Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Is this George Barrows?



The best answer we can come up with is: It might be.

The photographic technology that produced this image dates from about the right time. The photo was found among Barrows family photographs that in all likelihood had been collected by George's sister, Hattie. And it plausibly looks like someone of Yankee-Indian-Cape Verdean ancestry.

But, the photo is unlabeled, so we can never know for sure. Plus, all of the above clues would apply to George's brother Frank, as well.

So, we probably will never know for sure, but this may be what the face of Patient Number One looked like.

Sunday, June 22, 2008

Did we find George?



I traveled to Connecticut today to meet with the granddaughter of a cousin of George Sprague Barrows, known around here as Patient Number One. George's cousin was only a few years older than George, and, after George was abandoned by his father, George and the cousin were raised by George's aunt. This, of course, gave us reason to hope that descendants of George's cousin might have pictures of George.

The picture seen here is of Lavina Lovell (Sprague) Barrows, George's mother. Finding this picture is significant for two reasons.

First, her image will have a place in the movie, and we didn't have it before.

Second, because we know that she died in 1877 a few weeks after George was born, we know that the photo collection we're looking at spans all of George's lifetime -- it is not simply pictures from after he died.

Unfortunately, none of the photos in the collection are labeled as being George. All hope is not lost, though. Some of the unidentified photos have enough clues in them that we may be able to narrow some down as being George.

One unexpected find, shown below, is a postcard from George to his sister, Hattie, when he was at the sanatorium on the lake. George calls her by her nickname, Vinie, which was short for Lavina. This, of course, was their mother's name. It was also Hattie's middle name.

Unfortunately, on this occasion at least, George had a prodigious economy with words.

-Paul Parker


Friday, June 20, 2008

JOIN OUR LIST!!!

Please take a minute to join our new mailing list, through which you can keep abreast of developments with OTL and future Eagle Peak Media/Midway Pictures productiosn. The quick signup box is in the blog item below, and also at the bottom of the ON THE LAKE official movie site.

JOIN OUR MAILING LIST!

Please join our brand-new mailing list, with which we will give updates of ON THE LAKE and future Eagle Peak Media productions -- of which there are many in the planning stages. Thanks!

-- Wayne







Tuesday, June 17, 2008

EPM North

As a thunderstorm moved in from the west and Cal joined us at my kitchen table for a delicious beef stew with fresh-baked biscuits, Dave and I met for some two hours last evening to review progress on OTL and continue planning for future Eagle Peak Media projects. Things are looking very good. We viewed Harry and Dave's work so far on the rough cut of OTL Act I, and it's awesome -- even without the soundtrack and with lots of black screen where footage and stills will be dropped in. The story line holds nicely. Dave played the role of narrator (we will of course record our real narrator, Yemi Sekoni, when we're further along), and while his voice came out weird (for reasons we cannot explain), the timing is pretty much dead-on. So much great work by so many great people have left us in the catbird seat (knock on wood).

-- Wayne

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Gale Perkins



That's a wrap!
Today was the last interview and it was a good one. Josh and I, along with our newest intern Andy, drove to Groveland, Massachusetts, to the lovely home of C. Gale Perkins, a former patient at the Lakeville Sanatorium. Her self-published book, The Baby's Cross, is an interesting account of her childhood spent at the "San," as she called it.

The highlights of the interview:
She told us a great story about her first kiss, with a fellow patient named Bernie, at age 12, whom she would later meet again, years and years later, after publishing her memoir.

She had numerous spinal "fusions," to rid her of the tuberculosis that had infected her bones, operations that would leave her young body in a full body cast for three years.


And she told us about how doctors told her she wouldn't live past 16 years old, yet here she was in front of us, living and breathing, laughing and tearing up, some six decades after leaving that sanatorium.

A great woman. Maybe we saved the best for last.

--David

The Trailer

Monday, June 9, 2008

Recording Session II






Scenes from our second voice-recording session, at Ben Mesiti's studio, June 9. Pictured are: Ben, with guitar at the sound board; Chris Kinsella, the voice of Ed, in the booth; Alex McDougall, the voice of Barbara Bowie, one of our strongest characters, studying her script in the green (or maybe beige) room; and Dave, striking a directorial note... er, pose. Glenn Laxton, the voice of Dr. Barnes, and Lionel Beauchemin, the voice of Dr. Hudson, also recorded. Dave and crew head off tomorrow to Massachusetts, on what will definitely be our last shoot, barring an act of God. The story they are getting is awesome, a great last-minute addition to the movie, and just under the wire.

-- Wayne

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

WATCH THE TRAILER!!!!

In conjunction with broadcasts of YOU MUST BE THIS TALL, Rhode Island PBS, WSBE-TV Channel 36, is airing the OTL trailer on three nights: Saturday, June 7, at 8 p.m.; Sunday, June 8, at 11 p.m.; and Thursday, June 12 at 8 p.m. This is the first time on air! Check it out... and be sure to let us know what you think as we move deeper into post-production...

-- Wayne