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Picturoll

Picturolls

Picturolls contained additional “code” specifically for the instruments and sound effects on the Fotoplayer.

Though any piano roll could be used on the fotoplayer, the Picturoll made by the Film Music Co. were made specifically for the fotoplayer. The Picturolls were cut with a unique combination of long and short holes in the paper to make the piano and the organ pipes perform better together.

The titles of these rolls indicate the mood of music which one would play to match the action projected on the screen. Titles such as Mushy Music, Fire! Fire! Fire!, Drunk Soused Spree, and The Roaring Volcano, are some of the typical rolls that a fotoplayer operator would have ready-at-hand.

Please let Joe Rinaudo know if you have or have seen any of these Picturolls, as Joe  would love to hear them played on his machine. Contact him here.

TESTING A NEW COMPOSITION

Scott Lasky and Joe Rinaudo listen to a few test runs of Mr. Lasky’s new roll arrangement of “traditional” silent film chase music.

Scott Lasky is Musical Director for Famous Players Orchestra, a silent film orchestra based in Los Angeles. Mr. Lasky visited Joe Rinaudo to test his newly-cut piano roll.

According to Mr.  Lasky , “I recently dropped in on Joe Rinaudo and showed him a new piano roll arrangement I was working on. This was a test roll which we tried out on the American Fotoplayer in order to hear how it would sound using different settings and tempi and also check for errors.” That visit was filmed for the above video.

REVIVING REMARKABLE MUSIC

Visit the Famous Players Orchestra website, FPOrchestra.org, and enjoy this short piece about music of the silent cinema, and about the organization:

Famous Players Orchestra CD Fund Drive

Share your love of silent films and great historic music of the silent era with a contribution to Famous Players Orchestra. Famous Players Orchestra is an IRS 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization and your tax-deductable contributions are greatly appreciated! Your generous support will help FPO to continue their work in reviving this remarkable forgotten music through live concert performances and new recording projects. Visit the donation page.

The End

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Chapman, Documentary, Fotoplayer, Music, Silent Cinema, Silent Film, Sound Effects, Subscribe to Newsreel

Sounds of Silent Cinema

This documentary explores the use of orchestras, bands, sound effects artists, piano players & organists during the Silent Film Era (1895-1927).

Feature interviews:
Dr. Paul Monaco
Bob Mitchell
Joe Rinaudo
Mildred Lewis
Ed Kelsey

Produced by Chapman University as a graduate film project
Jeff Callaway & Craig D. Forrest, co-directors
Aaron Burns & Ben Bateman, editors
Special thanks to David Shepherd (film historian), Michael Kowalski (advisor) & the late David Garcia (advisor)

Awards:
Voted Best Short Documentary @ Oxford Int’l Film Fest (2007)
Best Student Short Documentary @ Family Film Fest (2008)
Best Student Short Documentary @ Hollywood Int’l Student Film Fest (2007)
Official Selection: Whittier Film Fest (2008), Scene First Student Film Fest (2006), Charleston Film Fest (2008), Reynolda Film Fest (2009).

Of Special Interest:

Famous Players Orchestra

Famous Players Orchestra performs and records historic cinematic music used by movie theater orchestras during the silent film era. Listen to samples and learn about the organization here:

fporchestra.org

The End

 

Glass Lantern Slides, intermission, Subscribe to Newsreel

Glass Lantern Slides

INTERMISSION

(OR…THE FILM JUST BROKE)

In the years of silent cinema, lantern slides were used primarily to announce coming attractions, advertise products and services, and to entertain the audience while film reels were being changed on the projector. It also served as an emergency pacifier whenever the film broke or caught on fire (really! —early nitrate film was highly combustible).

The itinerant projectionist had a large case of several slide categories: pre-show and intermission slides including sing-alongs, code of conduct announcements, upcoming programs, and advertisers’ lures. Yes, there were “commercials” way back then, too. There were also emergency procedure slides in case of a film catching on fire or other common catastrophe.

The authentic glass lantern slides shown on this page are from the collection of Joe Rinaudo, silent cinema historian and preservationist. They are all original images, optically restored by Chaz DeSimone and re-mounted by Mr. Rinaudo.

Here’s what the worn, scratched, faded slides looked like before they were restored to original splendor:

singin-BEFORE

and after:

singin-RESTORED

Type is sharpened, colors are restored, contrast is expanded, and every scratch and spec of dust is removed. (See the black poodle on the riser in the “before” image? It wasn’t until I zoomed in close while removing dust and scratches, that I realized that wasn’t a poodle or cat or chimpanzee—it was a huge blotch on the film.) The brilliant colors are bleeding outside the image because these black and white photographs were hand-colored with vibrant transparent dyes. Considering how small the slides are, it took a fine brush and a steady hand to stay within the lines. You’ll notice an unevenness in some large areas of color, where the ink tended to blob, streak or mottle.

These brilliant slides added a splash of color to an otherwise monochromatic show.

HISTORY OF THE LANTERN SLIDE

The magic lantern was invented long before moving pictures. Here’s some history from Wikipedia:

The magic lantern or Laterna Magica is an early type of image projector developed in the 17th century. It was commonly used for educational and entertainment purposes.

The magic lantern used a concave mirror in back of a light source to direct as much of the light as possible through a small rectangular sheet of glass—a “lantern slide”—on which was the painted or photographic image to be projected, and onward into a lens at the front of the apparatus. The lens was adjusted to optimally focus the plane of the slide at the distance of the projection screen, which could be simply a white wall, and it therefore formed an enlarged image of the slide on the screen.

Apart from sunlight, the only light sources available at the time of invention in the 16th century were candles and oil lamps, which were very inefficient and produced very dim projected images. The invention of the Argand lamp in the 1790s helped to make the images brighter. The invention of limelight in the 1820s made them very much brighter. The invention of the intensely bright electric arc lamp in the 1860s eliminated the need for combustible gases or hazardous chemicals, and eventually the incandescent electric lamp further improved safety and convenience, although not brightness.

The magic lantern was not only a direct ancestor of the motion picture projector, but it could itself be used to project moving images, which was achieved by the use of various types of mechanical slides. Typically, two glass slides, one with the stationary part of the picture and the other with the part that was to move, would be placed one on top of the other and projected together, then the moving slide would be hand-operated, either directly or by means of a lever or other mechanism. Chromotrope slides, which produced eye-dazzling displays of continuously cycling abstract geometrical patterns and colors, were operated by means of a small crank and pulley wheel that rotated a glass disc.

—Wikipedia; read full article here

TITLES & INTERTITLES

View before-and-after restoration examples of silent cinema main titles and intertitles .