Ben Model’s blog
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The Scarecrow (1920) has gradually become one of my alternate go-to Keaton shorts for audiences. In the event I’ve already shown them One Week, or am doing a general audience program for a newbie crowd, this one really lands. It’s also one of the few Keaton shorts with a set-piece…
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Skyping With An External Mic
I don’t know if it’s because I think like a filmmaker that makes me add some light production values to using Skype. I’m aware of how what I’m shooting will look to the person or audience viewing it on a screen,and how it comes across. I like to think it…
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A Keaton Short and the 19th Amendment
I’ve been seeing items posted online over the last few months commemorating the 100th anniversary of the passing by Congress of the 19th Amendment. This reminded me of a joke in a Buster Keaton film. It’s a topical joke, one that I never got and which usually doesn’t a get…
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In Search of the Nairobi Trio
Mention Ernie Kovacs to anyone and the first thing they’ll come back with (when it isn’t “who?”) is The Nairobi Trio. Then maybe Percy Dovetonsils, and after that Ernie’s use of special effects. The Nairobi Trio is an iconic Kovacs gag or image to people, the way the photo of…
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Finding Wallace Lupino’s Lost Laugh
A Rare Comedy Short Made When the Greatest Thing Since Sliced Bread Was Still Sliced Bread A CBS Sunday Morning Report on people who collect toasters included a factoid that made me think of Wallace Lupino, brother of Lupino Lane. There is a gag in The Lost Laugh (1928) involving…
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Saving Monte Collins
A lot of one-reel comedy shorts from the late 1920s seem to only survive in 16mm home use prints from the 1930s. Wedding Slips (1928) with Monte Collins now only exists as a digital file. Luckily I snagged this one in its final throes of vinegar syndrome decomposition, and managed…
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Song and Dance in Silent Movies
One of the challenges in scoring a silent film is dealing with the fact that occasionally, there are musical numbers performed or sung. Often, the song is sung or performed in its entirety. In most cases it’s impossible to synch up anything you’re playing. The exception, of course, is “The…
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A Harold Lloyd – Constance Talmadge Crossover
I read silent movie title cards and letter insert shots faster than most people in the audience do. I have to, so I get the meat of the info before the audience does, so I can stay ahead of things. This gives me extra time to look at the periphery…
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Ernie Kovacs Meets Florence Foster Jenkins
It’s a sustained three-minute shot of three people, just sitting, listening to a singer, for a nearly three minutes before the joke has a payoff. That’s how Ernie Kovacs opened one of his prime time shows for NBC in the summer of 1956. Who else had the chutzpah to start…
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A Stetson Hat Boomerangs Back
I hadn’t any more use for my 16mm print of Making a Stetson, so I sold it on eBay. I’d won it there in the first place. It seemed to be a lost film, but then a 35mm print turned up in New Zealand and I wanted to know when…