Creating a silent film

[chocolate-chip chooky]

My daughter and a friend are hoping to create a short silent film, as a collaborative project.

The loose plan is for them to watch and analyse some silent films, with particular emphasis on the choice of music. Then they'll choose a genre, create a simple plot, compose the music, act and film it etc.

Have any of you ever done anything like this before? Any ideas regarding resources that could be helpful? 

Thanks 🙂 

[Lori D.]

lesson plans/how to
- K-12 Silent Film Project -- how to, and links to resources
- Australian Arts/Media Curriculum: Make a Silent Movie -- simple steps; links to resources
- How to Make a Silent Movie -- wiki how-to

addtional resources
- history of silent film
- story board templates -- storyboards help you plan out the sequence of shots needed for filming
- Silent Film Studio -- I-phone/I-pad app -- allows basic editing and has filters for turning video b&w and adding "scratching" to make it look old
- Make a Silent Film -- contest to enter your completed film
- Every Frame a Painting: Buster Keaton, the Art of the Gag -- 8:30 min analysis of why Buster Keaton's silent comedies are so good

other movie-making curriculum (NOT silent film projects)
- Movie Making from Apple -- 16-week high school level free course pdf on
- Movie Making in the Classroom -- high school level

For watching silent movies, I can highly recommend the following:
NOTE: most do NOT have neither the original music scores, or, when there was no original score, the piano accompaniment created by a theater's local pianist to create mood music to fit what was going on in each scene -- most of the music has been refitted for today, and is orchestral, rather than piano-only

- comedy: Buster Keaton: Cops, Sherlock Jr, Steamboat Bill Jr, The Navigator, The General
- comedy: Harold Lloyd: Safety Last
- comedy: Charlie Chaplin: The Gold Rush -- Chaplin's 1942 re-release with his musical score (orchestral) and his voice-over narration added by him
- dramedy: Charlie Chaplin: The Kid -- Chaplin's musical score, but an orchestral version
- adventure: Douglas Fairbanks: The Thief of Baghdad -- this version was retrofitted with new music with the beautiful and very fitting symphony of Scherezade by Rimsky-Korsakov
- adventure: Douglas Fairbanks: The Black Pirate
- western: Edward Porter: The Great Train Robbery
- fantastical: the short films of George Meliés -- this link allows you to play all existing films in order
- sci-fi: Fritz Lang: Metropolis -- the rights were retained, so you have to rent this one; the link is for the official trailer
- horror: Thomas Edison studios: Frankenstein
- horror: Paul Wegener: The Golem
- horror: WF Murnau: Nosferatu
- realistic/drama -- by today's standards, most serious drama films are dated, over-acted/melodramatic, and appears laughable to us; you have to mentally set aside that reaction to appreciate it for what IS in it

Edited December 4, 2018 by Lori D.

[chocolate-chip chooky]

Lori, where would we be without you? ❤️

Thank you so very much!

[Lori D.]

Oh! Almost forgot -- you MUST watch Singin' in the Rain which has some GREAT scenes about how they made silent movies, including a scene or two of a piano player playing the mood music to put the actors in the right frame of mind while shooting.

[chocolate-chip chooky]

15 minutes ago, Lori D. said:

Oh! Almost forgot -- you MUST watch Singin' in the Rain which has some GREAT scenes about how they made silent movies, including a scene or two of a piano player playing the mood music to put the actors in the right frame of mind while shooting.

Thank you 🌻