Ben Model’s blog
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There were two main types of feature-length comedies made during the silent era. There were the slapstick ones, which sputtered initially in the late ‘teens until Chaplin figured out how to make this work, and the ones that didn’t star slapstick comedians. The second kind had a run from 1915…
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Silent Comedy Features Without All That Slapstick
Douglas Fairbanks spent six years making feature-length light comedies, mainly playing a semi-typical middle-class young man on a series of adventures. Once he made The Mark of Zorro, there was no turning back to that format. The five- or six-reel non-slapstick comedy genre did not end when Doug moved into…
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A Chaplin-esque Alice Howell Comedy
Trade ads proclaimed Alice Howell as a (or the) female Chaplin. I’d initially thought this was a parallel to Chaplin’s being the number one star. There are similar proclamations about Mabel Normand, and the analogy fits. Mabel was the top female comedy star of the silent era, and even made…
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The Park Theater in Glens Falls NY
It’s a wonderful thing when a community is able to raise money to save, refurbish and reopen its town’s original movie theater. It’s even more wonderful when the people involved with programming at these theaters are interested in presenting silent film. Such is the case with the newly reborn Park…
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The Speed Is Mutual
My rule of thumb with projection speeds and silent comedy films used to be guided by whether there were audience laughs or not. Later, once I’d done a lot of research into the difference between taking speed and projection speed and what films were run at during certain years, that…
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Iron Or Candy
FaceBook reminded me this morning that I sent out a press release for Accidentally Preserved: Volume 1 six years ago. A quick hop onto Google shows that the sixth anniversary is the iron or candy one. Both seem appropriate. My idea of seeing if I could connect a bunch of…
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In Film Programming 1+1+1+1 Can Add Up To More Than 4
One of the insights I’ve had into film programming has come from my many years’ experience accompanying silent films. Literally, it’s the experience of accompanying films during a show, and sensing the vibe in the theater. One thing I’ve learned is that there are times when a 90 or 100…
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ep. 32: meeting audience expectations, tips on choosing a comedy short, and a trip to Nebraska
On this episode of the podcast, I discuss meeting an audience’s expectations while staying true to the film’s original culture, choosing a comedy short to show newbies, and playing for a show where someone else’s music credit is onscreen; also, Arthur Kleiner accompanies a Harold Lloyd short with an iPhone,…
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Stringing Along With Ernie Kovacs for Dutch Masters
I’ve seen the famous Ernie Kovacs commercial for Dutch Masters a few dozen times, at least, and never noticed the string quartet. Not that they were in the commercial, the one known as “Haydn”, the one that won Kovacs and co-director Joe Behar an award the first year the Clios…
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My Scoring Evolves
I can usually recognize the accompaniment styles of a number of my colleagues when I hear them on a home video or broadcast. A few months ago I caught a silent on TCM and didn’t recognize the pianist. Which was weird. Because I was pretty sure I’d scored that film…