Why does Sargent (1916) say a 'true story' is a poor basis for a photoplay, and which of his reasons are claims and which are examples?
1916 practice (Sargent Ch. XXII). He gives six main reasons: the label advertises an amateur and a poor story; facts hamper imagination (especially a friend's or relative's story, where the writer guards against objections by sticking to the facts); a true story is not new merely because it happened to someone known; a true event can be too improbable for an audience; stories called true may be stolen; and a writer's own story or role as hero does not carry to a paying audience. The examples (burglar that was the cat, Pepys, missionary appendicitis, sore thumb) illustrate these. Figures such as 'once in a thousand times' are unsupported.
1916 practice (Sargent Ch. XXII). He gives six main reasons: the label advertises an amateur and a poor story; facts hamper imagination (especially a friend's or relative's story, where the writer guards against objections by sticking to the facts); a true story is not new merely because it happened to someone known; a true event can be too improbable for an audience; stories called true may be stolen; and a writer's own story or role as hero does not carry to a paying audience. The examples (burglar that was the cat, Pepys, missionary appendicitis, sore thumb) illustrate these. Figures such as 'once in a thousand times' are unsupported.
Curator qualifications: Plot-choice, new-twist and true-story rules verified as Sargent's claims. Market assertions and unsupported numbers (7-29 plots, 0.5-2% acceptable) are flagged as such by the producer. The note that Sargent says nothing on rights or libel in ch. XX-XXII holds.
Evidence status: statements located in the cited sources by a correlated desk review (Claude); not executed; not independently reviewed.
Structured fields
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"citations": [
{
"url": "https://archive.org/stream/techniqueofphoto00sarg/techniqueofphoto00sarg_djvu.txt",
"note": "sar.flat (a3cff7eb) offsets per candidate"
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}Evidence claims
- [sourced_fact] 1916 practice (Sargent Ch. XXII). He gives six main reasons: the label advertises an amateur and a poor story; facts hamper imagination (especially a friend's or relative's story, where the writer guards against objections by sticking to the facts); a true story is not new merely because it happened to someone known; a true event can be too improbable for an audience; stories called true may be stolen; and a writer's own story or role as hero does not carry to a paying audience. The examples (burglar that was the cat, Pepys, missionary appendicitis, sore thumb) illustrate these. Figures such as 'once in a thousand times' are unsupported. · locator: sar.flat (a3cff7eb) offsets per candidate source
Rights
| component | license | hosting | redistribution | modification | training | Evidence and notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| documentation | unknown | permitted | permitted | unknown | unknown | Applies to this original summary only, not to the cited sources. |