Filming speed for MODERN TIMES

David Pierce · Post by **David Pierce** » Sun Jan 23, 2011 8:42 pm

Several years ago Association Chaplin and Cineteca of the Comune di Bologna announced a project to digitize the papers of Charlie Chaplin. The results of that project are now on-line, with the index and thumbnails viewable to the public. To see the digital images of all of the documents requires a trip to Italy.

The site does provide readable, watermarked, images of some pages of longer documents... which is the reason for this post. If you go to http://www.charliechaplinarchive.org/ and search on "continuity IA" (without the quotes) in the free text field, you should get a single result, which is Continuity for U.A. picture n. 5 : camera department : book 1A. Picture number 5 under Chaplin's contract with UA was released as MODERN TIMES.

If you click on "Expand" to the right, you should see thumbnails of the first five pages of the 191 page file, and those first five pages can be enlarged. This appears to be the camera department's continuity of what was filmed each day, starting on Thursday, October 11, 1934 at 5pm.

What interests me is that this continuity gives the cranking speed for the camera. Most shots were filmed at 18, while some were taken at 16. Parts of MODERN TIMES, but not all of it, have that otherworldly speeded-up quality usually reserved in sound films for action sequences.

Was the whole film shot at "silent speed"? Chaplin certainly knew that the film would be projected at 24.

David Pierce

BenModel · Post by **BenModel** » Sun Jan 23, 2011 10:13 pm

If you can find the laserdisc or the earlier DVD release of "MT", one of the extras is several pages of the shooting script, including factory scenes and the feeding machine sequence, all indicating the film was shot at 18 fps and in some cases 16 fps. I have found in my research the same to be true of "City Lights".

Chaplin actually uses this "speed-up" technique in certain scenes in later films like "Great Dictator" and "Limelight". The "dance" with the storm troopers up and down the sidewalk is shot (probably) at 21 fps, and a colleague confirmed for me that the shrunken-leg sequence in "Limelight" was shot at 21 fps.

The fact that silent era filmmakers, esp the comedians, were aware their films were being shown faster than they'd been shot and used this to their advantage is the basis of the motion studies I've done.

Ben

Gumlegs · Post by **Gumlegs** » Wed Jan 26, 2011 6:38 pm

I believe it's fairly common knowledge that silent film was knowingly shot at a frame rate lower than the expected projection speed.

Certainly, the people involved with "The Jazz Singer" were aware that projecting the finished product at 24fps was mandatory, yet synchronized sequences aside, the film is invariably undercranked.

Scoundrel · Post by **Scoundrel** » Thu Jan 27, 2011 3:30 pm

" it's fairly common knowledge that silent film was knowingly shot at a frame rate lower than the expected projection speed. "

For the love of God...not again...!!!!

Rob Farr · Post by **Rob Farr** » Thu Jan 27, 2011 4:49 pm

Scoundrel wrote:" it's fairly common knowledge that silent film was knowingly shot at a frame rate lower than the expected projection speed. "

For the love of God...not again...!!!!

I know, I know... and yet there are still people who don't believe it.

Richard M Roberts · Post by **Richard M Roberts** » Thu Jan 27, 2011 5:11 pm

Rob Farr wrote:
Scoundrel wrote:" it's fairly common knowledge that silent film was knowingly shot at a frame rate lower than the expected projection speed. "

For the love of God...not again...!!!!
I know, I know... and yet there are still people who don't believe it.

I'd say,"refuse to believe it."

RICHARD M ROBERTS (and how are you, Mr. Shepard?)

FrankFay · Post by **FrankFay** » Fri Jan 28, 2011 5:06 am

They probably subscribe to conspiracy theories as well.

Robert Moulton · Post by **Robert Moulton** » Fri Jan 28, 2011 11:50 am

The site also has a 59 page listing of Chaplin's film holdings, described as:

This file contains: an inventory of the film materials stored at the Pathé Laboratories in Hollywood as of January 1951; an inventory of the film materials as of April 1, 1946, obtained from a list provided by Rolly Totheroh; an inventory of the film materials owned by Roy Export Company and deposited at the Denham Laboratories, Bonded Film Stores in London and Geneva in 1954.

You can review the first five pages full size. Many of the B negs are listed as being held by Wm. Vogel as part of a foreign release deal. To get to the list, do a search on 'Woman of the Sea'.

Tons of stuff also about battling Rohauer