On April 1, 1912 -- no fooling -- 52 employees of the Essanay Film Company, led by Gilbert M. “Broncho Billy” Anderson, arrived in Niles, California, by train and made the community their home for the next four years. In that time they produced over 350 films, most of them one-reelers, fifteen-minute films seen around the world by millions of people.
To commemorate the 100th anniversary in 2012, the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum will produce The Canyon, a one-reel, silent western film, set in this historic community, now part of Fremont, California, using the equipment and techniques of the silent era in a way that will be evocative, educational and, most of all, entertaining.
To make the film authentic, the Silent Film Museum has recruited the resources of several local organizations. The Niles Canyon Railway will provide a steam train, rolling stock and personnel in Niles Canyon on the roadbed of the original Transcontinental Railroad amidst the scenic wonders of Alameda Creek and the surrounding hills. Other locations will include the 1901 Southern Pacific train depot, the 1911 Niles jail and historic Niles houses. Two western reenactment groups, the Congressional Gunfighters of America and the Gunfighters of the Old West, will provide actors in period costume with firearms for the movie. The Silent Film Museum will provide film equipment actually used during the silent era and still working today.
Dozens of individuals have expressed a desire to join us in working on the project. Professionals in the film community have volunteered to help. Fremont residents, relatives of original Essanay cast and crew, film students and other interested parties will also be participating.
We will be using a 35mm Bell & Howell 2709 hand-cranked camera which is celebrating its 90th birthday this year and still works perfectly -- we've shot two other museum projects with it and used it on our April 1st Essanay commemoration event. (The footage will be seen on our screen June 29 for the opening night of our Broncho Billy Silent Film Festival.) Editing will be done at the Silent Film Museum, where equipment is already there and available to use.
Why shoot on film? Despite advances in digital media, film still sets the standard for the visual look of a production, and it's the only proven medium for long-term archival storage and retrieval. Film shot in the 1890s has lasted for more than one hundred years, and can last for many hundreds more if stored properly. What better way to honor those past achievements on film than by replicating their methods?
The film elements and finished product will become part of the Silent Film Museum collection, preserved for the future along with thousands of movies already in the archive.
When the film is finished it will premiere at the Niles Edison Theater, a 1913 nickelodeon theater and the Silent Film Museum's home. Live piano music will accompany the film as it was originally done in the theater nearly 100 years ago.
There will be many expenses – film stock, processing & printing, video transfers for the dvd, its completion and release, construction of an open-air film set, permits, fees and the numerous incidental costs involved with production. Thanks to the donations of time and money by those who have volunteered to help make the film, our budget is now less than what we've originally requested, but we will still need about $9,000 to produce the film. We can't change the $21,500 figure listed above, it isn't allowed, but the good news is we still get whatever you pledge – and that’s why we’re asking for your help.
Pledge today and help us make film history, then spread the word to anyone you think might be interested. The Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization. Your donation is tax deductable to the extent allowed by law. If you would like a donation receipt email historian@nilesfilmmuseum.org
Leading the project are David Kiehn and Sprague Anderson, both board members of the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum. They produced the two 35mm silent film newsreels using Sprague’s hand-cranked camera.
And we are now happy to add Steve Kotton to our core team.
David Kiehn, director and co-writer on the project, has worked as a director, writer, editor, cinematographer and sound recordist on various projects since 1971. For twenty years he was a motion picture camera technician for several film rental houses in San Francisco. In 1995 he began research on a book about the Essanay Film Company that was published in 2003 as Broncho Billy and the Essanay Film Company. He was a founding member of the Broncho Billy Silent Film Festival when it began in 1998 and was a founding member of the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum, a 501(c)3 non-profit corporation at its inception in 2001 after his groundbreaking research sparked renewed interest in that history. In 2010 he appeared on 60 Minutes, interviewed by Morley Safer, in a segment about his research on A Trip Down Market Street, a movie that he discovered was made by the Miles Brothers film company four days before the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake.
Sprague Anderson, camera operator and co-writer on the project, began his professional career in film in 1970, but since 1994 he’s been on the front lines of the digital revolution. When Sony introduced their first digital camera, the DVW-700WS, Sprague worked with the prototype, and he later wrote and directed the one-hour tutorial that was sent out with every camera. For six years, he did live-action compositing with the Ultimatte-8, serial number 1, and his edit suite was a test site for the early Lightworks non-linear system. For Star Wars, Episode 2, Sprague ran one of the original Sony 900 24P special effects camera systems. On Star Wars, Episode 3, Sprague worked with the new dual-link camera. In the film world, however, he’s returned to the earliest days of the medium, specializing in hand-cranked 35mm studio cameras from the 1910s and 1920s. His involvement with the Silent Film Museum dates to 2002, filming special events with his silent-era equipment.
Steve Kotton, the Director of Photography on the project, is a four-time Emmy-award-winning cameraman with more than 30 years experience in visual communication productions. He was co-founder of Pacific Video Resources, one of the country’s most innovative video production facilities. He was the producer and cameraman on Mail Bonding, the world's first live action digital video production, shot in lush black and white and transferred to 35mm film for theatrical release. We’re eager to see his creative work on our black and white production.
