Author: Ben Model

  • I’m so sorry about the multiple podcast emails…

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    Ben Model
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    Hi! Earlier today I imported my podcast from another site to my main one, and now you are getting emails about each episode. It’s a bug with my site, and I’m sorry this is happening. Feel free to delete these. Thanks! — Ben

  • When a 1932 Film Score Isn’t A Film Score

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    Ben Model
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    I’m very interested in how music was and wasn’t used in sound films made 1929-36. The TCM Classic Film Festival’s screening of Merrily We Go To Hell that I attended provided a fascinating example of a sort of scoring that was done in the early ’30s without the use of a composer. There is an…

  • Where is the Hollywood Series?

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    Ben Model
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    On April 13, 2019 at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood, Kevin Brownlow was presented with the 2nd Robert Osborne Award. Last year’s recipient was Martin Scorcese. The ceremony was held on the Saturday night of the 10th annual TCM Classic Film Series, before a screening of a new digital restoration of Brownlow’s film It Happened…

  • Bringing the Movie Palace Sound To A Theater Near You

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    Ben Model
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    Some shows I do are B.Y.O.O. — Bring Your Own Organ. Perhaps I should say “bring my own organ”, as it’s usually my idea to bring a portable Wurlitzer to your theater. Who thinks of that? Usually, the request is “can you bring a keyboard?”. But thanks to virtual instrument software and some basic MIDI…

  • Called On The (Red) Carpet

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    Ben Model
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    This was my second time doing the red carpet event on opening night of the TCM Classic Film Festival. Why was a silent film accompanist invited to walk down the red carpet? Who knows? It was part of the invite for the opening night, and — once again, like last year — I figured…”what the…

  • When A Loveseat Is Not a Sofa

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    Ben Model
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    There is a warning that appears at the beginning of many Scott Joplin piano rags. I remember seeing this in high school when I was learning a lot of the pieces. It is a note from the composer himself, admonishing pianists not to play the piece fast, that it is never correct to play ragtime…

  • Beating Someone To the Punch With an Edit

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    Ben Model
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    Some years ago, I made a project of deconstructing Buster Keaton’s The Goat (1921) in a series of undercranking studies that I posted to YouTube. In one of the segments, I’d pointed out a moment where an elision of time occurs through a very tidy edit, one where the sleight-of-hand of the undercranking speed-up in…

  • Kovacs and Kapusta Puppets by Larry Berthelson

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    Ben Model
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    Ernie Kovacs must have had an inkling that his viewership on the half-hour comedy-variety show he did late mornings on NBC in 1955-1956 would include children. Why else would a puppet show have been a staple of the program’s regular sketches right from the start? Kovacs had certainly been no stranger to the mid-morning time…

  • Scoring a Silent Film in a Vacuum

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    Ben Model
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    Recording a New Piano Soundtrack for The Bride’s Play starring Marion Davies, Aided by a Live Show Experience The hardest part of creating a silent film score for DVD/Blu-ray release is that you’re composing-improvising-performing the score in a vacuum. You’re not recording in the same environment that you perform in, the one where a factor…

  • Improvising A Silent Film Score: Now, and Then

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    Ben Model
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    There was no one way all film was accompanied musically during the silent film era. There was a range. A wide range. Everything from a solo upright to a full symphony. Everything from fully written-out composed scores published, disseminated, rehearsed and performed meticulously…to a blind person with a friend or spouse seated beside them on…