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simon

simon has written 552 posts for readersvoice.com

The Beginning of Your Film! p1

READERSVOICE.COM aims to give a few samples from old and out of print books. This issue features a 1934-35 annual of Chums Magazine. It was aimed at school age lads in England. Many of the articles are clear and informative and probably haven’t dated that much. Here’s an article by Horace Richards called The Beginning […]

Horace Richards p2

Chums film writer Horace Richards writes about treatments of the adaptation… Mr Richards wrote that the average length of a film drama was rarely more than an hour and a half. There was just not time to include the whole novel or original story. And the film had to alter the book to allow extra […]

Horace Richards p3

Film writer for Chums Magazine, 1934-35 annual, Horace Richards writes about sequences… Sequences are the separate parts of the story which, when put together, make the story as a whole. Every sequence has to have a climax on which the camera can fade-out. For instanc, we have the hero and the villain meeting for the […]

Chums Magazine annual 1934-35 p4

Film writer for Chums magazine, 1934-35 annual, Horace Richards gives an example of a sequence broken up into scenes and for continuity… Mr Richards wrote: It may read something like this: Scene 20. Sequence D. Long Shot. Cliff Exterior. Day. Brown walks towards Green. Stops; holds out hand. Green ignores it. Brown: “How are you?” […]

Robert Orben, gag writer p1

READERSVOICE.COM gives a few samples from out of print books. This issue focusses on Robert Orben, who was a gag writer who died in February, at the age of 95. Born in 1927, Robert Orben grew up in the Bronx. He started publishing books of gags at the age of 18, in 1946. He sold […]

Robert Orben, gag writer p2

Here are a few samples from Robert Orben’s 1950s gag books. These are old style nightclub one liners but they have the classic one liner structure. They kind of bury the lead. They start with some introduction or misdirection, then surprise you with some crazy remark or point they’re making. Sometimes they leave it to […]

Robert Orben, gag writer p3

Some more gags from the joke books of Robert Orben. They show the classic setup and punchline structure of nightclub one liners. They are worth studying to see how they use an introduction or misdirection, followed by a punchline or surprising point. The Ad-Libber’s Handbook, 1962-69. Doubleday and Company, Garden City, New York: I spent […]

Land of Contrasts p1

READERSVOICE.COM aims to find old and out of print books that are still worth reading. This issue highlights Land of Contrasts, a 1976 memoir by Edith McFarlane, about her life along Cooper Creek in far Southwest Queensland. Ms McFarlane writes that at the age of 22, in 1925, she caught the train from Adelaide to […]

Land of Contrasts p2

The author of Land of Contrasts, Edith McFarlane, writes about a corroboree she witnessed near Durham Downs in the 1920s… Ms McFarlane writes: There was a large native camp less than two miles from the Durham homestead, where quite a number of natives lived in their bark humpies…During the time I lived at Durham there […]

Land of Contrasts p3

the 1922 disappearance of a man named Kennedy on Tanbar Station… Ms McFarlane writes: Evidence pointed to foul play and suspicion fell on one particular person who had been known to threaten Kennedy. The trial was held locally but the absence of the body prevented conviction. Many years later the accused, when he was working […]