Merry Go Round (1923)

The full shot by shot breakdown of the 1923 film, from the 2003 Image Entertainment edition with the original 1923 score (with many interesting ironic musical comments at times).
The DVD edition is 114 minutes, so that’s a rather slow ASL of 5.2 second/shot. The film does slow down noticeably by the (Rupert Julian directed) [...]

Dear daily chores

You have a friend in academia and you think he’s shooting crap all day ? Ever wondered what a routine day could look like when all one does is research ? This is what my daily schedule should look like right now:

start the day with a review of the latest posts, mostly from alt.movies.silent [...]

Before science-fiction - advertising

In 1843 Willliam Henson had prints made showing his invention, the Aeriel, a steam-engine flying machine, fly high above London, India, Egypt. The prints were circulated among newspapers and were quite a sensation. And indeed, there’s only one problem: the Aeriel was never more than a prototype that never quite made it to completion (steam-engine [...]

The Forbidden City (1918)

Grapevine, 2004 DVD, running time 62 minutes.Here it is, the whole 554 shots of this Norma Talmadge vehicle ! A very thin plot, but gorgeous sets and lots of iris compositions. Use this shot by shot breakdown of the film as you see fit. Full stats to follow.

Cobra (1925) - ASL

Version: Grapevine, 1996 VHS release, 68 minutes (imdb.com indicates a running time of max. 75 minutes)
ASL = 5,75 seconds/shot (a slightly slower cutting rhythm than the average silent film 4 - 4,3 second/shot ASL
Number of shots: total 709, 535 non title shots, 177 titles with 33 exposition titles and 144 dialogue titles).
Only 81 exterior shots [...]

A bit on Popeye

Slate has a good slideshow on the evolution of Popeye, from its first appearance in Segar’s comic strip to the Altman 1980 movie. Rediscovering the original Popeye cartoons. - By Keith Phipps - Slate MagazineAs always, Prelinger’s reliable archive (archive.org) has a good bunch of 1930’s Popeye shorts. Enjoy…