About the Film In November 1849, Dr. George Parkman, one of Boston's richest citizens, suddenly disappeared. The police conducted an extensive search of the city and dredged the Charles River. Parkman had last been seen walking towards the Harvard Medical College. The Medical School's janitor, Ephraim Littlefield, who had a suspicion where Parkman might be found, spent two grueling nights tunneling beneath a basement laboratory looking for clues. What he discovered horrified Boston and led to one of the most sensational trials in American history.
Challenge
• Adapt Eric Stange's well-budgeted PBS documentary, "Murder at Harvard," that chronicles events in a very specific geography into a mobile media experience set in the film's geography.
• Preserve the depth of the story in the mobile version where video and sound quality is compromised on smaller mobile devices
• Determine the best length to convey a feature film in a mobile walking tour format without losing major storylines
• Adhere to the goals of the NEH Digital Humanities Start-up Grant program, one of which is to spark "innovative uses of technology for public programming and education utilizing both traditional and new media."
Solution
“Walking Cinema: Murder on Beacon Hill,” an eight-stop walk around historic sites in Boston’s Beacon Hill Neighborhood. This tour, unlike other Untravel tours, is non-linear and can be started at any point along the route which runs from the edge of the Boston Common up to Mass General Hospital. Each stop brings a different aspect of Stange’s film to life and delves into surrounding details and ties it to the time of Parkman’s murder.
About the NEH
The Office of Digital Humanities (ODH) is an office within the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). Digital technology allows new questions to be raised and has radically changed the ways in which materials can be searched, mined, displayed, taught, and analyzed. Technology has also had an enormous impact on how scholarly materials are preserved and accessed, which brings with it many challenging issues related to sustainability, copyright, and authenticity. The ODH works not only with NEH staff and members of the scholarly community, but also facilitates conversations with other funding bodies both in the United States and abroad so that they can work towards meeting these challenges.
About Eric Stange
Eric Stange is an award-winning independent documentary film producer, director and writer who specializes in history and science subjects. His work has been broadcast on PBS, The Discovery Channel, and the BBC. Before becoming a filmmaker he wrote about about art and culture for The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The Atlantic Monthly, The Independent (London), and other publications. Eric is the Executive Producer and Director of Spy Pond Productions.
Voice of "Walking Cinema"
Based on the approach of the film "Murder at Harvard," we debated three kinds of voices available:
1. Actors: as with the movie, we might use actors' voices to put us inside especially pregnant moments in the murder chronology. Actors can also give the piece a younger, more hip sound.
2. Narrator: similar to an actor, a narrator allows us to easily set up the interviews or other key moments in the story. In the film, Simon Schama is the narration of the piece, but for this mobile story, it is doubtful he will be available for full voicing of the narration.
3. Interviews: the film has a wealth of interviews that reveal the various angles and complexities fo the Parkman murder case. Further interviews with experts on the particular places in the mobile version may be added.
Wayfinding Solution
After viewing the film, picking out/visiting referenced sites that are either still around/publicly accessible, and drawing giant maps of Beacon Hill all over the office, we decided on a walking route that would cover the most interesting points while remaining a reasonable walk throughout the neighborhood.You can view the most current walking route here.
Our Work 
