silent films

[eddie]

Im just curious, how many people here think they would watch a 70 minute silent film, with just a music soundtrack?
If not why not? What sort of things do you think a silent film of this length would need to have to make it watchable?
Some things are obvious, but how would you achieve those things yourself?

thanks for your time

[miker]

That would be an interesting project.

The only feature length silent film I can remember watching was Mel Brook's Silent Movie (certainly most of it was silent, but I last saw it about 15 years ago!!)

Basically the battle would be keeping the audience interested.

Music I would keep unintrusive, orchestral scores is what I'd go for.

The camera dynamic would be ultra important, every shot would have to really really really count.

Then of course the subject matter and actors would have to be interesting, and revealed and paced in a suitable way.

I don't think shooting silent is that much of an obstacle, it will certainly force you to focus on visual narrative. Your film could be better for that.

[Chance1234]

there was a time when all movies were silent, the question is why dont they still make silent movies ?

do they know smomething we dont !

think i could watch it in the right enviroment, ie alcohol, smokes !

Chance



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[Red House Painter]

2001: A Space Odyssey is fittingly a good film to watch at the moment because it has so little dialogue. This gives it such a distinctive feel and at first viewing was considered boring by the critics but after 15 minutes was cut from it, people realised how brilliant it is. It requires you to think as you watch and to examine it. Most films don't let you do that. Producing a silent film would teach anyone making it to examine the visual side of the process and also the narrative progression, explained through visuals. Any other director would have had to add in one of the characters speculating on the purpose of the monolith (as in Mission to Mars which just had to explain what the alien was telling us). You should never under estimate your audience. As Paul Shrader said 'I learned a long time ago that an audience would rather be confused than bored'.
The fact that we have to interpret the monolith for ourselves is what keeps us interested and then allows the conclusion to be left unexplained by dialogue.
Take another look at Lost Highway which also has very little dialogue and can be very confusing untill you force yourself to think about what is happening in the second half.

I think the music should not represent the mood of the scene (Good the Bad and the Ugly, whistling), but be part of it (2001)

[The Baines Hunt Rebel]

the only silent films i can sit through are comedies and in colour. silent movie, the plank (only because it's got the legend that is tommy cooper in it)you should watch nosferatu and eisenstein, battleship potempkin etc, just to see what they do. eisenstein is widely renowned as a genious but if you do any sort of visual arts course you get him rammed down your throat so i hate him. although you can learn a hell of a lot about narative from him.

[eddie]

thanks for the answers.
It sounds like you are more open minded than most...
I tend to think of silent films as slower, more contemplative too, (such as the 2001 post above) since the audience are not lead and thrown around by the dialog, they can switch off from the film more easilly. Its harder (much harder) to get the audience absorbed in the world of the film.

What if the film was fast paced though. Many many fast cuts. I dont really want this to be too much like a music video!
I guess like you say, the music/soundtrack needs to add to the story, perhaps unobtrusive music that adds more elements, rather than simply represents the mood of the fast cuts.

I read a quote the other day that said 'the soundtrack is 90% of the images you think you saw.'


Thanks for your help.

[Eliud25]

When I think of silent films, I first think of Nosferatu(the greatest vampire flick of all time) and then my mind sinks to Chaplin in the Circus. But suddenly my mind tends to drift to yet another silent film that really impacted me. It was Saving Private Ryan. Now you are saying that is not a silent film and this guy is crazy. But think for a moment. Remember the scene where the Army soldiers are disenbarking the amphibious vehicle in the beaches. Well for a few seconds everything went numb and you couldn't hear anything. It was when a bomb or artillery exploded and we saw a shaky cam effect as the soldiers were bombarded with artilley and small arms fire. Now that really impressed the hell out of me, and I think that was just pure genious. Now what if we made a movie like that. I mean an Army flick where words are not spoken, but where only the sounds of the wind, the rattle of machines, sound of machine gun fire are heard. Wouldn't that be great? I don't know but I am really thinking of making a movie like that in the future. Its a movie where no words are spoken but we know where we are and what is happening. Wouldn't that be great?

[Red House Painter]

I nresponse to the above post, the greatest thing about the opening sequence of Saving Private Ryan was the fact that when they get off the boat you don't hear any gunshots, only the bullets hiting the water, metal and flesh. Whilst I find Spielberg puts too much Hollywood rubish in his films, somehow he recognises all the important factors that most directors don't. Not seeing a german firing a machine gun then cutting to a guy getting peppered with bullets is what makes the film so realistic as it shows us how it really would be. When the guys get off the boat it is as though spielberg did not even know who was going to be shot. If you watch any other war film we can anticipate the next death. We hardly see any germans firing to start with, just people dying from a mystery source of gunfire.
I'll just take this opportunity to say how much i hate that film for the bollocks about a woman getting three American flags after all her sons are killed. Even if the story is true, I'm sure the general didn't give a shit about Ryan but saw the publicity spin it had to offer. I felt sick when he read the letter Lincoln had written. Tom Hanks is also one of the poorest actors ever. It gets boring watching him do the same old tired character in every film. God forbid he should ever be in a film with Julia Roberts!

[DrPsychoSpaz]

Hey, eddie. Personally, I could watch a black and white silent movie that's that long, but it has to be able to grab my attention. What's it gonna be about? Whatever it is it has to grab our attention and not let go, because with silent movies you have to try even harder to make it interesting. Maybe if you're making a horror movie, make the violence and suspense over the top so we want to keep watching to see more. Give us a reason to sit through it. Anyway, that's my two cents

[eddie]

Thanks for the answers, these are really helpful. It is a horror film Im making, its about 2/3rds finished, what Im worried about is as you all say, that it just gets boring, pointless to watch - 'better to confuse than to bore'.
At the moment Im editing it silently, so the pacing is all coming through the images, not music or speech. In fact so far there are only two words spoken.
The opening sequence of Private is excellent, I was thinking of it when shooting Act II of my film, I wanted to *try* and capture some of that chaos and energy, have you noticed that sequence is over 20 minutes long - with very little real dialog, but you still understand whats going on - even though its not much - a bunch of guys are trying to get up the beach. And its horror is soulless and relentless.

Could that kind of relentlessness be shown for over 30 minutes? Or would it just be too much?

The quiet scenes in Ryan help this I think. They are the personal moments, when you witness with Hanks the horror of what he is seeing, like an anxiety attack, he becomes removed from the violence all around him - it gets muffled, and slows down, then you see short snatches of detail amidst the chaos.
There is no way I could do that myself, but its worth thinking about.

Noseferatu is fantastic. Cant wait to see shadow of the Vampire.