OK, back to the serious stuff, and another key text available for downloading from The Internet Archive. Practical Cinematography and its Applications (London: W. Heinemann, 1913) was written by F.A. Talbot, who wrote various popular science guides, including the much-cited Moving Pictures: How They Are Made and Worked (1912). This plain person’s guide to the practical aspects of cinematography covers operating the camera, film development, scientific applications of cinematography, military uses, education films and (rather oddly) how to write screenplays. Odd, because Talbot’s concern is otherwise about the motion picture as a tool of discovery, not entertainment. There is also an intriguing call for national cinematograph laboratories. It’s available for free download in DjVu (9.6MB), PDF (29MB) and TXT (357KB) formats.
Daily Archives: March 25, 2007
Silent MySpace
A surprising number of silent film figures have pages on MySpace. Here’s some of them, though mostly of interest for the phenomenon rather than the reliable information that they might provide:
- Betty Balfour
- Vilma Banky
- Lionel Barrymore
- Clara Bow
- Charlie Chaplin
- Douglas Fairbanks
- Greta Garbo
- Lilian and Dorothy Gish
- D.W. Griffith
- Buster Keaton
- Barbara La Marr
- Harry Langdon
- Max Linder
- Harold Lloyd
- Colleen Moore
- Nazimova
- Mary Pickford
- Mack Sennett
- Gloria Swanson
- Rudolph Valentino
- Erich von Stroheim
And probably many more.
More silent film blogs
An update on some of the silent film blogs out there. Not a great many.
Cartoons on Films (http://cartoonsonfilm.blogspot.com) (mostly silent animation)
The Crowd Roars (http://silentfilmlegend.blogspot.com/) (“from the earliest silents to the dawn of television”)
Edna’s Place (http://ednapurviance.blogspot.com/) (Edna Purviance, Chaplin and other subjects)
Every Little Breeze (http://everybreeze.blogspot.com/index.html) (Louise Brooks et al)
Ferdinand von Galizien (http://ferdinandvongalitzien.blogspot.com) (silent film reviews, warmly recommended)
Louise Brooks (http://louisebrooks.livejournal.com) (anything and everything on the 1920s screen icon)
Silent Films Fans’ Journal (http://community.livejournal.com/silent_films) (what it says on the film can)
And one for screen entertainments of an earlier age:
The Magic Lantern Show (http://magiclanternshows.blogspot.com)
The Bioscope 