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Buster Keaton's "The General"

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  • Buster Keaton's "The General"

    What rate of fps (frames per second), was Buster Keaton's classic, "The General" shot at or projected at? Just curious. Can't seem to find it on the internet. I ask as, there were assorted rates per second during the silent era.

  • #2
    On IMDB in the technical specs for "The General", I'm seeing a mixture of 20 and 24 FPS.

    I'm guessing it was shot at 20.

    When I project a silent reel I almost always go to 18FPS: without a soundtrack the transport noise is kind of intrusive at 24FPS, and it quiets down a lot at 18.

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    • #3
      I think The General plays perfectly at 24fps, and I wouldn't want to run it any slower. Given the fact that it is a late silent, that is probably as expected.

      I just looked up an article by Kevin Brownlow on the subject. At the bottom of the article there is a table that specifies the camera speed and suggested playback speed for a few handfuls of films. The General is mentioned there and it specifies 24fps for both camera and playback:
      https://web.archive.org/web/20110708...lf/18_kb_2.htm

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      • #4
        I asked, as, on my DVD copy, (a double feature with "Steamboat Bill Jr."), It states 26 fps in the specs, but that doesn't make sense, as sound films are 24 fps, but sometimes, a DVD is at 25 fps.

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        • #5
          I believe that later silent films could be up to 27 fps. Sound was what standardised film speed. Well until we got TodAO at 30fps. :-)

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