A Warden Film: The CaretakeR

We are happy to announce the release of A Warden Film ‘The Caretaker’ Presented by Made Back East.

Last winter, the Warden crew tackled one of our favorite projects to date, a film about the infamous Harvard Cabin and The Caretaker who cares for it. However, this film project started way before then.

In the Spring of ‘22 we were on Mt. Washington shooting for a project when we decided to go check out the Harvard Cabin. Our knowledge of the cabin was pretty limited at the time, but we knew it was a historic fixture on the mountain. We were shooting some lifestyle imagery with the cabin as a backdrop when we heard the door swing open. It was Jack Kingsley, the caretaker, and he was breaking down the cabin for the winter season. He was wearing glacier glasses, a rain coat, rubber gloves, warn in snow pants and rubber boots that looked like they were from the 1960’s. We began talking with Jack and immediately were drawn to his character. He had this timeless look and poise. It was hard to tell how old he was or where he came from. You could tell he was truly passionate about the cabin and he mentioned his families deep connection to the place. We finished our lifestyle shoot but made sure to grab his number as we were immediately interested in connecting with him more and knew there was a serious story to unravel.

After that day, we talked about Jack and his character. We bantered back and forth on what the story was and ultimately landed on telling the story of the Harvard Cabin and all of it’s history, through Jack. That summer we followed up with Jack and mentioned to him we wanted to make a film about him. He was kind of shocked we wanted to but was stoked on the idea and we set off to make the film the following season.

DAY ONE

After a lot of pre-production preparation of gear, crew, and logistics, we set off on our first mission to the Cabin in February 2023. We arrived in the parking lot of Pinkham Notch Visitor Center with a plethora of gear, food and beer. After about an hour of packing in the parking lot, we loaded up our ice fishing toboggans and headed up the Tuckerman Ravine Trail (TRT). It was roughly 5 minutes into the ascent that we realized we had drastically underestimated the amount of effort it was going to take to bring multiple cinema cameras, analog cameras, lenses, batteries, support equipment, food and winter gear up the 2 mile trail to the Cabin. We quickly ditched our skis and splitboards and began hoofing it up the frozen trail breaking every 2 minutes or so to catch our breathe.

As the sun set, we continued onward finally reaching the cutoff for the Cabin around 8pm. Tired and hungry, we all were incredibly ready to get settled into the cabin for the 2 night stay we had ahead of us. After downing one or two Coors Lights, we prepped some camera gear, made some Mac N Cheese and began our first shots of the film.

The Cabin was empty of guests that night minus our crew and some of Jack and Jimmy (the current caretakers) friends. We rolled a handful of clips of the cabin coming to life with a warm fire and of Jack hanging out at the iconic Harvard Cabin dining table before heading to bed.

DAY TWO

After snoozing our alarm clocks a time or two we woke up slightly before dawn. We crawled out of our sleeping bags to a cold cabin as the fire from the night before had vanished. After a quick regroup and instant oatmeal breakfast, we began shooting right away as we wanted to capture the perfect blue hour light. This is when we shot the opening scene of the film starting with some lock offs of the Cabin, Jack caring firewood indoors, and sweeping off the solar panels from the dusting of snow that had fallen overnight. Throughout the day we stuck around the cabin and its nearby forest, shooting scenes of the cabins interior, Jack working around the cabin, stocking the drinking water from the nearby creek, checking the snow plot and putting up the avalanche forecast for the day. As dusk began to settle in, we captured Jack splitting some wood and starting the fire for the night ahead of us.

We really wanted to capture the guest experience at the Cabin so Jimmy and Jack invited some friends up that night and with a handful of other patrons staying in and around the cabin we managed to capture some great group scenes of the cabins culture and environment. Night time is when the cabin seems to truly come alive. It has people returning from an adventure that day, newcomers who have just arrived for their next adventure and regulars who seem to pop in more often than their actual home. All of this seems to create a nightlife environment where a group of strangers can sit around a table and swap stories, eat a meal and share the occasional bottle of whiskey. As midnight approached we all had heavy eyes and headed up to the loft for another cold nights sleep in our sleeping bags.

DAY THREE

After two nights and a full day of shooting, the crew was tired, smelly and ready for a proper meal. But first, a mini mission! After a proper breakfast we set off on a mission to the floor of Huntington Ravine to capture Jack touring and poking around in the terrain. We had a beautiful sunny day and were perfectly sheltered from the wind overhead until we broke tree-line. As we entered the floor of the ravine, we captured Jack battling the elements and soaking in the mountain scenery. We shot a lot of this scnee on our 16MM Bolex which added to the grit and rawness of the moment.

After an hour or so we descended back to the cabin to pack our gear and say our goodbyes. However, the adventure did not end there. From there we traversed with our Toboggans kitted to the brim with camera gear to the infamous John Sherburne ski trail. Navigating the bullet proof moguls was not an easy feat but we managed to get to the bottom and back to our cars late afternoon all in one piece.

FURTHER MISSIONS

We would go back up to the Cabin in Mid March to capture Jack skiing a few of iconic lines in Huntington Ravine and again had Jack join us for a tour in April for some shots of him ridging out of Tuckerman Ravine, summiting Mt. Washington and skiing the summit snowfields.

This was an incredibly powerful experience for our entire crew and we had an amazing time making this film. For me personally my time spent at the cabin was peaceful as my mind was so focused on the task at hand that I forgot about all the other projects we had going on and was truly immersed in the moment. The cabin can do that to you. It brings you back to a place where you are reminded of the little things in life.

We hope you enjoy this film project. This was our first official short film release for the Warden brand and we are proud of the end product. The Caretaker has since been admitted to the Maine Outdoor Film Festival and will continue being screened around other film events in New England and beyond over the next few months.

Check out the FILM HERE.

Cheers.