Author: Ben Model
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ep. 67: Scoring Wallace Reid in Kansas, Maurice Tourneur at MoMA, and “Ramona” for Kino Lorber
In this episode, Ben and Kerr talk about accompanying a rare Wallace Reid Film “The Valley of the Giants” and other films at the Kansas Silent Film Festival; playing for the newly restored “The White Heather” and for Francis Ford’s “The Craving” (both 1919) at MoMA’s “To Save and Project” festival; creating a new theatre…
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Episode 67 show notes: The Silent Film Music Podcast
Episode 67 Show Notes: Silent Film music at the museum, on the radio, and at home On this episode, Ben and Kerr talk about Ben’s accompanying “The White Heather” (1919) at MoMA, “The Valley of Giants” (1919) at the Kansas Silent Film Festival, and creating and recording a new score for “Ramona” (1928) for Blu-ray…
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ep. 66: Catching up on live shows from the 2nd half of 2024
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 to underscoring the house-fall in Buster Keaton’s “Steamboat Bill, Jr.” (1928); the challenges and concerns…
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Episode 66 show notes: The Silent Film Music Podcast
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 was produced and released by Ben’s Undercrank Productions home video label. Announcement: Ben’s book The…
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ep. 65: Scoring Roland West’s “The Bat” (1926)
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 notes for episode 65 can be found here.
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Episode 65 show notes: The Silent Film Music Podcast
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 Ben’s Undercrank Productions home video label. Sign up for Ben’s regular email here to keep…
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“Sight-Reading” a Reginald Denny Comedy
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 either have been restored digitally and an archive can provide a private screener link, or…
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ep. 64: The Fierce Urgency of Silent Film Music
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 and Max Fleischer silents at the 15th TCM Classic Film Festival. Performance clips include recordings…
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Episode 64 show notes: The Silent Film Music Podcast
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 Adirondacks Keaton in Plattsburgh NY Ben at the TCM Classic Film Festival Undercrank Productions news…
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Silent Film Cue Sheets for Comedy Shorts
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 there was no requirement that they be adhered to. Most of the cue sheets I’ve…