In this episode, Ben and Kerr talk about: Ben’s accompanying a rare Reginald Denny feature, sight-unseen, at Capitolfest 21; the rediscovery of “The Gorilla” (1927) and accompanying it on both piano and on theatre organ; Ben tries a new approach… Read More »ep. 66: Catching up on live shows from the 2nd half of 2024
Episode 66 Show Notes: Catching up on live shows from the second half of 2024 On this episode, Ben and Kerr talk about Ben’s process for scoring Roland West’s “The Bat” (1926) for a home video release. The new restoration… Read More »Episode 66 show notes: The Silent Film Music Podcast
In this episode: On this episode, Ben and Kerr talk about Ben’s process for scoring Roland West’s “The Bat” (1926) for a home video release. The new restoration was produced and released by Ben’s Undercrank Productions home video label. Show… Read More »ep. 65: Scoring Roland West’s “The Bat” (1926)
Episode 65 Show Notes: Scoring Roland West’s “The Bat” (1926) On this episode, Ben and Kerr talk about Ben’s process for scoring Roland West’s “The Bat” (1926) for a home video release. The new restoration was produced and released by… Read More »Episode 65 show notes: The Silent Film Music Podcast
One of the questions people ask me is “Do you ever accompany a film that you haven’t seen before?” The answer is “yes”. Although it happens less often than it did a decade or so ago, because now most films… Read More »“Sight-Reading” a Reginald Denny Comedy
In this episode: Ben talks about accompanying Laurel & Hardy’s pie fight in “The Battle of the Century”, for a decisive moment for Keaton’s character in “Steamboat Bill, Jr.”, for Ozu’s “A Story of Floating Weeds”, and for Raymond Griffith… Read More »ep. 64: The Fierce Urgency of Silent Film Music
Episode 64 Show Notes: The Fierce Urgency of Silent Film Music On this episode, Ben and Kerr talk specifically about the importance of spontaneity in providing musical accompaniment to performances of silent film Laurel & Hardy shorts (restored) in the… Read More »Episode 64 show notes: The Silent Film Music Podcast
The “cue sheet” was the most common type of film score during the silent era. These were road maps for the conductors and musicians in movie houses. They were rarely if ever made in collaboration with a film’s director, and… Read More »Silent Film Cue Sheets for Comedy Shorts
Every year in December, 25 films are added to the National Film Registry for their being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”, and are selected by the Librarian of Congress and the National Film Preservation Board. Given the connection to Batman that… Read More »Let’s get “The Bat” on the National Film Registry!
Had it not been for the fact that I was on vacation for about two weeks in June and my seeing a slew of LinkedIn messages congratulating me when I got home, a big anniversary of mine would not have… Read More »40 Years At MoMA