, particularly, have made the public very sensitive to false notes in plots. Analyse all stories to determine whether an author is merely putting down just so many words or really delving deep into the human heart."

Fern Andra, who became a leading star on the German stage under the direction of Max Reinhardt, the first foreign born actress to achieve this distinction in Germany, is playing the alluring "Mrs. Taine," in the Henry King directed dramatisation of the Harold Bell Wright novel, "Eyes of the World," now being filmed.