As I restore the film, I am cognizant of the shot-locations I think would make for an interesting "then-and-now" comparison. What assists the forensics when determining locations, is the mountains that ring Arivaca. The topography of the location rolling hills and nearby mountain ranges will greatly assist in 'orientation', but the depth of field was set by the lens on the camera at the time of filming. Therefore, finding the location of some of these scenes will be challenging.
The photo below is an example: To those who live in Arivaca, Arizona, this image at first glance would seem to be the old stagecoach road to Arivaca that is now paved-over. This hilly and winding road is now known as the Arivaca Road. Or this could be a ranching or mining road much further south from the Arivaca Road today.
The clues to figuring this out are somewhere in this still frame.
So I have an idea to assemble several small teams of photographers, filmmakers and local explorers, with each team provided an envelope containing several still-images taken from the film at locations in Arivaca. Then those teams would go out into the surrounding hills and attempt to find the location where the filming took place 100-years ago. The filmmaker in the group will document, then create a short-film on the experience.
The photographer in the team will document the found location with both still images and video. The GPS coordinates, camera and lens setting will be recorded. Later the exploring team and the documentary film team will return to marked locations to deliberate and conclude whether or not the actual filming location was found.
The created short films from each team documenting this location hunt, serve two important purposes: First to assist the overall documentary in showing locations then and now. Also, each team's short-documentary will be shown the at forthcoming Arivaca Film Exhibition the first week od March 2020.
I'm going to get some feedback and see if i can put it together. Bart Santello
