The Point of Attack 
 
 OR 
 
 -low to Start the Photoplay 
 
 By CLARENCE G. BADGER
 
 The Point of Attack 
 
 By 
 CLARENCE G. BADGER 
 
 DIRECTOR OF GOLDWYN FEATURES 
 
 One of a Series of Lectures Especially 
 
 Prepared for Student-Members 
 
 of <?he Palmer Plan 
 
 PALMER PHOTOPLAY CORPORATION 
 
 DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 
 LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA 
 
 Cofrright,/920, Palmer Photoflajr Corporation, Los Angeles, California 
 All Rights Reserved
 
 CLARENCE G. BADGER 
 
 MR. B A D G E R is one of those men of foresight and 
 vision who, realizing- the limitless future of moving 
 pictures, identified himself with photoplay production 
 in the earlier years of the art. Over a decade ago Mr. Badger 
 tried his hand at freelance photoplay writing, only to find 
 that he 'was dealing with a new form of expression and that 
 he faced the necessity of learning the rudiments of screen plot 
 construction right at the start. 
 
 After a preparatory period of intensive study he attacked 
 the work of photoplay writing with persistence and precision, 
 progressing as staff writer with the old Lubin Company, then 
 with Universal, Keystone, Sennett-Par amount, and finally with 
 the Goldwyn organization, being chosen from a host of possi- 
 bilities, and appointed director of feature productions, a position 
 which he nova occupies. 
 
 Mr. Badger has not only kept pace with the constantly 
 changing methods of production, but has usually managed to 
 be a step ahead of the field. He directed Mable Normand in 
 "Sis Hopkins" and other features; Madge Kennedy in "Friend 
 Husband", "A Perfect Lady", and "Mother Of Mine", and his 
 production of "Jubilo", starring Will Rogers, was one of the 
 successes of the season of 1919-20. The clear and thoughtful 
 manner in which he has dealt with "The Point Of Attack" is 
 an illustration of the qulaity of mentality that he injects into 
 all of his work.
 
 
 \ 
 
 AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT7 
 
 IN the Handbook Mr. Palmer has set forth tersely 
 and truthfully that one of the greatest problems of 
 the photoplaywright lies not in gleaning themes and 
 plots from a scant supply of material, but rather in 
 choosing for development basic story ideas from a world- 
 wide reserve store so inexhaustible as to bewilder those 
 who have not acquired the knack and habit of elimina- 
 tion and selection. To paraphrase Shakespeare, "All the 
 world's a screen," and all the myriad inhabitants are 
 potential characters. When we establish well-motivated 
 conflict between two or more such characters or groups 
 of characters, we have the germ of a story which, as it 
 evolves into a series of increasingly tense dramatic situa- 
 tions, expressed in action, becomes a photoplay. 
 
 Beginning the Story 
 
 2. After the first step of picking a theme and a 
 set of characters comes the task of deciding upon a point 
 of attack a beginning. Aristotle, the father of all 
 dramatic craftsmanship, required that every drama have 
 a beginning, a middle and an end a period of exposition 
 or explanation, of development and of logical result. It 
 is with the first of these that I shall deal. The novice 
 may attach little or no importance to this initial move 
 in the creation of a photoplay, but study and the experi- 
 ence that comes with practical analysis and the actual 
 work of plot-building will lend emphasis to the state- 
 ment that no single consideration demands more careful 
 and thoughtful attention. Let us assume that when the 
 
 3
 
 drop-curtain rises in a motion picture theatre and the 
 shadow action commences, the audience is looking, not 
 at figures projected upon a screen, but through a window 
 into the private lives of fictitious characters around 
 whom the plot is woven. The photoplaywright is the 
 creator of those characters and the absolute ruler of 
 their destinies. Therefore, it is the photoplaywright 
 who must decide at just what period in their lives the 
 window curtain is raised and the audience is allowed 
 its first peep at what is going on. 
 
 3. In the exhibition of a five-reel subject about 
 seventy-five minutes are occupied in running the five 
 thousand feet of film through the projecting machine, 
 and the time for the showing of one, two, six or seven 
 reel subjects may be calculated accordingly an average 
 of about fifteen minutes to each reel. These are the 
 standard lengths of the screen dramas and comedies of 
 the present day. Therefore, it is obvious that a limit 
 must be set to the length of each story that is photo- 
 graphed. So, in starting to visualize a story, the author 
 must of necessity mark a beginning from which the action 
 develops he must draw a line of demarcation between 
 the events that the spectators are to witness during a 
 set space of time and the events which have preceded 
 and are related, but which have no actual part in the 
 picture itself. In dealing with the drama of the speaking 
 stage these preceding events, which are never seen 
 although frequently suggested, are known as the condi- 
 tions antecedent, and for lack of a better term I shall 
 hereafter so refer to them. 
 
 Linking the Past and Present. 
 
 4. In selecting a point of attack or beginning, the 
 photoplaywright is confronted with the task of skillfully 
 forming a link between the outside occurrences that 
 
 4
 
 have gone before and those which are witnessed by the 
 audience as integral parts of the photoplay itself. He 
 must decide at just what time and place and under 
 exactly what circumstances the audience may commence 
 snooping into the lives of the characters whose dramatic 
 relations carry them through smiles, tears and suspense 
 for an indefinite period. 
 
 5. The novelist, the dramatist of the speaking stage 
 and the photoplaywright must all wrinkle their brows 
 over this same problem of starting a story, yet each in 
 his separate path of craftsmanship must choose a different 
 method. The novelist is the freest of the three from 
 tightly drawn limitations. Frequently a novel is a 
 fictional biography and starts with the birth, or at least 
 the early childhood of its principal character, moving 
 gradually along through the seven ages to the grave. 
 Nor is this the limit, for the novelist may, in order to 
 fully acquaint his readers with the most minute details 
 of the character of his hero or heroine, go further 
 back than birth and deal with the parents or even the 
 grandparents, thus explaining hereditary influences that 
 may have bearing upon the subsequent life of the prin- 
 cipal figure of his story. 
 
 A Literary Beginning. 
 
 6. In "Madame Bovary," the hero, if we may call 
 him such, is Charles Bovary. The author, Gustave 
 Flaubert, describes the circumstances surrounding the 
 marriage of Monsieur Charles Bovary, senior, the father 
 of the hero, and acquaints the reader with the disagree- 
 able events that precede the birth of little Charles. 
 Then we learn of the boy's start at school, and through 
 chapter after chapter his life is unfolded before us until 
 he is married, a child is born, his wife passes away and 
 finally, a bearded and broken man, he is found dead. 
 
 5
 
 This tale deals with the events in the lives of three 
 generations and "Madame Bovary" is by no means an 
 excessively long novel. Had there been photoplays 
 during the life of Flaubert, and had he set about to 
 write a screen drama instead of a novel, basing it upon 
 the material contained in "Madame Bovary," he would 
 have had to choose a quite different point of attack or 
 beginning. It may be assumed that he would have 
 started his story with events closely preceding the mar- 
 riage of young Charles and would have omitted his early 
 manhood, his childhood and the happenings in the lives 
 of his parents before his birth. 
 
 7. It is apparent then that the novelist may relate 
 a long, drawn-out series of happenings extending not 
 only completely through the life of a character, but 
 back into the lives of his ancestors and on into the lives 
 of his children. The dramatist is not permitted such 
 liberal privileges. To the dramatist lengthy biography 
 is forbidden and he must confine himself to a dramatic 
 crisis or a definitely related series of dramatic crises 
 occurring at a certain point or during a definite period 
 in the life of his principal character. A reader may 
 devote days or weeks to the perusal of a novel, but the 
 theatregoer has but a portion of an afternoon or evening 
 in which to witness a drama, except in a Chinese theatre 
 where the exhibition of a play requires several days or 
 even weeks. We are not at present dealing with Chinese 
 drama. 
 
 The Screen Dramatist. 
 
 8. The photoplaywright may be said to be a screen 
 dramatist and he is bound by restrictions similar to those 
 governing the author of a stage play. Again there is a 
 difference, however. In beginning a spoken drama the 
 dramatist has recourse to dialogue, and in this manner 
 he is able to establish the conditions antecedent the 
 
 6
 
 events that have occurred before the rise of the curtain. 
 How many times, in witnessing a spoken drama, have 
 we seen the butler and the housemaid dusting about and 
 putting to order the furniture and bric-a-brac, while 
 engaged in dialogue which describes in detail to the 
 eavesdropping audience the conditions which prepare 
 for what is to follow. In many cases much of the first 
 act is given over to such preparatory and explanatory 
 dialogue, although the butler-housemaid conversation is 
 avoided or modified in modern usage. But the characters 
 in a photoplay are dumb, except for occasional sub-titles. 
 Hence we see that while the photoplaywright has a wider 
 sweep of possibilities after his story is once under way, 
 he is in the clutch of greater difficulties than either the 
 novelist or the dramatist so far as the matter of getting 
 started is concerned. 
 
 9. *Proceeding upon the assumption that a photo- 
 play is a screen drama which must be unrolled before 
 an audience within a specified time limit, it is clearly 
 necessary to give concentrated attention to the important 
 matter of beginning the story. We are dealing with a 
 situation a dramatic crisis or a correlated series of situa- 
 tions or dramatic crises. The start must not be too far 
 in advance of the climax, for in that case there will not 
 be sufficient time or film footage to logically and con- 
 secutively arrive at such climax. On the other hand, 
 the audience must be made acquainted with the char- 
 acters and the events surrounding their lives far enough 
 in advance of the climax to assure a thorough under- 
 
 *NOTE: I have said that the photoplaywright is a screen dramatist and 
 that the photoplay is screen drama. It is a fact that many novels have been 
 more or less successfully adapted to screen use, but almost invariably it has 
 been necessary to reorganize and reiarite them into the form of dramatic action. 
 In some few cases novels have been photographed in their full and original 
 order, but these have almost invariably been failures as screen productions. 
 In dealing with the photoplay as the drama of the screen, I am assuming that 
 the time is not far distant when practically all photoplays ivill be the original 
 work of successful students of screen craft photodramas created by trained 
 photodramatists.
 
 standing of the causes that lead to the subsequent effect. 
 Perhaps this may be more clearly explained by example: 
 
 A Simple Example. 
 
 10. Let us suppose that we are seated among the 
 spectators at a murder trial. A witness is called to the 
 stand and after he is sworn in the prosecuting attorney 
 says: "We have just ten minutes before court adjourns 
 for the day. I want you to start and tell us all that 
 you know about this killing in just ten minutes." Let 
 us assume that the witness has known all of the persons 
 involved in the crime for many years and that he was an 
 actual witness of the murder and of many connected 
 events that took place before and after. He is facing 
 exactly the same problem that confronts the photoplay- 
 wright. Each is compelled to tell a story within a 
 specified time limit. Each may turn back to happenings 
 of years before, which may be more or less interesting, 
 but which must be swept aside to make room for what 
 is vital and necessary. Or each may in his haste plunge 
 incoherently into the midst of the actual scene of the 
 crime and omit information that is important in showing 
 motive and connecting a logical sequence of events 
 leading up to the climax. Each must thoughtfully 
 decide upon a point of attack a beginning. 
 
 11. There are numerous methods of opening the 
 action of a photoplay, no one of which may be set apart 
 as invariably superior to the others. Various forms of 
 photoplays require a variety of beginnings. While essen- 
 tially the same results are sought in all cases, numerous 
 methods may be employed to obtain such results. Gen- 
 erally the opening must do one or more of the following 
 things : 
 
 Look backward and acquaint the audience with 
 important events having direct bearing upon the forth-
 
 coming play, but which have occurred before the 
 appearance of the first scene on the screen; 
 
 Look forward and more or less vaguely suggest what 
 will or may happen; 
 Secure attention; 
 Arouse interest; 
 Create expectancy; 
 Stimulate curiosity. 
 
 Numerous Methods. 
 
 12. Just as there are an endless number of stories 
 yet untold and awaiting the treatment of properly 
 trained writers, so are there countless ways and means 
 of starting these stories into action. Probably the oldest 
 method is embodied in the Prologue, frequently used in 
 the past and in some cases at present. This device is 
 employed in spoken drama to convey necessary explana- 
 tions and prepare the audience for what is to follow, 
 and it may, in some cases, be utilized in a photoplay. 
 It must not be a thing apart, however, but must be as 
 directly, logically and smoothly connected with the 
 body of the story itself as possible. 
 
 13. "Gates of Brass," one of the study scenarios 
 accompanying the Palmer Plan, supplies a fine example 
 of the Prologue in a photoplay. The real story com- 
 mences after the lapse of twelve years. All that goes 
 before is, in effect, a Prologue. It serves to convey to 
 the audience the information that Blake is a "dyed in 
 the wool" money-shark and that the better side of his 
 nature enwraps him in a surpassing love for his daughter. 
 The story that follows is based upon the result of this 
 conflict of character inside the man, yet the Prologue 
 and the story proper are so skillfully and smoothly linked 
 together that the spectators, in viewing the picture, 
 scarcely realize, without careful analysis, that they have 
 
 9
 
 witnessed a Prologue. This preliminary establishing of 
 necessary information in the minds of the audience 
 prepares them in a natural, informative and interesting 
 manner for the crisis, or rather the series of crises, that 
 follow in the lives of Blake and his daughter. 
 
 14. Another way of starting a photoplay is to plunge 
 directly into the crisis, or the first of a series of crises or 
 dramatic situations. This method is employed in '"Speed 
 and Suspicion," where we find Clinton and Barrow 
 being pursued by a speed officer. The story deals with 
 a laughable crisis in their lives and it is of no interest 
 to the audience who they are, where they came from, 
 what their lines of business may be nor anything else 
 other than that they are breaking a law and are being 
 pursued therefor. 
 
 15. Let us return to the example of the murder 
 trial witness and apply the different formulas. Suppose 
 the witness were to proceed as follows: "Fifteen years 
 ago the murderer and his victim were rival political 
 candidates for office down in Texas. After the election 
 each accused the other of buying votes and as a result 
 they became deadly enemies. Both left town and did 
 not meet again until the day of the murder. Then they 
 came together in a cafe, and friends knowing the circum- 
 stances surrounding their lives kept them apart. Later 
 in the day, however, they met on the street, and after a 
 violent quarrel shots were fired and the murder resulted." 
 
 Plunging Into the Crisis. 
 
 This is a brief and sketchy example of the use of the 
 Prologue. The witness, relating the facts of the long 
 passed election and the enmity that resulted, established 
 in the minds of the jurymen information that indi- 
 cates the motive which led up to the killing. Now 
 
 10
 
 let us see how he would have proceeded had he plunged 
 directly into the climactic crisis. He would have said: 
 "The murderer* came out of a cigar store and saw 
 his victim-to-be coming along the opposite side of the 
 street. Stepping to the middle of the road, he pulled a 
 gun and started firing. The other man also commenced 
 to shoot and as the by-standers sought shelter in door- 
 ways and behind trees the victim suddenly staggered and 
 fell, shot through the heart." 
 
 It will be seen that in choosing this manner of narra- 
 tive the witness would have omitted everything bearing 
 on motive and the conditions antecedent. Thus it would 
 have been necessary for him to later go back and relate 
 events leading up to the crime. So it is frequently in 
 the photoplay. After the direct plunge into the crisis 
 or the close approach to the crisis, it is sometimes neces- 
 sary to cut back to preceding events, although this form 
 of construction is not as desirable as that of starting at 
 a given point and moving forward consecutively to 
 the end. 
 
 16. I repeat, these examples are very brief, but 
 purposely so, as they clearly distinguish between going 
 back and laying a foundation of past occurrences or of 
 plunging into the crisis that leads almost immediately 
 to the climax. In a photoplay the explanatory informa- 
 tion at the opening must be expressed in action to just 
 as great an extent as possible. Whatever subtitles are 
 used must be compact and directly to the point every 
 word must count. It is well to tell your entire story in 
 narrative synopsis, although occasional subtitles may be 
 suggested if desired. 
 
 Calm and Storm. 
 
 17. One of the best and most frequently used story 
 structures is that which starts quietly, familiarizing the
 
 audience with the characters and the surroundings, and 
 then flows gradually and naturally into the sequence of 
 dramatic situations, after which it passes on to a peace- 
 ful and happy ending. Briefly it is a state of calm, 
 then a violent storm, which is in turn followed by the 
 same quality of calm in which the story started. 
 
 18. "Red Hot Dollars," in which Charles Ray was 
 featured, may be taken as a good example of this form. 
 It will be remembered by those who witnessed the 
 production that Tod, an orphaned young man of perhaps 
 twenty, saved the life of his employer, the head of a 
 great steel mill, was adopted by him, fell in love with 
 the daughter of an old rival of the mill owner, and 
 after overcoming a series of obstacles, married her, at 
 the same time re-establishing the friendship of the rival 
 fathers. Analyzing the point of attack or beginning of 
 this story, we find Tod among the other mill hands, 
 busy with his day's work. The five o'clock whistle 
 blows and Tod, hurriedly dropping his overalls and 
 washing up, hastens out to meet his "girl." The entire 
 atmosphere is peaceful and quiet. The audience is 
 immediately interested in the simple little love affair 
 and laughs sympathetically at the wholesome young 
 fellow's awkward love making. As one simple though 
 interesting event follows another, the characters are 
 established and the spectators are thoroughly familiar- 
 ized with the general environment, thus preparing them 
 for the first of the series of crises when Tod coura- 
 geously throws his employer from beneath a falling 
 crane and nearly loses his life in so doing. It is unneces- 
 sary to go deeper into the story itself, other than to state 
 that after all the conflict and obstacles are passed 
 after the storm is over we find the two old rivals 
 shaking hands and the lovers busy with the kiss that 
 we know precedes a not distant wedding.
 
 A Definite Analysis. 
 
 19. It is the point of attack alone with which we 
 are concerned at the present time. The author might 
 have gone back and showed the death of Tod's parents, 
 his search for employment, his securing a job in the steel 
 mill, and then finally have arrived at the point where 
 the story actually begins. But why all that preliminary 
 action? It has no direct bearing on the story itself and 
 was therefore omitted. It makes no difference to the 
 audience who Tod's parents were or how they died. 
 The only matters of importance to the tale are that Tod 
 is an orphan working in a steel mill. This leads through 
 a logical sequence of events to his adoption by the mill 
 owner. So the author began the story with a scene of 
 Tod at work, then had the five o'clock whistle blow and 
 Tod rush out to meet his sweetheart. The little incidents 
 of lovemaking were laughable and interesting and placed 
 the audience in a sympathetic frame of mind, filling 
 them at the same time with expectation and curiosity as 
 to how the little love affair was to end. The beginning 
 and the ending of the story were the calm the middle 
 was the storm but it must be remembered that the calm 
 must be interesting from the very first scene. 
 
 20. A variation of this procedure is the reversal ot 
 the order of sequence to that of storm calm storm. 
 In other words, the story opens with a direct plunge 
 into a situation or crisis, then slows up and moves along 
 at a quiet tempo, which speeds up toward the finish and 
 the story ends with rapid, sensational action. So far as 
 the opening is concerned, "The Miracle Man" serves to 
 illustrate. The story begins with a scene in the slums 
 in a great city at night. A limousine drives up to the 
 curb and a cripple is seen struggling almost beneath the 
 wheels. A crowd gathers and there is a stir of excite- 
 ment. From almost the first moment of the story the 
 
 '3
 
 action is intense and clutches the attention of the 
 audience. A little later it is modified to a slower tempo 
 in order to explain the plot and prepare the audience 
 for the tremendous dramatic situations which follow. 
 "The Miracle Man" might have begun in the little 
 country town where the patriarch lived, later picking 
 up the action in the city slums, then returning to the 
 patriarch's home, but it was much more effective and 
 the continuity was much smoother, started and carried 
 through as it was. 
 
 Studying the Screen. 
 
 21. In analyzing the current productions, week after 
 week, the student may invariably see how any photoplay 
 might have been opened in numerously different ways. 
 As a rule, however, there is an excellent reason for choos- 
 ing a certain point of attack, and the novice in photoplay 
 writing who is determined to succeed should attempt to 
 go deep enough into the analysis of each photoplay wit- 
 nessed to find out for himself or herself just why a cer- 
 tain beginning is used. In many cases the student may, 
 after carefully viewing a screen production, hit upon an 
 opening that would have been much preferable to the 
 one which appears. The constant study of the screen 
 from this angle is exceedingly helpful as well as being 
 fascinating to the progressive craftsman. 
 
 22. Another value of the detailed study of the 
 point of attack lies in the assistance that it renders in 
 avoiding too complicated subjects. If the author finds 
 that his plot is so complex and intricate that there is 
 great difficulty in getting it started in such a manner that 
 it will be clear and easily comprehended by the audience, 
 he would better either simplify it or sweep it aside and 
 start on an entirely new story. Above all things a photo- 
 play must be understandable to every member of the 
 
 14
 
 audience. The photoplaywright must never lose sight 
 of the fact that photoplays are written, produced and 
 exhibited for entertainment purposes and that theatre 
 patrons do not pay admission for the sake of witnessing 
 puzzles. Provided that a story is possessed of strong, 
 dramatic qualities, the simpler the construction is the 
 better. "The Miracle Man," which stands as one of 
 the greatest photoplays that has ever been screened, was 
 founded on an exceedingly simple plot and careful in- 
 vestigation will reveal that almost invariably the most 
 intensely dramatic stories possess this same quality of 
 simplicity. 
 
 Working Forward or Backward. 
 
 23. In the Handbook, Mr. Palmer has mentioned 
 two methods of building a plot by gathering together 
 a group of characters and working forward from a be- 
 ginning, or by hitting upon a big, climatic situation and 
 then working backwards to the start, deciding through 
 analysis just how the characters manage to get into such 
 a situation. In working along either of these lines it 
 is equally necessary to decide upon what appears to be 
 the one best point of attack. In arriving at such a 
 decision, it is well to reason somewhat as follows : Photo- 
 plays are built of the conflict of two or more factions 
 and the situations or crises that result from such con- 
 flict. Therefore, at just what time and place do the 
 factions involved start to converge to approach the 
 point of contact that leads to the conflict that forms the 
 story. After such a point of convergence is selected for 
 a beginning, it is next necessary to determine just how 
 much of the conditions antecedent must be explained 
 to the audience, and in just how brief and interesting a 
 manner this may be accomplished. The more the picture 
 is kept within the frame and the more self-explanatory 
 it is, the easier will be the task of getting started. In 
 
 15
 
 "Speed and Suspicion," the only fact of importance that 
 had to be explained was that Clinton's wife was out of 
 town. This prepared the audience for the laughable 
 situation which later arose from her unexpected return. 
 The remainder of the picture was entirely "in the frame," 
 except the bit of information contained in subtitle num- 
 ber six that Clinton had been arrested for speeding be- 
 fore and was therefore liable to a jail sentence. 
 
 24. Of course this was a simple one-reel comedy, 
 but the same thing of keeping the picture just as com- 
 pletely within the frame as possible is largely desirable, 
 although in subjects of greater length it is frequently 
 impossible to do so to this extent. The final authority 
 as to the point of attack is the continuity writer who 
 prepares the sequence of scenes for the director. Never- 
 theless, the author who submits a direct detailed synopsis 
 as explained in the Handbook, should work out the story 
 just as completely as possible and should give just as 
 much thought to the selection of the best point of attack 
 as though he were writing continuity. The detailed 
 synopsis should begin with the first scene that is to ap- 
 pear on the screen just as a continuity does and then 
 proceed directly through to the end, step by step. The 
 only difference is that in the synopsis the story is told 
 in clear, direct narrative rather than in scene sequence. 
 
 In a Nutshell. 
 
 25. Summing up the whole matter, we arrive at the 
 following conclusion : In setting about to write a photo- 
 play, we are dealing with persons, places and things of 
 which the audience has no previous knowledge. There- 
 fore, right at the start we must introduce our characters 
 to the spectators, familiarize them with the environment 
 in which the story is set, tell them of such past occur- 
 rences as have a direct bearing upon the story that is 
 
 16
 
 to follow and interest and entertain them from the very 
 first moment. Just the right time, place and set of cir- 
 cumstances must be chosen for such beginning. 
 
 26. The elder Dumas said, "Any one can relate a 
 dramatic situation; the art lies in preparing it, getting 
 it accepted, rendering it possible." By getting it accepted, 
 Dumas meant getting it accepted in the minds of the 
 audience. I find it difficult to agree with Dumas that 
 "any one can relate a dramatic situation," for it has been 
 my experience that unless one is definitely trained in 
 dramatic values, it is exceedingly difficult to do so. I 
 venture to say that Palmer Plan students look back to 
 the period before their study of the Handbook and 
 realize that it was at that time by no means an easy mat- 
 ter to relate a dramatic situation. 
 
 27. I firmly believe that the careful and analytical 
 study of the point of attack will be of surprising assist- 
 ance to the photoplaywright in assisting to avoid scat- 
 tered action, in arriving at a desirable compactness of 
 unity and in logically and consecutively building strong, 
 tense screen plays. 
 
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