Author: Ben Model
-

ep. 02 (re-posted): Unidentified films, DeMille’s “The Ten Commandments”, YouTube ethics, The Crowd, and more
This is a re-posting “flashback” of episode 2, originally posted on June 29, 2012. Welcome – report on what was the first “Mostly Lost” film identification workshop – live performance recording “Ten Commandments” on Steere & Sons organ in Brooklyn – an ethical issue on uploading silents to YouTube from DVDs – on quoting popular songs…
-

ep. 01: re-posting of premiere (2012) episode
This is a re-posting “flashback” of the very first episode of The Silent Film Music Podcast, originally posted on June 9, 2012. Welcome – score for “The Eagle” – new web series – Mabel Normand – Raymond Griffith at The Silent Clowns – score for “The Night Club” – playing for Ernie Kovacs – unidentified…
-

ep. 43: End of the Year 2021 Recap – Part 2
In the second half of this 2-parter, Ben Model recaps the past pandemic year: producing and releasing the Edward Everett Horton DVD set, a handful of DVD release projects in development, remembering MoMA’s Eileen Bowser, and looking toward the future of silent film live-streaming in 2022. Episode 43 Show Notes: Announcement: Episodes 1 through 8…
-

ep. 42: End of the Year 2021 Recap – Part 1
“End of the Year 2021 Recap” – in the first half of this 2-parter, Ben Model recaps the past pandemic year of silent film live-streaming, rediscovering the meaning of providing entertainment for fans, the return to in-person accompaniments, and ponders the future of the silent movie virtual cinema. Episode 42 Show Notes: Live shows return…
-

ep. 41: Live-Scoring for the Virtual Cinema (part 2)
“Live-Scoring for the Virtual Cinema” – in part two of this conversation, Ben Model discusses what it’s been like to accompany silent films throughout 2021 via live-streams he’s produced and presented out of his home. Ben and co-host Kerr Lockhart discuss: the differences for Ben between the creative mindsets of scoring a silent film while…
-
Screening Slapstick, Unrestored
The silent comedy film series that Steve Massa and I and Ron Magliozzi put together in the late 2000s had two hooks. One we utilized to organize the shorts into programs and the other was the real inspiration for the series. The latter was crystallized in an introduction Eileen Bowser gave to one of the…
-
Back in the Podcast Saddle, Again (…Again)
Several years ago, I ventured into podcasting as a way of making it easier for me to blog. I figured talking into a mic instead of writing things out saved a bunch of steps, mentally, and would be more efficient. In some ways it was, and in some it wasn’t. It was about the same…
-

ep. 40: Live-Scoring for the Virtual Cinema (part 1)
“Live-Scoring for the Virtual Cinema” – in part one of this conversation, Ben Model discusses what it’s been like to accompany silent films throughout 2021 via live-streams he’s produced and presented out of his home. Ben and co-host Kerr Lockhart discuss: the differences for Ben between the creative mindsets of scoring a silent film while…
-

Scoring “Spirals” for the Met
I’ve scored a few films over the past year-and-a-half for the Metropolitan Museum of Art. “Spirals”, a 2½ minute “art film” made for the Met in 1970 by Joyce Chopra, is the first one I’ve done for the museum that was not a silent movie, per se. But I drew on my accompaniments to other…
-

Why We Like Silent Film
I hope this series of posts that I began in January 2021 has been useful, educational, thought-provoking or food for thought. In providing answers to questions about silent movies that I’m asking in interviews, I have tried over and over for years to come up with a simple and concise and accessible answer to why…