Drama is the presentation of man laboring under the stress of an Emotion that personifies Pathos; a Passion that flames into Struggle; or a Desire that embodies itself in Deeds—sufficiently entertaining and edifying to make mankind pause, feel, think and be benefited.
CHAPTER I
Drama and Photodrama
DEFINITION; PRINCIPLES; STRUCTURE IS EVERYTHING; THE DRAMATIC IDEA; EMOTION IS THE SECRET; DESIRE THE MOTIVE POWER; DRAMA AND MELODRAMA.
PHOTODRAMA is—as we all know—a coherent series of animated photographs projected life-like and life-size on a screen, realistically visualizing a dramatic story. The one word “animated” eliminates forever the authority to employ the word “picture” in this relation. “Moving pictures” or “motion pictures” may be pictures that are standing, or moving, or dancing, or jumping—for all the adjective suggests—but it is impossible to make the term synonymous with photodrama. It is, to say the least, a misnomer that misleads—especially the playwright. Photodrama is not pictures, but life!
The man who writes photoplays should study and master the principles of dramatic construction. Before all things he is a playwright. Later he will learn that photodrama is the older dramatic art and something beside, requiring a new type and a new school of artists. He will learn that what is in demand with fiction and stage drama is in vogue with the photodrama. He should realize by this time that dramatic art is both a faithful reflection of the vital and contemporaneous emotional, mental and spiritual life of the civilized world, and an appeal to the elemental passions of humanity. With the perpetuating of existing literature and drama in photoplay form, the independent playwright will have little to do, as this work usually falls to the lot of the staff writer. It is collaborative rather than creative work.
As plot is the science of structure, so dramatics is the art of treatment. Plot is a matter of selection; drama one of application of the selected material. We take it for granted that all plot material is inherently—tho crudely, perhaps—dramatic. We hint at both plot and treatment when we state that drama is a supreme human experience interpreted by characters in terms of emotion with piercing effect. It is the clash of soul against soul in visualized struggle. It is spiritual conflict. It is not the contention of ideas merely, for that could be expressed only in words; nor is it the strife of matter, for that could be expressed only in dynamic and spectacular action—it is a clash of interests that involves both.
(EXAMPLE 65.) In the play “The Struggle” (Kalem) the methods of producers in going out of their way to make spectacle of drama is shown. The plot was built on the idea of the struggle of Labor against Capital, which in itself is essentially dramatic. The dramatic construction developed two characters symbolising their respective classes. The contrast was essentially dramatic. They were made to see—not each other’s strength to crush and kill, but each other’s power of human kindness under the test of sympathy. That was the idea of the author. The following line on the posters shows that the producers had ideas of their own which substituted spectacle for drama: “See the great iron mill in operation and the sensational rescue from fire!” Neither of these contingencies had been a part of the original play!
Thus we find our first essential is to make sure that our plot germ is dramatic. Our plot development has conditions and needs of its own that carry us forward logically to the point of successful treatment. Finally, we are prepared to proceed with our dramatic construction, which is to convert a mechanical framework into an appealing play. Plot construction is a matter of form; dramatic construction one of effect. Provided the plot construction is excellent, dramatic construction resolves itself into the task of arrangement and re-arrangement of the matter contained in the plot.