Ben Model’s blog

  • One of the perks of accompanying silent films is the opportunity afforded to discover directors whose work you have heard of or seen a little of…by playing for a retrospective series of their films. In May 2009 I accompanied several silents in a retro at MoMA of French director Julien…

  • In honor of Harold Lloyd’s birthday, I’ve uploaded a fun, rarely seen early “glasses” one-reeler with Harold to my YouTube channel. I scored this in 2008 for the American Slapstick 2 DVD set from AllDay Entertainment. The set is still in print and you can order the whole 3-disc set…

  • I sit about ten feet from the screen when I play for Chaplin’s “The Immigrant” at the Museum of the Moving Image at their education programs. Watching this film in a sharp 35mm print several times every year, I’d started thinking about the shot of the rocking boat in the…

  • Here’s my latest video blog. Take a ride to and from the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria with me on the N and the R as I head out to play for a school group screening of Charlie Chaplin’s “The Immigrant”.

  • Here’s a new installment of my video blog, in which we visit the historic Eldridge St Synagogue for a Max Davidson show, the 1938 Indian Lake Theater and “Safety Last”, and the gala re-opening of the Museum of the Moving Image.

  • I’ve found in numerous in Chaplin films that certaiin sequences and routines fit a musical beat and structure, that a bit of business will fit nicely an 8 or 16 bar phrase. It may have been an innate thing with Chaplin, and he may not have intended this at all.…

  • Here’s a rare 1927 comedy short that I’ve just scored and uploaded to YouTube. I used a virtual piano software from Native Instruments, and chose the Steingraeber upright instead of one of the grands (e.g. Steinway D), as it seemed like a good fit. Enjoy! Ben [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Km4FowS0Xms&fs=1&hl=en_US]

  • I’ve just discovered that Naxos’ music download site, ClassicsOnline.com, has my chamber piece available. There are a few other sites that have the CD available, including iTunes, but you have to buy the whole CD to get my piece. On the Naxos site you can buy just my track, for…

  • Here are some photos I took of the Indian Lake Theatre in Indian Lake, NY. They brought me up to present and accompany Harold Lloyd’s “Safety Last” on Sunday, November 21st. The theatre was built in 1938 and was a summer-season-only movie theater, and continued to be so for the…

  • This very nice article appeared in the Nov 17-23, 2010 issue of the Lake Champlain weekly, a feature story promoting the “Safety Last” show I did for the Champlain Valley Film Society on Nov 20. In the CVFS’s 8-year history, the #2 and #3 ranking movies in terms of attendance…