Silent Movies

Today we started our big silent movie project! We began learning about silent movies today and found out about two of the most famous stars of silent movies; Charlie Chaplin (who lived in Kennington- not far from us) and Buster Keaton.

The Circus, Charlie Chaplin Productions, 1928

We discovered that many silent movies had the same features. They were all silent, apart from music (usually a piano), they were in black and white, used exaggerated gestures and expressions, had cue cards and often involved policemen, chase scenes and slapstick comedy.

Source: Silent Comedy Sample, Footage World, 2009

We saw some very funny silent movie clips today! We also found out that the director would often talk to the actors while they were shooting the film, because they were not recording sound, so he could give them advice about exactly how he wanted them to look.

Next week we will be getting into teams and thinking about storylines for our own films!