silver nitrate notes

about

last updated 14 apr 2026

Started in October 2008. The site has one editorial focus: the classic cinema of the black and white era, silent films through the late 1950s. The rest of cinema is well covered elsewhere. This is a corner of the web for the work that happened when monochrome was the default way of making pictures.

the project

Occasional posts on films, directors, cinematographers, and the technical history of monochrome cinema. Silent era through the late 1950s, with occasional forays into the early New Wave where black and white still made sense. Nothing on a schedule.

the writer

Hal Vesper. Based in a flat with too many books in it. Reachable by email; I read everything, I reply to most of it. Corrections especially welcome.

not an anti-colour site

A few readers have written in over the years to ask whether the focus on black and white films is a position against colour cinema. It is not. I love Vertigo, I love Days of Heaven, I love what Wong Kar-wai does with red. The site's focus is simply the cinema I return to most often, which happens to be the cinema made when colour was not yet standard. If you are looking for writing on Technicolor, or on the post-1960s colour era, there are better corners of the web than this one.

methodology

Every film discussed is cross-checked against IMDb technical specs, the AFI catalog, TCM, and where available primary studio records and the American Cinematographer archive. Quotes are sourced. Anecdotes are checked before they are repeated. The full editorial protocol is in RULES.md.

contact

hal@silvernitratenotes.example

webring

silver nitrate notes is a member of the b&w cinema webring.
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