Screenwriting Advice From The Past: The “Interest” [Part 1]

“What he means by this ‘interest’ query is to ask if your story has the element of human sympathy.”

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 series based on the book.

Today: The “Interest” [P. 68].

“What kind of a story is it?” will be the first question asked by the scenario editor when you have carried the office boy by storm. “Has it love interest, moral interest, or is it just another script?”

What he means by this “interest” query is to ask if your story has the element of human sympathy. It is a quality as elusive of definition as feminine charm, yet it is essential to any story more pretentious than the slap stick comedy.

Every motion picture must have something which strikes a responsive note in the hearts of the audience. Otherwise, it will begin to file out in the middle of the second reel, no matter how melodramatic the action or how imposing the scenery.

This is fundamental wisdom from decades ago: Make a script reader feel something. Create characters and a scenario that “strikes a responsive note in the hearts” of the reader. If you manage that, your story is much more likely to make an impression. Or as Franklin Leonard, founder of the Black List says:

“We don’t go to the movies for plot. We don’t go to the movies for information. We go to the movies to feel something, whether it’s to laugh or to cry, or to feel awe or to feel scared. If you don’t deliver those emotional sensations, no one is remembering your movie.”

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Tomorrow: More screenwriting advice from the past.

You can read “How to Write Photoplays” via Google books online here.

For the rest of the series articles:

Introduction
Getting Ideas
Conflict and Crisis
Situation
Theme
Star Sympathy
Action: Part 1
Action: Part 2
Action: Part 3
Action: Part 4
Action: Part 5
Story Synopsis
Continuity: Part 1
Continuity: Part 2
The Title
Marketing the Script
Writing for the Camera
Scenery for Scenarios
The Actor’s Angle: Part 1
The Actor’s Angle: Part 2
Character On The Screen: Part 1
Character On The Screen: Part 2
Character On The Screen: Part 3
Character On The Screen: Part 4

Note: I ran this series originally in 2012. Unfortunately, the individual articles got bungled up on the site in some sort of technical snafu. So, I am recovering them one by one in this reprise of the series.