As a grand finale of Happy Piano Day 176, we were treated to one hour of classic silent comedy: The Playhouse and The Boat, accompanied by the piano of maestro Federico Lechner, in the San Telmo park.
Both shorts were released in 1921. Watching them almost a century later, one can’t but marvel at Keaton’s ahead-of-his-time genius. According to Wikipedia,
Keaton’s portrayal of nine members of a minstrel show required the use of a special matte box in front of the camera lens. It had nine exactingly-machined strips of metal which could be moved up and down independently of each other. Elgin Lessley, Keaton’s cameraman, shot the far-left Keaton with the first shutter up, and the others down. He then rewound the film, opened the second segment, and re-filmed the next Keaton in sequence. This procedure was repeated seven more times. The camera was hand-wound, so Lessley’s hand had to be absolutely steady to avoid any variation in speed. Keaton synchronized his movements to the music of a banjo player who was playing along with a metronome — not a problem in a silent film. It was decades before Keaton, who masterminded this, revealed his technique to other filmmakers.Plus, his films are still side-splittingly funny.
No comments:
Post a Comment