Silent Cinema

Silent cinema was never truly silent. Performances were more often than not accompanied by live music -- whether from a solo pianist or a small orchestra -- and the noise of audiences more than made up for the lack of a soundtrack accompanying the film. It was from the origins of cinema onwards to the coming of sound in 1929 with The Jazz Singer that so many of the ground rules of cinema were laid and film-making techniques developed, including editing and special effects, styles of acting, filming on location and much more. Through a study of the earliest origins of cinema to the stars,