From DC to Jamestown

A short trip to DC during inauguration yielded far more than chilblains and cheesy Obama trinkets.

I talked with my sister-in-law, an experienced historical researcher of local records, about my troubles finding court records of the 1826/27 trial in Chepachet, which resulted in the conviction of five and the assessing of a fine on them of $1500for the loss of Bette the Trained Elephant. Apparently there weren't public trial transcripts in those days, in general, and if there were, they weren't high on the "seal it and shelve it" list. I have a plan for those records, and not being able to find anything has been driving me nuts... She suggested the State Archives. I felt like a dunce, of course, for not having thought of them before, but this AM I contacted them first thing. The folks over there were incredibly helpful and pointed in the direction of the Judicial Records Center up in Pawtucket where an enthusiastic employee by the name of Andrew Smith got on board and is stalking the stacks for helpful info as we speak.

I also lunched with an old friend and accomplished intellectual properties lawyer and in between gossip we discussed copyright and licensing issues. Of course they're byzantine, but that's why lawyers were invented. When I told him that I was beginning to wonder if I were scattering myself in too many directions in this project, he added his comment on the last post. Thanks, Rich!

So we move apace, even in the deep freeze. More as things develop...

A cold day in the library 1.16

I spent the frigid cold AM tucked up snugly in the RI Historical Society's Library watching TV. I'd made an appointment to see some tapes from WJAR's archives- 50'rolls of on-the-spot news dating back to the 1950's. Of course I'd only chosen 4 out of the 50K plus reels in the collection, but they all (the index assured me) dealt with elephants and the circus.

It was a dislocating experience, since each film had to be hand-threaded and rolled through a viewing machine like an ancient editor, and the sound and pix were played separately. Made me (once again) appreciate digital technology!

Some of the footage would be a great addition to the doc- especially "Glocester Elephant- B roll" which followed the celebrations in Chepachet in 1976. But I have to tread cautiously here. The stuff will cost a fortune to obtain and license for my project. $15 a second for licensing is only a start. There are transfer fees. And shipping fees. Etc. fees- adding up to around $1500 a minute for an individual. Of course if I get a non-profit fiscal agent, that price could be adjusted at the non-profit rate, but they keep the rights... What, I must think, are my alternatives? I'm a real sucker for archival footage in films. But it has to be good, pertinent and otherwise ungettable stuff for me to shell out that kind of dough.

The morning wasn't a total bust, though. I ended up with three pages of titles of newspapers from the 1820s, which will require another trip to the vaults and a whole day to search them on microfilm. No guarantees that any of them will have covered the Chepachet goings on, but it's a start. And, of course, there are the state archives which I haven't begun to mine yet.

All of which leads to some cogitation. Should I be refocusing my project's lens? Should I really be working on all three stories, or limit the film to just one event (Chepachet) and wind all of the questions around it? In other words, have I once again bitten off more than I should chew?

Doc making requires much staring into space and running reels from my head to a blank wall. More as things unspool...

Chepachet and Points North 1.14.2009

Thank god the weather was clear and the roads were dry for the spin up to Chepachet to talk with the local historian, Edna Kent. We were meeting at her house for a confab to see how we could mutually benefit each other and the village of Chepachet, township of Glocester, and state of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations with whatever information we had.

Edna Kent is a charmer. She's devoted her life to getting it right, history-wise, for the village where she grew up. She had mounds of stuff around the house, including her books, and Betty the Elephant and Dorr Rebellion artifacts. These last are, after all, the village's main claim to fame (aside from Chepachet's little people- but that's quite another story). It drives her crazy that's so much stuff has been given away and lost.

But to get down to brass, as they say, buttons. Edna told me that most of the town's history is in her head. She's dug up much over her life and, though she's written three books on the village, it's only a beginning. There's still a lot of oral/aural history to be transcribed. There was, for example, the story of why Scituate's farmer became involved in Betty's murder. Edna's theory has to do with damaged fruit trees and revenge. He was, she confided, "the injured party" among the conspirators in all of this. Unfortunately, we have no written or tangible proof of her theory- yet. But things do have a way of surfacing.

She also told me that the townspeople are private about the event. There's a haunting feeling that it could happen again floating around. There are elephant-related superstitions.

Edna graciously allowed me to take some pix of some of her pertinent artifacts, which she has been keeping for her forthcoming children's book on the Betty event. Perhaps we could tie all of these things in. We made informal plans for me to present my initial public program on the research sometime this summer.

I told her I intended to post an ad in the local paper asking for information about the 1826 event, just in case there's someone who knows something who would be willing to share it with the public. Someone may have a diary or know where there's a newspaper article hidden away. I live in hope. Maybe if I called the local newspaper and offered them my story, it would get me farther...

We parted after making a tentative date a few months hence to meet again and go through the materials that are in her trunk. I drove around some of the sites that were connected with both the original event and the centennial and a half celebrations trying to get a sense of what to film. It is winter in Rhode Island, of course, and the land was covered with snow, but I did spy a couple of spots that might lend themselves to the story.

Although I know there were probably not any transcripts as such kept of trials of the 1820's in RI, there may be bits and scraps, and I intend to find their natural resting places....

Moving through the ice

It's always tempting when making a documentary to grab the camera and run, shooting everything and everyone in your rolodex so you end up with a lot of footage in a short time. It gives you the feeling that you're making progress. It yields footage. It revs up your editing engine.

But this, after all, is Rhode Island in winter and there's ice on the ground, the sun is not to be trusted and there's snow in the forecast. Every appointment needs a snow date..... Even research appointments.

There's a bright side to the corral, though. When the sky is dark and flakes are falling, there's no question of divided attention. It's time for online reseach, plowing through books and data bases, or a quick scuttle to the neighborhood library (if you're lucky enough to have one, as I am). When you're stuck at the keyboard you come up with mighty interesting things that may be useful later on.

I had a meeting with Ray, my DP/cameraman/sound guy this AM. We worked on an outline for field trips, got our communication plan in line and, in general talked about our plans for the Elephants. He's an easy going guy who seems to have his head on straight and his eyes sqarely in their sockets and he understands the lingo. I'll have his actual CV to attach to the program ASAP. Anyway, this was all very encouraging, because the volunteer PA didn't work out and we're now down to a two man crew. I must network!!! (Note to self- contact RI Film Collaborative ASAP.)

I ran across a reference to the Fanny affair (there may be a better way of phrasing that....) in a North Carolina newspaper the other day. The article mentioned that not only was actress Loretta Swit going to bat for the forlorn pachyderm, which I knew, but that Tippi Hedren, of The Birds fame, was involved as well. I'm going to have to hunt this down.

More as work progresses...

Back in Gear

After a brief hiatus for the holidays, I'm back on the project at hand...

I received a call (several, actually) from an actor in Chicago whose agent, he said, had sent him the info on the project from NEFilm.com. He was a real mover, this one, and strove to assure me that he had whatever it took to be in my movie. He was missing a prime ingredient, though. Tact. During the course of a five minute conversation, he twice told me what a loser place RI was. "There's nothing going on there."
"Have you ever been here?"
"Well, no. But I've seen it on the map and it's no bigger than a shoe."
When I finally convinced him that he and Elephants were not made for one another, he promoted a friend of his who was an amazing editor and would be super for this movie.
"Has he ever done documentaries?" I asked- reasonably.
"No. But I'm sure he'd be great. He's such a cool editor."
I finally told him to have him call me and we'd talk. I felt like Hollywood and suddenly I knew where those phrases came from and what they were used for. He had one more question, though.
"Would you pay his airfare out there?"
Good luck in your career, dude.

I received my interim business cards for the project around Christmas and have been leaving them off in libraries, train stations, etc. ever since. They have this blog's URL on them and I'm hoping that more and more people will become aware of and maybe even contribute to the project. I want to hear stories!

And speaking of contributing, I'm now in the process of finding a fiscal agent for the project so that I can apply for more funding. That in itself is a project, since I can't just walk up to any old non-profit and ask them to handle my money for me. I have to prove, actually, that I have a viable project and a reasonable track record, so that they're not tying themselves up for nothing. So it's the paperwork game again.

There are some slick fundraising websites that I've explored, like indiegogo.com and fundable.com, but they make me a little nervous. I don't see any accountability factor, like fiscal agents, etc. These sites are, in essence, electronic house parties where people can go to donate cash to projects that suit them. More on this as things progress. I've registered with both, but am not sure how I'll use them yet.

Fundraising, is, obviously, the part of the project I feel least comfortable with. But it is the name of the game if I want to make a decent product and get it seen...