Ben Model’s blog
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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…
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When A Loveseat Is Not a Sofa
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…
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Beating Someone To the Punch With an Edit
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…
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Kovacs and Kapusta Puppets by Larry Berthelson
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…
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Scoring a Silent Film in a Vacuum
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,…
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Improvising A Silent Film Score: Now, and Then
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…
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Scoring Something Good
Every once in a while, I’ll hear or be told about some new amazing silent film discovery being shown at some festivals I don’t get to play at. It happens, I would imagine, with some of my colleagues, as well as with fans who don’t live near those festivals. I’ve…
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Will the Real Reelcraft Main Title Please Stand Up?
One of the bits of restoration work that went into The Alice Howell Collection DVD set was creating new main titles and credits for some of the films. Where possible. And that happened in varying degrees, depending on the studio. I was able to access frame grabs of Century Comedies…
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George Fiala — Make-up Artist for Uncle Gruesome, Soaps, Santa and Soupy
Ernie Kovacs made a point of bringing make-up artist George Fiala out on camera in what may his only TV appearance. It was not to show Fiala off or pay tribute to his craft, but as a reassuring gesture a parent or child educator might do. Ernie’s morning show on…
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Not One, But TWO “Female Chaplins”
I’ve seen Mabel Normand referred to as being a female Chaplin, in articles from the silent era and in contemporary references. I was intrigued to find similar analogies drawn between Mr. Chaplin and Alice Howell during the silent film era, and it’s appropriate for both comediennes. While neither approached Chaplin’s…