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.
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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
Thanks for the recommendation of Kanopy. I signed up through my library and added the app on my Amazon Firestick. There is a pretty good amount of silent film collections and features available to be streamed for free, this will keep me from getting bored while staying home during this pandemic!
Thanks again for all you do Ben!