JBL Films

12/30/2024

HAPPY NEW YEAR!
From JBL Films and crew.
Keep us in mind for documentary, corporate, promos and spots

06/29/2024

The Carmel California Shoot for "Jensen's Still at It" is wrapped! Editing has started. Please keep sharing this link or this post for me and chip in if you can, there may be something to learn here about the art of playing and teaching music and maybe living life, too. https://gofund.me/46a41b5d- Special thanks to Carleton Macy for letting us invade his home and vision in writing new music that drew John back to the west coast.

06/20/2024

We are getting support and sharing from John's network, my network and more for this little project. Thank you all who have donated and shared (see below) By the way - did you all know also we're getting funding support from Academy Award nominated filmmaker Frederick Marx Maybe he'll share a few morsels of advice, too, - always needed

My name is JB Letchinger and I'm a cinematographer and sometimes … JB Letchinger needs your support for Support JB's film about John Jensen and his latest gig

06/20/2024

We are getting support and sharing from John's network, my network and more for this little project. Thank you all who have donated and shared (see below) By the way - did you all know also we're getting funding support from Academy Award nominated filmmaker Frederick Marx? Maybe he'll share a few morsels of advice, too, - always needed. 🙂https://gofund.me/3f2a974e

03/26/2024

I love Noir films and discovered footage. This little story mentions both and this image is captivating. As a cinemtographer, I (JB Letchinger) dabbled in Color Noir for the feature Film "Snide and Prejudice," written and directed by Philippe Mora. (Tagged in comments) I think finding some interesting old footage would make a great start for a documentary. Especially music recording, touring footage - and maybe noir films.. - message me if you have bought a house will some old films in the attic or happen to have a box of old films..

Screen legend Buster Keaton sitting at a bar in Culver City in 1955, looking like a hardened detective from the greatest film noir never made.

In actuality, this bar was built on a soundstage at Hal Roach Studios for the filming of an episode of NBC’s Screen Director’s Playhouse titled “The Silent Partner,” in which Keaton plays a forgotten silent film star made to reflect on his career when a former co-star (played by Joe E. Brown) wins an Academy Award and thanks him in his speech. As Keaton’s character watches this from a crowded bar, he’s further confronted with his past when the television then plays the fictional film that they once made together.

…and this is the real point of the episode, as this framing device sets them up to debut a new silent two-reel comedy with Keaton, Brown, and ZaSu Pitts, more than 25 years after film’s transition to sound. The episode was directed by George Marshall, whose own career started in the silent era, directing the westerns of Harry Carey, and later Tom Mix, and a number of Laurel & Hardy films as well.

This was made at a time when Keaton was experiencing something of a revival thanks to the rise of television, which created a renewed interest in silent cinema in the early 1950s. Then, through an incredible stroke of dumb luck, a trove of Keaton’s old film reels were discovered by English actor James Mason, who had purchased Keaton’s old house in 1952. Mason reportedly arranged to have the decomposing films transferred to Cellulose acetate film (“safety film”) for preservation, and had them delivered the collection to Keaton, who then entered discussions with a film distributor to get them back into theaters.

The Screen Director’s Playhouse was just one of more than 70 guest appearances that Keaton made on television over the course of the next decade, and he returned to the big screen more than a dozen times with cameo roles up through the end of his life.

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Photo by Loomis Dean for LIFE Magazine

https://www.instagram.com/p/C4zdgosOBm6/?igsh=MWQ1ZGUxMzBkMA==