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ep. 36: scoring Robin Hood and a 1927 Carmen, using the orchestral and cartoony sounds of a theatre organ, more live-streaming

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.

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: