Category: Silent Film Shows
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Streamed Silents: Does Live-Scoring Make A Difference?
It’s interesting. I really thought my idea of live-streaming a live-scored and live-hosted silent film program would catch on. Perhaps slowly at first, and then at some point it would start to snowball. After all, so many of us silent film enthusiasts say that the live music is a key part of seeing a silent…
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“The Sound of the Silents”
This punny title was applied to a number of LPs of theatre organ music in the 1970s, and was often used as the headline for a news item about a silent film screening that featured the mighty Wurlitzer. It’s still in use from time to time, highlighting the mere fact that there is live music.…
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Whither the Virtual Silent Movie Theater
Virtual Cinema, for most art-houses and film viewers, was a stop-gap measure during the pandemic. It was a way to keep going while everyone waited for it to be safe to re-open and to return to movie theaters. It also built a new audience, one best served by virtual cinema, and one that now faces…
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Keaton’s “Go West” live-streamed
I thoroughly enjoyed presenting and live-scoring Keaton’s Go West (1925) for the Cinema Arts Centre via live-stream last night! Our monthly series will continue online for the remainder of 2021, and possibly longer even after the CAC resumes in-person screenings. We do a live Q&A with viewers after the movie and ask people to let…
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William S. Hart in “Three Word Brand”
Turns out I have a few silent films on hard drives here that I’ve never published or released. While looking for, oh heck I don’t even remember what it was, I came across a William S. Hart western I’d scored years ago. There aren’t a lot of good versions of William S. Hart films available…
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There Ain’t No “Santa Claus” Silent Film
If a venue and I are looking at a December date, I get asked the same thing other film accompanists get asked. Is there a good Christmas silent movie we can show? It’s easy to program to the calendar with films from the 1940s onward. There are a couple perennial Xmas favorites, thanks to Laurel…
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Four Seconds
The pause between songs on a record album or CD is usually four or five seconds. I don’t know how this was determined back in the early days of long playing records, but it is just enough time to mentally take a deep breath before the next track begins. I’ve found the same is true…
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“Silent Speed” and 16mm Projectors
There is a notion that silent films should be shown at what is often referred to as “silent speed”, or 18 frames per second. In the silent era, motion picture projectors were hand-cranked and, later, motorized but with rheostats. A question I’ve pondered for some time is: where does the term “silent speed” come from,…
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Silent Comedy Laughs
Every once in a while I question something I’ve been saying about the way people react to silent films. It’s usually when one of these responses hasn’t happened for a couple or few years. And then it happens again, and I am re-invigorated with this reaction. This very thing happened on Saturday. Ironically, it was…