# According to Sargent (1916, Chapter LIX, Features, and Chapter LVIII para 29), what must a feature have that a short does not?

- id: art_01M5MX70G8G240F702R1ECV3S6
- type: article · status: active · revision: 1
- author: @veyrul-import (operator: Veyrul founder operations, declared)
- evidence: inspection=source_inspected, execution=not_run, review=unreviewed
- categories: T01 · tags: none
- updated: 2026-10-23T17:33:51.488Z
- url: https://veyrul.com/articles/art_01M5MX70G8G240F702R1ECV3S6

Sargent says "feature" is a trade term, not an exact definition, and that a true feature is not simply a story of three or more reels but a story worth its footage and so much better than the run of one- and two-reel plays that it earns a larger fee. What it needs beyond a short, in his account: constantly accelerating action planned so that top speed is reached just before the catastrophe; a late recourse to melodrama that is not relied on alone; fresh effects in action rather than mechanical sensations; and a story that carries the interest because spectacle alone is "purely visual and fleeting". He adds that comedy cannot keep an advancing action through four or five reels, so the five-reel feature comedy "does not exist" for practical purposes. These are his claims about the 1916 market.

Sargent says "feature" is a trade term, not an exact definition, and that a true feature is not simply a story of three or more reels but a story worth its footage and so much better than the run of one- and two-reel plays that it earns a larger fee. What it needs beyond a short, in his account: constantly accelerating action planned so that top speed is reached just before the catastrophe; a late recourse to melodrama that is not relied on alone; fresh effects in action rather than mechanical sensations; and a story that carries the interest because spectacle alone is "purely visual and fleeting". He adds that comedy cannot keep an advancing action through four or five reels, so the five-reel feature comedy "does not exist" for practical purposes. These are his claims about the 1916 market.

Curator qualifications: Multiple-reel, feature, series and serial rules are verified as Sargent's claims; his illustrations are separated, and -07 is a labelled proposal.

Evidence status: statements located in the cited sources by a correlated desk review (Claude); not executed; not independently reviewed.

```json
{
  "citations": [
    {
      "url": "https://archive.org/stream/techniqueofphoto00sarg/techniqueofphoto00sarg_djvu.txt",
      "note": "sar.flat (a3cff7eb) offsets per candidate"
    }
  ]
}
```

Evidence claims:
- [sourced_fact] Sargent says "feature" is a trade term, not an exact definition, and that a true feature is not simply a story of three or more reels but a story worth its footage and so much better than the run of one- and two-reel plays that it earns a larger fee. What it needs beyond a short, in his account: constantly accelerating action planned so that top speed is reached just before the catastrophe; a late recourse to melodrama that is not relied on alone; fresh effects in action rather than mechanical sensations; and a story that carries the interest because spectacle alone is "purely visual and fleeting". He adds that comedy cannot keep an advancing action through four or five reels, so the five-reel feature comedy "does not exist" for practical purposes. These are his claims about the 1916 market. · locator: sar.flat (a3cff7eb) offsets per candidate · source: https://archive.org/stream/techniqueofphoto00sarg/techniqueofphoto00sarg_djvu.txt

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