A Stetson Hat Boomerangs Back
I hadn’t any more use for my 16mm print of Making a Stetson, so I sold it on eBay. I’d won it there in the first place. It seemed to be a lost film, but then a 35mm print turned… Read More »A Stetson Hat Boomerangs Back
I hadn’t any more use for my 16mm print of Making a Stetson, so I sold it on eBay. I’d won it there in the first place. It seemed to be a lost film, but then a 35mm print turned… Read More »A Stetson Hat Boomerangs Back
I have released two DVDs of films identified at the Mostly Lost film identification workshop. Whether they realize it or not, the participants at Mostly Lost from 2012 through 2017 had a hand in making this disc happen. It’s an… Read More »Curatorial Crowd-Sourcing For The “Mostly Lost” DVDs
Recording a New Piano Soundtrack for The Bride’s Play starring Marion Davies, Aided by a Live Show Experience The hardest part of creating a silent film score for DVD/Blu-ray release is that you’re composing-improvising-performing the score in a vacuum. You’re… Read More »Scoring a Silent Film in a Vacuum
Every once in a while, I’ll hear or be told about some new amazing silent film discovery being shown at some festivals I don’t get to play at. It happens, I would imagine, with some of my colleagues, as well… Read More »Scoring Something Good
One of the bits of restoration work that went into The Alice Howell Collection DVD set was creating new main titles and credits for some of the films. Where possible. And that happened in varying degrees, depending on the studio.… Read More »Will the Real Reelcraft Main Title Please Stand Up?
One of the things that struck me about the “Slapstick Divas” program of silent comedies that I’ve presented with Steve Massa over past year or so was the type of roles the funny ladies in them had. It reminded me… Read More »Alice Howell – Front and Center
Worries and Wobbles (1917) has what might appear to be three strikes against it on the surface: “Jimmy Aubrey comedy”, “directed by Larry Semon” and that it’s a rather blatant knock-off of Chaplin’s One A.M.. The first of these is… Read More »“Jimmy Aubrey Comedy” is Not Always an Oxymoron
You may know that face. No, it’s not Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle. Nor is it Oliver Hardy, sans mustache, nor is it Otto Fries, or any of the other lesser-known plus-size comedians of the silent era. This performer was in over… Read More »Charles Puffy’s Film Career Sandwich
My DVD label Undercrank Productions has a new release, the second in a series that showcases the identification fun we have every year at the “Mostly Lost” workshop at the Library of Congress at it’s Packard Preservation Campus in Culpeper,… Read More »Found at “Mostly Lost”: volume 2 – new DVD
Marion Davies’ 1922 Film Beauty’s Worth Gets a Deluxe Outdoor Screening In the Birthplace of Its Director Robert G. Vignola At the end of this week, on a piazza in the ankle of the boot that is Italy, a crew will… Read More »Marion Davies Makes an Appearance in Italy