This is a WebLog of the various letters we have sent out to everyone in reverse chronological order thus providing a history of our efforts to conserve some of this family's visual record. As we send out update letters we will add them here at the top. Thanks to all for your generous support.
About
September 2006
September 24, 2006
Dear Cousins:
Great news! We are ready to release our first DVD to you!!! Click here to see a three minute sample.
Yes, we are making good progress on our project to make Great Aunt Hilda's wonderful ~80 year old home movies available to the descendants of Charles Henry Wheelright Foster. (For those of you who want to refresh your memory, click here to see the eMails we sent out in January and March.)
We have accomplished three of our initial objectives:
• We've digitized all the films, including the additional footage that surfaced last spring – some of which was shot by Hilda Foster's brother, Reginald. We now have approximately 75 minutes in all! To be sure, some of it is shaky home movie footage ... but much of it is absolutely fabulous, like a time capsule from a bygone era, and of PBS quality. The fact that this footage stars some of our parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins in their younger years makes it all the more valuable and astonishing.
• We have created a lightly-edited master version that cuts out duplicate scenes and eliminates sequences where the lighting is too bad to see anything.
• We have transferred the master version to a DVD for those of you who would like an un-cut, un-edited original copy of the entire set of films.
This fall, we will be finishing the identification of people and places in the footage and, with your help and suggestions, planning the next phases of this project. We are considering how to work in Derry Allen's work on family genealogy, linkage with Nancy Morris's Aunt Hilda book and the CHWF diaries. Several cousins have told us about treasure troves of photographs.
Finally, we are brainstorming ways to deliver footage segments to those who might be interested in making their own tailor-made movies. Our current thinking is, the more versions made from this amazing old footage, the better. In other words, stay tuned for some more interesting announcements ahead!
PLEASE SEND US YOUR UP-TO-DATE MAILING ADDRESS!
For all of you who sent a donation to the project, we'd like to send you your DVD copy of the un-cut, un-edited original films. Again, click here to see a three minute excerpt from the disc. So, if you wish to receive your copy, please reply by return eMail with the mailing address to which you'd like the DVD to be sent.
For those of you who have not yet donated to the project, we'd love to send you a copy too. eMail us your contribution check (any size...whatever you think is right) and mailing address to:
Hilda Foster Film Project (make the check out to this name)
c/o Reginald C. Foster
168 Allens Point Road
Marion, MA 02738
Finally, you will see that this message is to the xxxxxxxxx branch of the family. Look at the "To" eMail addresses: are we missing cousins that would be interested in getting a DVD copy of the Hilda Foster home movies? If so, please forward this message to them, with a copy to Reg.
Best Regards...and Happy Viewing!!
Derry Allen
Adam Foster
Reg Foster
Nancy Morris
Molly Warner
Roger Warner
March 2006
March 18, 2006
Hello Cousins and Descendants of Charles Henry Wheelright Foster:
We thought we'd send you an update on our fundraising progress for the Hilda Foster Film Project. (Click here to see the original eMail we sent out in January.)
There is good news!! With $3,306 collected so far, we've reached two-thirds of our overall fundraising goal of $5,000, thanks to the generous donations from many of you. When we fold in the matching dollars from the Massachusetts Historical Society, we are targeting $10,000 for the overall cost of the project.
Even more exciting, three more reels of old film have surfaced. We will be evaluating them for inclusion in the project!
Also, Derry Allen is working to start a related project. He has two family genealogies going back 3+ centuries, compiled by Caroline Foster Sizer and Frederick Devereux, Jr. (Click here and here to see excerpted pages.) We are looking at how we might computerize this information so that it can be easily shared and accessed. Derry would be delighted to talk with anyone who (a) has experience with genealogy software, (b) has additional genealogical information that ought to be included in this project, and/or (c) has helpful suggestions. You can contact him at derryallen@aol.com.
Contributions are continuing to trickle in for the film project. If you can help us get over the fundraising finish line, please send your check to:
Hilda Foster Film Project
c/o Reginald C. Foster
168 Allens Point Road
Marion, MA 02738
And again, if you haven't had a chance to see our pilot web site, be sure to click on www.chwfoster.com
Best regards from your cousins,
Derry Allen
Adam Foster
Reg Foster
Nancy Morris
Roger Warner
January 2007
January 18, 2007
Dear Foster cousins and extended family members:
Greetings from those of us who have been volunteering on the C.H.W. Foster film project. We wanted to bring you up to date.
Originally, when we started this project, our idea was to produce some kind of single, centralized film from the Foster home movie footage shot from the late 1920s to the early 1950s. That is still a viable idea, but during 2006 we also discovered that we ALSO wanted to help various family branches produce their own customized mini-films starring the people nearest and dearest to their hearts.
This has put us – to our great surprise – on the cutting edge of the archival preservation movement. If the old philosophy was to centralize collections of old papers, photographs, and even movies to help conserve them, the newer philosophy is to conserve the old materials AND share them through high-quality digital copies.
You might recall that last fall we sent, to anybody who asked, DVD copies of Hilda Chase Foster’s home movies, divided up into numbered scenes with an identification key. Well, that was just the first step.
As a second step, we’ve purchased a couple of hard drives and have loaded them with the newly-digitized film clips. We have loaned those hard drives to a couple of Foster cousins, Edie Farwell (Vermont/California) and Jonathan Foster (California), who expressed interest. They will copy the files to their own hard drives and, at some point in the future, on their own timetables, create their own mini-movies starring their closest Foster relatives (in this case, their fathers). They can add contemporary interview footage and combine it with the old silent footage, add voiceovers, or add music – whatever they want to do. But the important thing is, they have the old footage now. It’s not being “hoarded” in a conventional archive. It’s being shared.
Those hard drives will be available for sending out again sometime toward the end of January. If somebody in your branch of the family knows how to edit home videos on a computer, even on a novice level, and this is something you’re interested in, contact us and put your name of the list.
We’re also working to upgrade our website, www.chwfoster.com. Adam Foster (Washington, D.C.) is in charge of that effort, which will make sharing this precious film footage and other family information even easier.
We hope to have more announcements for you in the near future and wish you well.
Derry Allen (Washington, DC)
Adam Foster (Washington, DC)
Reg Foster (Marion, MA)
Nancy Morris (Etna, NH)
Roger Warner (Ipswich, MA)
January 2006
January 6, 2006
Dear Cousin and Descendant of Charles Henry Wheelright Foster:
Greetings! We are your cousins Derry Allen, Adam Foster, Reg Foster, Nancy Morris, Roger Warner, and are reaching out to you with exciting news. We are also appealing to you for your participation and support.
About 75 minutes of original, uncut 16mm silent home movies dated 1928-1945 havv surfaced. They were filmed by Hilda and Reginald Foster (offspring of CHWF) at various family gatherings at Charles River, Ship's Cabin and other locations. The celleloid is still well preserved and the scenes/images contained therein are priceless. The various characters, your relatives -- although small children and young adults at the time -- are instantly recognizable by present-day family members who have seen excerpts from the films.
Like anyone's home movies, the material can be a bit challenging:
• The scenes, though marvelous, need editing (many repetitive scenes, bad lighting, etc.),
• Except for one's own immediate family, it is hard to identify other people in the films as well as locations.
The Hilda Foster Film Project
The group of undersigned cousins banded together last Fall to make this wonderful treasure available to everyone in the family, and to preserve the images from the original film for generations to come. Working together, we have developed a proposal with seven overall goals:
1. Create a high quality, digital master copy of the original celluloid film.
2. Create an edited version which cuts out all the bad quality, repetitious material and adds captions that identify people and locations.
3. Conduct "oral history" interviews with senior family members as they watch the film and add their reflections to the sound track.
4. Tie all of the above together with excerpts from the CHWF diaries, Nancy Morris's book of Aunt Hilda memoirs and family tree information.
5. Provide DVD copies of both the uncut original and the edited versions to all interested family members.
6. Donate the 16mm original film to the Massachusetts Historical Society to be stored in their climate controlled film vault.
7. Use all of the above to develop new, future projects including the possibility of another reunion (the last one was held in 1978: "Mabel and Charlies' Chickens".
To get a glimpse of our vision, we've created a prototype of the edited version. You can view it by going to the following web site: www.chwfoster.com
The Budget & Massachusetts Historical Society Matching Grant
We have costed out the project and have established a budget of $10,000. With the help of Henry Foster (CHWF II), we proposed the project to Peter Drummey, manager of the Foster Fund of the Massachusetts Historical Society. Peter is the MHS Librarian who supported the effort to transcibe the CHWF diaries into MS-Word and record them on a CD-rom.
we amaredelighted to report that our proposal was accepted and the project has received the endorsement of the MHS. We were successful in obtaining a $5,000 matching grant to fund half of the budget.
The Appeal!
We need to raise another $5,000 from family members to match the MHS grant and complete the project. Any amount, small or large, would be much appreciated. In return, we'll send you two DVDs, one with the original, unedited film and the second edited version with the soundtrack, captions, etc. Send your contribution to:
Hilda Foster Film Project
c/o Reginald C. Foster
168 Allens Point Road
Marion, MA 02738
Finally, although we have the eMail addresses of a great number of the clan, if you think we might have overlooked someone, please forward it to other family members who might be interested. We'd also appreciate it if you could forward us any eMail address changes so we may keep the Foster family directory up-to-date.
Best Regards,
Derry Allen
Adam Foster
Reg Foster
Nancy Morris
Roger Warner
January 4, 2006
P. S. Also, if you have any additional reels of film from the era gathering dust in your attic, could you let us know. Thanks!
December 2006
December 30, 2006
Dear Foster cousins and extended family members:
Greetings! Those of us who have been volunteering on the C.H.W. Foster film project wanted to get another message out before the end of 2006 …
This year, we discovered that we wanted to produce some kind of film from the Foster home movie footage shot from the late 1920s to the early 1950s … but that we ALSO wanted to help various family branches produce their own customized mini-films featuring the people nearest and dearest to their hearts.
This has put us – to our great surprise – on the cutting edge of the archival preservation movement. If the old philosophy was to centralize collections of old papers, photographs, and even movies to help conserve them, the new philosophy is to conserve old materials but also share them through sending out high-quality digital copies.
You might recall that last fall we sent, to anybody who asked, DVD copies of Hilda Chase Foster’s home movies, divided up into numbered scenes with an identification key. Well, that was just the first step.
As a second step, we’ve purchased a couple of hard drives and have loaded them with the newly-digitized film clips. As an experiment, we have sent those hard drives on loan to a couple of Foster cousins, Edie Farwell (Vermont) and Jonathan Foster (California) who expressed interest. Ideally, Edie and Jon would shoot contemporary interview footage and combine it with the old silent footage to make short customized films for their own family branches, but whatever they might produce (either now or in the future) is a bonus. The important thing is, we’re started sharing the footage, making it freely available and accessible, rather than “hoarding” it as conventional archives do. And that is our core philosophy and mission.
Those hard drives will be available for sending out again sometime toward the end of January. If somebody in your branch of the family knows how to edit home videos on a computer, even on a novice level, and this is something you’re interested in, contact us and put your name of the list.
As a third step, we’re also working to upgrade our website, www.chwfoster.com. Adam Foster (Washington, D.C.) is in charge of that effort, which will make sharing this precious film footage and other family information even easier.
Right now, those upgrade attempts are not apparent to users, as Adam is working on the site’s infrastructure. (In techno-speak, he’s converting the pages to a CSS or Cascading Style Sheet standard, which will make future redesigns much easier). Once that is done, you will be able to download individual film clips from the site, as well as gain access to some rather extraordinary family tree information that Adam’s late father (also nicknamed Adam) created some years ago. We hope to announce details of this in the first quarter of 2007. And we also want to ask your opinions on the project’s future directions.
In the meanwhile, Happy New Year to all from the Foster Family Film Project!