Friday, November 14, 2008

Alt Scores for Alt Perceptions



Over the years, I've learned a lot from studying silent movie comedies. One downside of all these repeated viewings is that the movies can lose the entertainment and humor they had for me when I first saw them. One way to breathe new life into these classics is to see them with a new musical score. 

Silent film accompanist extraordinaire Ben Model has been recording alternative scores for available movies that you can buy for a very reasonable price (he even has some free ones), download as an MP3, and listen to while watching a DVD. You'll be surprised the new things you can discover from a film by watching it with different music, which has the power to adjust meaning, highlight subtleties, and make or break gags. Ben's wonderful score for Buster Keaton's Sherlock Jr. brought back all the excitement I had first seeing the film in New York 23 years ago.

Ben Model's Alt Score website

Foolish Questions: What music do you listen to while creating (if any) or what music do you perform to? Can you find something completely different to accompany you and observe how it affects your work? What did you discover?

NOTE: Many of the videos on my blog and on my website are hosted by revver.com who is having "technical difficulties". Hopefully they'll reappear soon.

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