Hey everyone! I haven't been to the forum in a while. I was pretty active a few years ago when I also posted stills and had time to watch a lot of movies. Nowadays I still play WTM now and then to find cool shots and to take a guess at some of them :) Anyway, over the last few years I've been working as a concept artist and right now I'm looking to expand my skills in terms of storytelling through pictures.
To do this I've been given the tip that I should look at silent films and films with great storytelling. I'm having a really hard time figuring out which would be good to watch. Since you guys are so awesome at finding the best shots in films I figure I'd ask here. Do you guys have any tips? Anything from silent films to modern movies are great. As long as scenes can be clearly understood without music or dialogue.
As to silent movies, my avatar tells me to highly recommend films by Buster Keaton. To me some of them are simply masterpieces. The General, Seven chances, the Navigator, Steamboat Bill jr, Sherlock jr. Of course Chaplin is great as well. You should definitely watch movies by Murnau such as Sunrise and Nosferatu. It's a very classic beginning but simply unavoidable in terms of film directing and universal story-telling. Hope it will help you. There are dozens others but let other players tip you on their selection.
Maybe not something you were considering, and probably not what you are looking for, but give the great documentaries of David Attenborough a try. Blue Planet, Planet Earth etc. Then there's the Fantasia movies of Disney (and quite a lot of Disney's animated classics). Some parts really require the music to work, others.. not so much.
Classic silent movies: Sunrise is one of the best for me, as well as Potemkin.
Fun idea, I'm interested to sea what stuff others can come up with as well. Of course the things lezard gives are indeed masterpieces :) Icheckmovies.com also has a list with a whole bunch of great silent ones, some hidden treasures there as well: https://www.icheckmovies.com/lists/silent+but+not+forgotten+the+best+silent+films/
Oh man, I'm looking up a little about the movies you guys are listing and they look perfect!
I've tried finding them in my local film rental shop but I can't find any of them :P Is there a source where I can easily download them? I'll gladly pay for it if needed.
@asmodai, I'll definitely give these documentaries a go too! I've heard nothing but good things about them. I can't believe I forgot about Fantasia. I've been wanting to see that for years!
@Lezard I'm definitely going to check out as much of these as I can!
@Greyhound, I just looked up that sand drawing sequence. Very powerful! Gonna put these on my list!