Screenwriting Advice From The Past: Writing for the Censors [Part 1]

“No producer will take a chance on a story which may be disapproved entirely or mangled by the cutting of important scenes after it is completed.”

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: Writing for the Censors [P. 83].

Photoplay writers must observe national censorship regulations, for while scenario editor, star and director may all find your story to be a masterpiece, if at the last moment some one recollects that the big scene will not pass under Regulation №9847261, Series of 1919, it’s all off.

No producer will take a chance on a story which may be disapproved entirely or mangled by the cutting of important scenes after it is completed.

Two systems of censorship prevail — first, the National Board of Censors to whose regulations the larger companies have bound themselves for the betterment of motion pictures, and, second, the innumerable local boards which have sprung up like mushrooms in small towns and provincial communities.

While no human mind can remember the innumerable conflicting rules of these small town boards, since each local censor has his own ideas of what constitutes morality, the scenarist should at least follow the National Board’s regulations, which are consistent and reasonable.

Fascinating to note that censorship was an issue for American filmmakers as far back as 1920. Not even three decades into this new form of expression and there were all sorts of moral codes laid down at a national and local level. Indeed, things got even worse with the advent of the Hays Code in 1930 which held sway until — believe it or not — 1968!

While contemporary filmmakers in the United States don’t have to deal with censorship per se, there is the oftentimes mystifying MPA ratings system. TV writers on the other hand, especially on broadcast networks, literally do have to deal with censorship.

More on that next time along with a list of regulations laid down by the National Board in 1920. It’s a list you won’t want to miss. Plus, we’ll be talking about various permutations of the F-word as it relates to modern day movie ratings. Read this Go Into The Story article to lay the framework for our next discussion.

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
The “Interest”: Part 1
The “Interest”: Part 2
The Kinds of Stories That Sell: Part 1
The Kinds of Stories That Sell: Part 2
The Kinds of Stories That Sell: Part 3
The Kinds of Stories That Sell: Part 4
The Kinds of Stories That Sell: Part 5
What to Write and Not to Write: Part 1
What to Write and Not to Write: Part 2
What to Write and Not to Write: Part 3
Cutting The Picture: Part 1
Cutting The Picture: Part 2
Cutting The Picture: Part 3

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.