How to Appreciate Silent Movies

Video Transcript

"Hi, this is Laura Turner, and today I'm going to talk with you a little bit, about how to appreciate the silent movies. If you ever sat down to watch a silent movie, it is certainly something that is a very strange experience for us, as we're so used to having sound in the theater, and watching films that are with sound. So, what you're actually going to need to do, is, you're going to need to train yourself, to be a very observant audience member. And, actually it's a lot like playing pretend when you're a kid, or using your imagination, in imagination games. Because you're going to be making up, as, sort of automatically, as you watch these movies, you're going to be making up the lines that you see being said. That you see being said rather, of course, than being heard. You're going to be making those up in your head, as you go along. So, it's almost as though you can make the story into anything you want to make it. And, while you're watching them, you can even actually act it out with your friends, in order to get yourself, you know, sort of figuring out what's going on in the story. It's kind of a fun thing to sort of sit there, and say, you know, well, what are, what are they saying right now? Because, you're never going to be told what they were actually saying on screen. And the titles are not going to help you very much. So, you can really entertain yourself by watching silent movies, and making it mean what you want it to mean to you. And, that is probably the best way to appreciate watching silent movies."