On this episode Ben talks about: using music an audience may or may not expect to hear during a film in preparing scores for shows of Fairbanks’ “Robin Hood” and Raoul Walsh’s “Loves of Carmen”; using underscore to help smooth over missing footage; playing the theatre organ like it’s an orchestra and sparingly using its “toy counter”; expanding his live-streamed silent film shows beyond his weekly “Silent Comedy Watch Party”, and more.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed
Subscribe to the podcast: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | Android | Pandora | iHeartRadio | TuneIn | RSS
episode 36: “Famous Players and Famous Melodies”
- Silent Comedy Watch Party update
- Accompanying Westerns – Art Acord in The Showdown and William S. Hart in Three Word Brand
- Fairbanks’s Robin Hood; incorporating songs written for the film by Victor Schertzinger
- Programming Douglas Fairbanks films for performance today
- Kelly Kitchens from Dallas talks about The Silent Comedy Watch Party
- The Loves of Carmen versus the melodies of Bizet
- Improvising in the style of traditional folk music forms
- Creating musical bridges for missing frames and scenes
- Expanding live streaming accompaniment to silent film online for art houses and institutions
- Sponsorship: Accidentally Preserved Volume 4 from Undercrank Productions
- Playing more orchestrally for The White Sister starring Mary Pickford and Ronald Colman
- FAQ: “Don’t”s and “be careful”s for sound effects on a theater organ (the “toy counter”)
- Kerr recommends Kanopy, a streaming classic film service.
Links from the episode:
- Watch The Silent Comedy Watch Party Episode 11
- Watch The Silent Comedy Watch Party Episode 12
- Watch The Showdown starring Art Acord, accompanied by Ben
- Watch Three Word Brand starring William S. Hart accompanied by Ben
- Read Rosie Taylor’s blog post about Three Word Brand at Southwest Silents
- Hewlett Woodmere Public Library
- “Just An Old Love Song” by Victor Schertzinger written for Robin Hood (1922)
- The Museum of Modern Art Department of Film
- Steamboat Bill, Jr. online with live accompaniment by Ben Model for The Cinema Arts Center (Huntington NY)
- Accidentally Preserved Volume Four
- Suggest a Frequently Asked Question for Ben to answer in the podcast
- Nick White’s Vintage Sound Effects
- Mike Dobson – composer, sound designer and foley artist
- Kanopy Streaming Classic Film