Author: Ben Model

  • “Silent Speed” and 16mm Projectors

    “Silent Speed” and 16mm Projectors

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    Ben Model
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    There is a notion that silent films should be shown at what is often referred to as “silent speed”, or 18 frames per second. In the silent era, motion picture projectors were hand-cranked and, later, motorized but with rheostats. A question I’ve pondered for some time is: where does the term “silent speed” come from,…

  • Story Structure, John Badham and Lajos Egri

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    Ben Model
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    When I was in graduate film school, different film directors or industry professionals would come to the school to screen a new film and talk about it. I got an answer to something that’s helped me many times with projects from a Q&A we had with director John Badham, who’d come to show us his…

  • Colleen Moore’s Earliest Surviving Feature

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    Ben Model
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    I’ve recorded a lot of scores for DVD releases, and it’s always interesting to me which ones stick in my mind, and which ones don’t…and everything in between. Creating is such a subjective process and it’s almost impossible to foretell the audience’s experience either during a show or with a recording. For instance, I’ve noticed…

  • Cut To The Horse

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    Ben Model
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    Accompanying Keaton’s Our Hospitality this past weekend reminded me of a silent comedy trope I’ve become aware of. It’s one that may have hit my radar because of how it’s handled in the language of silent film, and because of my accompanist’s spidey-sense signaling there’s a laugh here than may need a little help. It…

  • Keaton’s Leap to Features

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    Ben Model
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    Keaton’s Our Hospitality is one of my favorites of his feature films, and for the same reason One Week is one of my top picks for the shorts. It’s not just about the smartness of the gags or the overall structure or the physical stunts for me. It’s Keaton’s progression as a silent comedy film…

  • Straddling Cutaways

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    Ben Model
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    There’s a moment in Vidor’s The Crowd that I handle in a similar way to a moment toward the end of Hands Up! with Raymond Griffith. The effect I like to think what I’ve done on the Vidor had is what prompted me to use it on the Griffith. It’s something I learned from Lee…

  • Trial Balloons and Pickles

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    Ben Model
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    I’ve floated a couple trial balloons as projects to test the waters on another one I wanted to do. My first DVD release was not Accidentally Preserved, actually. You may not know about it because I didn’t send out a press release or screeners. I just wanted to get the bugs out of the system…

  • Finding a Chestnut in a Haystack

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    Ben Model
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    The Mack Sennett films released through Paramount in the late ‘teens give you the impression that an effort was underway to take the Keystone format up a level. That is, if you can see one of the Paramounts. Despite who produced them and who released them, they don’t survive well and are remarkably difficult to…

  • Silent Comedy Laughs

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    Ben Model
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    Every once in a while I question something I’ve been saying about the way people react to silent films. It’s usually when one of these responses hasn’t happened for a couple or few years. And then it happens again, and I am re-invigorated with this reaction. This very thing happened on Saturday. Ironically, it was…

  • 16mm Film Collecting on DVDs

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    Ben Model
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    Over the last couple years, I’ve had conversations with people who’ve told me how much they like the Accidentally Preserved DVDs I’ve released. Which is really gratifying. What started out as a one-off turned into a short series that wound up as the springboard for Undercrank Productions. Film collectors, in particular, seem to be the…