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This page accompanies “Bringing Silent Cinema Back to Life Through Sound”, Jacquie Joy’s masterclass presentation created for Documentaries Rescored at the Melbourne Documentary Film Festival 2026.
The presentation explores Jacquie’s new score and sound design for the NFSA-restored version of The Story of the Kelly Gang (1906), one of cinema’s earliest narrative feature films. The film and masterclass will screen as part of the Screen Talk Evening at Henkel Street Cinemas on 13 July 2026.
Through music, sound design, story structure and creative decision-making, the masterclass looks at how contemporary sound can help silent and archival footage feel emotionally alive for modern audiences.
This was my NORTHSTAR for the rescore:
“Does this sound help the audience understand the image and story, or does it pull attention away from it” - Jacquie Joy
Words from the Masterclass…
“After watching this film a number of times I realised there were two distinct sections of the film. Here’s how I divided up the scenes into part 1 & 2.
I felt the film had a sonic pivot which occurs at the beginning of the Glenrowan Siege scene - the boys are all celebrating in the hotel and then the pivot occurs when the first gunshots are fired and the siege begins.
This was the beginning of the end for The Kelly Gang. I felt the music needed to shift at this point- from more playful bushranger adventure feel to darker siege intensity.”
“The film is in fragments and is silent so following the story was a challenge. There are a few intertitles throughout the film to help explain the story and I did lots of research and I became very familiar with the story of the original film.
I made up a basic storyboard/timeline from there. Then spotting the film was a challenge - when does music stop, start and change. I started by defining the basic sections of the story.”
Masterclass Overview
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What is a Docudrama?
Importance of Music
Establishing a Clear Storyline
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1. Time Period: Contemporary vs Traditional Scoring
2. Emotional Framework
3. Character, Culture & Location
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Creating atmosphere in an empty sonic world
Making sense of story with no dialogue
Limited camera coverage
Intertitles and black frames during and between scenes
Damaged footage
Matching modern audio to vintage film
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Two parts of the film
Story maps
Live instrumentation vs sampled instrumentation
Spotting and structure
Tempo and key considerations
Cue sheet
Walkthrough: exploring musical elements in the main theme
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Music Soundtrack Elements
Thank you for your interest in this silent film rescore. I hope you found it inspiring and enjoyed the magical transformation of silent film reimagined with sound.