The 9th Annual YFCC????

[gagman66]

So did anyone happen to catch the promo that TCM is now running for Tuesday's presentation, and the Television debut of John Barrymore's BEAU BRUMMEL (1924), with James Schafer's brand new score? Anyway, it clearly reads "THE 9TH ANNUAL TCM YOUNG FILM COMPOSERS COMPETITION"???

 

Huh, well, it can only be the "9th Annual" event, if they are still going to have one in 2008! Last year would have been the 8th Annual? Very confusing promo??? This would certainly lead one to believe that the contest may yet still take place after-all??? Let's hope so!!!

[Guest]

Jeff my guess is that it's a dead issue.... it must have all come down to money and TCM lost a corporate sponsor.

 

After reading David Shepard's response about the costs of restoring and marketing a film (especailly with a new score) I can see how much money goes into creating a "new" silent film.... with very little interest from the general public or revenues.....

[Guest]

Jeff my guess is that it's a dead issue.... it must have all come down to money and TCM lost a corporate sponsor.

 

After reading David Shepard's response about the costs of restoring and marketing a film (especailly with a new score) I can see how much money goes into creating a "new" silent film.... with very little interest from the general public or revenues.....

[radiotelefonia]

It might be economics or something else, but most of the best presentations of silent films on television has almost always been those films presented with piano accompaniment.

 

There is something costly of hiring a full orchestra to score a film, silent or sound, and it is not necessarily something that will recoup the investment.

 

Remember that already back in 1929, in order to score the final Laurel and Hardy silents, Hal Roach dismissed the orchestra and brought a performer to play an organ.

 

When I was a child (and TV was black and white), Canal 7 would show every Saturday afternoon a show called something like "Chaplin and friends" in which they would display silent comedies: one week they would present a version of Chaplin and Arbuckle comedy, and later another edited version or, at some point, the original. When they found that most of the available films had no soundtrack, they put a piano player, live in the studio, to perform background music.

 

This was just a couple of years before there was VHS and the performer probably did not have a chance to study them.

 

Today, Canal 7, in his show "Filmoteca" (which we can watch online) they put a couple of musicians to provide background music. The main complain I have is that their scores are usually not inspired, frequently sounding the same... yet on ocassions, those scores can be better than the one from the VHS or DVD from which they lift the film.