Page 1 of Keaton, Chaplin, Langdon et al

Has anybody ever seen any of the old silents at real speed insted of the fast action that we`ve all grown used to?
I`d love to see how they stand up at the slower pace.

Snaps

Many were hand cranked so its a tough job to consistently compensate. They did a great job on the recent Chaplin releases though. As good as its going to get!

Like Stuart says, the silents were all hand-cranked (anything between 14 and 24fps, although the official standard was 18fps). The top cameramen of the time had a cranking rhythm that could keep them pretty accurate but there was always some margin of error. It`s only since the films have been transferred from celluloid to digital that we`ve been able to see them at their proper speed.

Technically it`s quite a trick, because bulking out 18fps to fill 25fps means an increase of 28% or turning 72 frames into 100 without making the image on screen jerky.

J Mark Oates

I used to collect a good few on 8mm cine film and you can do the speed to the origional 16FPS or just run it a bit slowwr than the 18FS.
Now sadly I just collect on DVd, the buster keaton ones volumes 1 to 5 are great and cheap and look superb on a half decet video projector.
Steamboat bill Jnr is my favourite,Keaton 1928 or so.
If people haven`t seen many silent shorts and features, drama or comedy you should give some a go as many are fantastic and have a certain quality and feel about them you don`t get now.
Some of the odd off the wall stuff is very eerie as well.
Best Mark.