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's '' Metropolis '' (Germany, 1927)]] A silent film is a Motion Picture with no synchronized recorded Sound , especially spoken Dialogue . The idea of combining motion pictures with recorded Sound is nearly as old as the Motion Picture itself, but because of the technical challenges involved, most films were silent before the late 1920s . The silent film era is sometimes referred to as the "Age of the Silver Screen". HISTORY hanging from a clock face in '' Safety Last! '' ( 1923 )]] See Also: History of film The first film was created by Louis Le Prince in 1888. It was a three second film of people walking around in a garden, called '' Roundhay Garden Scene ''. The art of motion pictures grew into full maturity in the "silent era" before silent films were replaced by " Talking Pictures " in the late 1920s. Many film scholars and buffs argue that the aesthetic quality of cinema decreased for several years until directors, actors and production staff adapted to the new "talkies." The visual quality of silent movies -- especially those produced during the 1920s -- was often extremely high. However, there is a widely held misconception that these films were primitive and barely watchable by modern standards. This misconception is due to technical errors (such as films being played back at wrong speed) and due to the deteriorated condition of many silent films (many silent films exist only in second or even third generation copies which were often copied from already damaged and neglected film stock). INTERTITLES See Also: Intertitle Since silent films had no synchronized sound for dialogue, onscreen intertitles were used to narrate story points, present key dialogue and sometimes even comment on the action for the Cinema audience. The ''title writer'' became a key professional in silent film and was often separate from the ''scenario writer'' who created the story. Intertitles (or ''titles'' as they were generally called at the time) often became graphic elements themselves, featuring illustrations or abstract decorations that commented on the action. LIVE MUSIC AND SOUND Showings of silent films almost always featured live music, starting with the pianist at the first public projection of movies by the Lumière Brothers on December 28, 1895 in Paris (Cook, 1990). From the beginning, music was recognized as essential, contributing to the atmosphere and giving the audience vital emotional cues (musicians sometimes played on film sets during shooting for similar reasons). Small town and neighborhood movie theaters usually had a Pianist . From the mid-teens onward, large city theaters tended to have Organists or entire Orchestra s. Massive theatrical organs such as the famous "mighty Wurlitzer " could simulate some orchestral sounds along with a number of Sound Effects . The scores for silents were often more or less Improvised early in the medium's history. Once full features became commonplace, however, music was compiled from Photoplay Music by the pianist, organist, orchestra conductor or the Movie Studio itself, which would send out a cue sheet with the film. Starting with mostly original Score composed by Joseph Carl Breil for D.W. Griffith 's groundbreaking epic '' The Birth Of A Nation '' (USA, 1915) it became relatively common for films to arrive at the exhibiting theater with original, specially composed scores (Eyman, 1997). By the height of the silent era, movies were the single largest source of employment for instrumental musicians (at least in America). But the introduction of talkies, which happened simultaneously with the onset of the Great Depression , was devastating to many musicians. Some countries devised other ways of bringing sound to silent films. The early s with singers lip-synching behind the screen (Parkinson, 1995, p. 69). In Japan , films had not only live music but also the '' Benshi '', a live narrator who provided commentary and character voices. The ''benshi'' became a central element in Japanese film form, as well as providing translation for foreign (mostly American) movies (Standish, 2005). Their popularity was one reason why silents persisted well into the 1930s in Japan. Few film scores have survived intact from this period, and musicologists are still confronted by questions in attempting a precise reconstruction of those which remain. Scores can be distinguished as complete reconstructions of composed scores, newly composed for the occasion, assembled from already existing music libraries, or even improvised. Critical in the development of the silent score is the Theater Organ designed to fill a gap between a simple piano soloist and a larger orchestra. Theater organs had a wide range of special effects, and used actual Percussion . Specialists in the art of arranging and performing silent film scores are rare today. Notable specialists include Steven Ball (of Ann Arbor's Michigan Theater ); Rosa Rio (organist at the Brooklyn Fox during the silent era and now at the Tampa Theater), Ben Model , Neil Brand , Phillip C. Carli, Jon Mirsalis, Dennis James and Donald Sosin Carl Davis has created entirely new scores for silent era classics. ACTING TECHNIQUES in ''The Phantom Of The Opera'' (USA, 1925)]] Silent film actors emphasised Body Language and Facial Expression so that the audience could better understand what an actor was feeling and portraying on screen. Much silent film acting is apt to strike modern-day audiences as simplistic or Campy . For this reason, silent Comedies tend to be more popular in the modern era than drama, partly because overacting is more natural in comedy. Overacting in silent films was sometimes a habit actors transferred from their stage experience. Some directors who understood the intimacy of motion pictures discouraged the older acting styles, and some silent films were quite subtly acted, depending on the director and the skill of the cast. PROJECTION SPEED Up until around 1925, most silent films were shot at slower speeds (or "frame rates") than sound films, typically at 16 to 23 frames per second depending on the year and studio, rather than 24 frames per second. Unless carefully shown at their original speeds they can appear unnaturally fast and jerky, which reinforces their alien appearance to modern viewers. At the same time, some scenes were intentionally Undercranked during shooting in order to accelerate the action, particularly in the case of Slapstick comedies. The intended frame rate of a silent film can be ambiguous and since they were usually hand cranked there can even be variation within one film. Film speed is often a vexed issue among scholars and film buffs in the presentation of silents today, especially when it comes to DVD releases of "restored" films; the 2002 restoration of ''Metropolis'' (Germany, 1927) may be the most fiercely debated example. |
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