COLORADO SPRINGS — For the past four years, the Colorado Springs-based Independent Film Society of Colorado (IFSOC) has been creating space for new art to take shape at its October horror film festival.
While the roster of movies is largely filled with well-known classics and lesser-known treasures, one film each year comes together on the spot: a silent movie scored live with new compositions by a local artist.
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This year, that film was "The Hunchback of Notre Dame," the 1923 classic, performed at Ivywild.
So, what does it take to score a silent movie from scratch?
"Well, it takes a certain amount of insanity. It takes a lot of familiarity with a lot of different music," said Mark Arnest, a lifelong composer and musician. "It helps that I have a background in jazz, so I'm used to playing off the top of my head and making stuff up."
Arnest's connection to composing and performing music runs deep. One of his earliest memories is crawling onto a piano bench and plunking out tunes.
Over the past few years, his partnership with IFSOC has produced live scores for multiple horror classics.
"We did 'Nosferatu,' the year before that, 'Cabinet of Doctor Caligari,' and then our first year together was, of course, the Lon Chaney classic 'Phantom of the Opera,'" commented Ralph Gioradno, executive director for IFSOC.
For this year's performance, Arnest composed everything he needed for the movie over the course of two weeks, but that preparation only covers a fraction of what audiences actually hear.
"I'm going to go in with about 30 themes that are going to be on several sheets of paper, but those 30 themes, if you play them from beginning to end, are going to last 2 minutes — well, 3 minutes," Arnest said.
That means more than 80% of the work — the variations and alterations — happens the day of the performance.
"You're composing at the speed of the film. There's a kind of spontaneity to it that you can't get any other way," Arnest said.
For Giordano, that spontaneity is part of what draws audiences in.
"This is something brand new for this old classic film, and I think more people come to this particular event because of Mark," Giordano said.
The film society is always aiming to encourage people to watch movies and experience the art of film as a collective.
"You know, anything where there's 100 of you sitting in a room, or even 50, and sometimes 10, that'll do it," Arnest said.
For this musician, that shared experience carries a deeper meaning.
"We are the universe experiencing itself, and when a bunch of us are experiencing the same part of it at one time, it's a great thing," stated Arnest.
IFSOC is currently in talks with different venues around Colorado Springs, working to develop new and separate opportunities to share silent classics scored live.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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