D.W. Griffith at The Biograph Company

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Scenic spots added a great deal of touches to the background.

An old canal, the Neversink River that cuts through the hills, impressive rock cliffs, river rapids, a wide place below one of the canal dams called THE BASIN and several stone buildings dating back to Colonial days.

Along the Neversink River and The Basin, Griffith constructed a grouping of beautiful Indian wigwams.

In the Mended Lute, 1910 James Kirwood & Florence Lawrence -click video excerpt-

Authentic-looking canoes of that time were built by covering the canoes with bark. Many of the Griffith chases were filmed from canoes along the river banks.

Many of the stories were entirely about the Noble Redmen of the Plains. For his first film, THE MENDED LUTE, was entirely about the Indians.

Later films would involve stories of the invasions by the white men threatening their home life and very existence. Other stories would be of conflicts in love and jealousies between Indian tribes.

The Indian costumes were very realistic in their appearance. The featured attraction of these production were the canoe chases which had a great deal of appeal to the public.

Local townspeople were hired to build sets as well as to act as extras. Griffith meets with two Indians, CHIEF DARK CLOUD and his wife, RUNNING DEER who become the first Indian actors as well as serving as technical advisors on the production.

During their nights at the Inn, those who had secret lovers went their own ways; others left in groups to party in town.

Frequent late night barbecues took place where all joked and relaxed for the first time as a group, enjoying location shootings for the first time as a company.

Griffith was now in need of more time to create his moving pictures. Soon, Sundays, which used to be his day spent with Linda or resting or writing became the day to plan for Monday's shooting or viewing other companies' productions.

At this time, during the fourth show, the decline of David and Linda's marriage becomes a strain on both of them. Griffith's obsession for moving pictures was too great a competition for Linda to be able to cope with.

Griffith's advancement in stature at Biograph is reflected by his gradual increases in contractual terms and financial rewards.

His second contract maintained the same base rate of $50.00 per week but his commission percentage was increased to 1/10 of 0.01¢ per linear foot of print material sold.

His third contract was for a figure of $75.00 per week with a new commission rate of 1/8 of 0.01¢ per linear foot, with a minimum weekly guarantee of $200.00 per week.

Griffith's fourth contract which he signed in 1911, was unusual in that it was the first one that he signed with his real name of David Wark Griffith, rather than his stage name of Lawrence Griffith.

Terms of the contract maintained the figure of $75.00 per week, but the commission payment was raised to a figure of nearly 1/5 of 0.01¢ per linear foot of film either sold or leased.

With this increase, Griffith was now making about $3,000 per month.