with a Story with a Story Studios were having a hard time
producing enough movies to keep audiences happy. The shortage of
new films was a threat to the entire industry. Then a man named
Thomas Ince changed the way movies were made. He introduced
production methods that allowed studios to produce more movies
at a lower cost. During his first years in the business, Ince
directed all of the movies produced by his studio, Thomas Ince
Pictures. But he soon realized that he could not keep pace with
the demand. He decided to pass some of the work to a group of
employees he called "producers." The job of the producer was to
supervise the production of a film from start Ince planned each
movie with the producer before shooting began. He assigned the
producer a "budget," which limited the film to a certain number
of days of production. At any given time, 10 or more pictures
were being produced by the Ince Pictures staff. This was called
the "factory system." It was soon used by most studios, all the
way up to the As m