Movies


Frankenstein (1910) with fresh accompaniment

This week I added an ART USBMIX mixer to the audio gear I use to accompany silent movies on Twitch. The 1910 Frankenstein from Edison Studios was one of the movies I showed in January; I redid it with the mixer, hoping to improve the sound quality by eliminating the microphone and the keyboard and room noise along with it. I’m happy with the result and plan to use this setup in my February 14 movie. The proof of concept is now up on YouTube.
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Coming January 10: Silent movie night on Zoom — make that Twitch

On Wednesday, January 10, I’m going to try something new: presenting two short silent movies on Zoom with live keyboard accompaniment. This will be at 8 PM Eastern US time. It’s going to be an experiment; Zoom has all the components necessary, and I’ve tried them out, but performing for a live (well, real-time) audience always brings surprises. I’ll post the link here a couple of days before the event. User capabilities will be locked down so that Zoom bombers shouldn’t be able to do anything more than be annoying in chat, so sharing the link will be OK. (But I’ll still ask not to share it on Facebook or Xitter; no sense pushing my luck.)

For this one I’ll use my free Zoom account, which limits the event to 40 minutes. If it goes well, I may revive my paid account to allow more time. Or maybe I’ll learn how to use Twitch. The movies will start about 5 minutes after the event opens, since the time will be tight.

Update: After some experimenting, I’ve decided Twitch is a better platform for the purpose. The audience can’t do more than type into chat, so I don’t have to worry as much about who shows up. The presentation will be on www.twitch.tv/madfilkentist, and you can follow me on Twitch if you’re so inclined.

The program will be two short movies of the early silent era: Edison Studios’ Frankenstein and George Méliès’s The Impossible Voyage.
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