Ben Model’s blog
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People who haven’t seen Silent Film — or experienced it — are always surprised to know there’s an interest in it. When I tell people kids eat it up when I show Keaton in schools they are amazed. They shouldn’t be. But it’s because they’re thinking of the wrong side…
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Brandy Snifter on the Cocktail Bar Piano
I wasn’t sure when I first heard about Patreon, but a recent NPR piece about it that interviews its founders Jack Conte and Sam Yam mentions their launch year of 2013. So, this was during the time in the early 2010s that I’d been researching what people in the music…
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Re-release Everything
Over the last several months of doing live-accompanied live-streams of silent films, I’ve noticed the validity of something I’d read that Charley Chase once said. That he’d learned from his years in vaudeville that every seven years you get a new audience. As much as Steve Massa and I have…
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ep. 39: “Adventures in Sound!”
“Adventures In Sound!” – Ben tracks his own journey to find the digital devices that best re-create or at least evoke the classic theater pipe organ experience under modern screening conditions. Topics Ben discusses the “temporary” theme for the podcast, “Those Keystone Comedy Cops” Ben’s instrumental evolution Learning to play…
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Rugelach and Gilbert Gottfried: the Gifts that Keep on Giving
I often bring rugelach from Zabars as a professional gift. People really like it, and Zabars is 8 blocks away from our building. When I tossed bags of the stuff to Frank Santopadre and Gilbert Gottfried while unpacking my keyboard gear, Gilbert exclaimed “Ooh! You’re our new favorite guest!” Which…
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Exploring the Speed of Silent Comedy Film – test #5
Ever slam your hand in a door? This is what we played with in the last of the five videos. There’s a way to do this safely and make it look real, using the ersatz sleight-of-hand of the speed-up of silent film We took this at 12 fps, or we…
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Exploring the Speed of Silent Comedy Film – test #4
One of the facets of silent film, and silent film comedy, is that since the film overall is being projected faster than taking speed, you can take individual shots at different speeds. When run together, the viewer won’t see the difference — as long as the appropriate adjustments in performance…
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Exploring the Speed of Silent Comedy Film – test #3
There are a few sequences in Chaplin’s “The Pawnshop” (1916) where Charlie and co-worker John Rand engage in slapstick hitting fights. It’s almost a running theme throughout the film, and they’re executed with precision by two clowns who really know how to hit each other…and be hit by one another.…
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Exploring the Speed of Silent Comedy Film – test #2
One of the gags I’ve seen in silent comedies many times that’s really something you’d typically see in an animated cartoon. The trick is in creating the illusion of someone weighing a fraction of what they actually do. Usually one character is upset with another, grabs him or her, and…
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Exploring the Speed of Silent Comedy Film – test #1
One of my fascinations with silent film is with how it is that it is shown faster than the speed at which it was shot, but doesn’t look it. Once I figured out that the secret is in adjusting the tempo of the performers’ physicality, the next step was to…