The definition of a silent film is 'A film with no accompanying, synchronised recorded spoken dialogue'.
The technology for silent films was invented around 1860 but was still used until around 1880-1900 when films on a single reel became easy to produce.
The idea of having sound along with film is as old as film motion itself but due to the technical challenges that had to be faced for this to be possible, most films were silent before the late 20s.
Although, even though the motions had no sound, they had their own clear language and the silent movie era is commonly labelled as the 'Age of the silver screen'
Showings of silent movies usually included showings of live music whilst the film was being showed, starting off with the pianist at the first public projection of movies by the 'Lumiere' brothers in 1895 in Paris.
from the beginning of the silent movie era, music was considered essential as it contributed to the atmosphere and gave the audience 'vital emotional cues' Smaller theatres would usually only consist of a pianist where as bigger city theatres would include whole orchestras .
In Japan, they didn't only have live music over the film, but also a live narrator who provided commentary and character voices.
Silent movies required emphasis on all body language and facial expression when producing the movies so that the audience understood what the actor was feeling and also so they understood what was happening in the movie. It was found that comedy silent movies were more popular than any other genre as overacting is more natural within comedy.
Historians that 80-90% of silent movies have been lost forever. Movies in the first half of the 20th century were filmed on an unstable, highly flammable nitrate film stock which required careful preservation to keep it from decomposing over time which meant most footage ended up getting destroyed over the years.
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