I've got a couple of silent films (and two on the way in the post) and so I was wondering what you guys do when you screen something silent (either from the 'silent era' or not). Do you watch them without music to accompany them or do you stick on a cd/some music to go alongside? Obviously if we're talking about Chaplins, Keatons etc when they went to cinemas they would've had an organist/piano player to go along with the film so watching them with some music, to me, seems logically to be more "authentic" but the problem is that no matter what you pick it will almost definitely be out of sync/pace with the film*.

Thoughts?

*That said, Django Reinhardt goes reasonably well with slapstick comedies

A good point Tyler, whatever you chose, unless you record set pieces for a specific film, is somewhere through the film going to be out of place, you could just take the "pop" video approach and play your music irrespective of visual having anything to do with audio, like
"Chaplin and the Sex Pistols" or a "Keaton meets the Kinks", they used to get away with in in clubs years ago while kids danced away with these images projected on walls.

It has been many many years Tyler, but when I did, most definitely WITH music accompaniment of the correct theme.

I used to make up my own tapes on a cassette or reel to reel recorder.
This is very creative and time consuming but well worth the effort.
Especially if its a serious drama.
For example for a Silent Print of say BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN i used a number of extracts
from the music of Shostakovich , Rachmaninov , and Sibelius for various scenes.
However you can use a CD like the Carl Davis score for the silent film PHANTOM OF THE OPERA.
This can involve a bit of participation on your part during the show for various scenes.
I fade the music up or down as required and skip using a cue sheet.
This gives a better presentation and a more hands on approach and for me a degree of satisfaction.
I have to do this as i cant afford to pay for the Berlin Philharmonic in my viewing area.

There are various DVDs of silent films to buy, or tape from YouTube where specially recorded scores from "Nosferatu" by composers
like James Bernard etc have made a special score, worth looking into Tyler.

Yes Hugh the James Bernard score to NOSFERATU is another fine example of a ready made
CD for a silent film classic. I have used this one too.

Good points, cheers!

If it's just for me I think I'll keep experimenting around and seeing what fits but if I am showing others (and if it is a decent length) then I'll try have something worked out

Personally I don't mind silents being silent, but if there's a soundtrack on it, I do prefer it. I do not have the energy to find a suitable score for each film and start it from my PC/IPad 2 or such, then I'll leave it silent.

Hi Tyler,
I have attempted it a handful of times but due to time constraints, I've been watching the silent films as they are, where all you hear is the sound of the projector. I do have a CD of music from the 1920's that would work well on some of my films. The recordings are of course very old and contain imperfections and pops. But that makes it sound like an authentic soundtrack for a film from that time period (the 20's and early 30's).

Remember lads even in the days of Silent Films presentations they were never really "silent" and very rarely projected to
the public that way. There was nearly always a Piano or small String Section such as a Quartet playing some music
or an Organ. Some cinemas even presented the films with a "sound effects" team. Some films even had a Film Score written.
So if you want to try and be as authentic as possible use at least some suitable music as background.
I still do it even if its only me that's watching the Silent Film.

Personally, I'm not a huge fan of the very early silent cinema era.
Each to their own of course but for me, I simply never found the Keystone Cops or Chalie Chaplin or Buster Keaton etc etc, all that funny if I'm honest.

By the time Laurel & Hardy appeared in those early talkies, all of this changed for the better in my opinion. These films were extremely funny!

Andrew the Silent Era is my era of choice if I were forced to choose from only one era.
Not only do I like the comedies but even more so the Dramas and the Horror silent and of
course METROPOLIS.
I can quite happily live with ONLY those for the rest of my puff.
As for the Laurel & Hardy ones some of the later talkies were simply remakes of the silent ones they did.

The silent era is really a mixed bag, some of it is absolute bilge and people went to see it because they hardly knew better BUT there are some real gems. I think some Keaton stuff is unbelievably funny and brilliantly well made.

And David makes a good point about them never being shown silent in the cinemas- I'll need to hire an accompanist for my next show :P