Author: Ben Model
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Conducting the Klopstokian Philharmonic
I found myself playing piano for films and I’d hear other instruments in my head during the show. This was the very late 1990s. Had to be, because I started learning the organ a year or so before Lee Erwin passed in 2000, and remember going to his place to practice and get advice a…
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Working with People Who Haven’t Been Dead for 60 Years
“Have you ever scored any new films, like regular movies, not silent ones?” It’s a question I get asked by reporters and people I meet socially. The answer usually surprises people. It’s “Nope.” I do get asked from time to time to score a new silent film, and that’s something I’ll cover in another post.…
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(Screen) Size Matters
Recording scores for DVD releases is hard work…harder than scoring films live at a show is. It is, for me, anyway. There are a few factors that are obvious. Because the score is being recorded the stakes feel higher for me. At a show, if something doesn’t go quite right or as well as I’d…
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Moving Day for Count Orlok
There’s nothing you can do about the laughs that the film Nosferatu (1922) gets with an audience. Or is there? Regardless of the translation from German, the intertitles like “Your wife has a lovely throat” get a laugh from an audience. We already know the Dracula story, and it’s the ridiculousness of a statement like…
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ep. 26: reinterpreting 1929 Buster Keaton, playing into a film, anticipating mood transitions
Welcome and intro – reports on recent shows and recordings, and October DVD releases – starting a score at a performance: playing the audience into the film – performance clip: “The Temptress” with Garbo & Moreno, on organ at the LoC – explanation of the podcast’s theme – anticipating mood shifts and when to make…
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ep. 25: performances in Tromsø, mood demos, universality of laughs, fitting hits to music (or not), “Diane” in reel 5
Welcome and intro – “Silent Film Days” in Tromsø, Norway – demonstrating musical moods for 5th graders – the universality of silent comedy – recording of score for One Week for students – making underscoring fit physical actions in an unobtrusive way – performance recording ofexcerpt from score for L&H in From Soup To Nuts…
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ep. 24: Stuart Oderman, playing the numbers in Detroit, Show People, The Crowd, DVD news
Welcome and intro – Stuart Oderman – DVD/Blu ray release of “When Knighthood Was In Flower” – holding back in playing in order to get audience inside a character’s head – performance excerpt from “Show People” – underscoring a moment that extends into a scene with different energy – performance excerpt from “The Crowd” –…
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Stuart Oderman (1940-2017) – silent film pianist
The Adventures of Prince Achmed concluded, and as the curtain in MoMA’s Titus 2 theatre closed and the lights came up, I took my bows by the piano and then headed back to the booth, as I’d done after all my shows. This time I found a post-it note on the table in the back…
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ep. 23: Tromsø, Kansas and Toronto Silent Film Festivals, Hindustan, W.C. Fields, being a 360 creator, Knighthood news
Welcome and intro – “Silent Film Days” festival Tromsø (Verdensteatret 100 År!) – performance clip “Madame de Thebes” – scoring “Why Change Your Wife” and hunting for “Hindustan” for the Kansas Silent Film Festival – performance clip “Why Change Your Wife?” – more about scoring WFYW and about seeing William DeMille’s films – show prep…
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ep 22: special “Cruel and Unusual Comedy” podcast episode #3
00:00 Welcome, and intro to Cruel and Unusual Comedy — 04:02 More Plots and Plotters — 11:21 Ethnic Profiling: Stereotypically Speaking — 19:47 Loco Motives: On the Wrong Track — 27:52 Scared Silent — 36:27 Hits of the Past — 45:29 Working Girls.This episode contains chapter stops. (Your podcast player may or may not recognize…