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The Making of “Patrick Smith’s Florida, A Sense of Place”
Years ago, my father shared with me an idea for a movie based on his experiences learning and writing about Florida and its history. Having spent my career in film and video, I was a natural choice to make it happen. He swore that if I taped him giving the talk he shared with audiences throughout Florida, I would sell thousands.
He was right. That project, Patrick Smith’s Florida: A Sense Of Place totally changed the direction of my life.
To do it right, I knew I had to research and find photos and b-roll to bring his talk alive. I didn’t want it to be just a “talking head.”
So, in December 2002, my wife Kim and I embarked on a journey through Florida to shoot scenes for the movie. We wanted to visit all the places that he talks about in the video.
We ended up having our own adventures along the way.
Our Trip to Capture Florida on Film
Our trip took us all over Florida, north to south, from Gulf beaches to Atlantic beaches. We stayed in Miami, Palm Beach, and Everglades City just to name a few.
Our focus was on capturing what Dad describes in his talk so to make it come alive for you. We wanted to capture old historical Florida. We needed to find fitting locations and do re-enactments.
It turned out to be a challenge to find places where not much had changed.
We found a much different Florida than that of the time of Dad’s trip throughout Florida when he was 10. That would have been 1933.
Patrick Smith’s Florida: A Sense of Place is also available as an audio download and the transcript Tales about A Land Remembered and Other Books I’ve Written as a Kindle version.
Trip Down Memory Lane
His description is so well done, he literally takes you back there. It’s been viewed over 1.1 million times on a Facebook post I shared.
You can view that part of the video here.
Home Version – $19.95 
View Online – $9.95
As a young boy, just visiting a much different state than his own was a huge adventure. It was in that spirit that we took on our explorations of Florida and had quite a few adventures of our own. Here’s one of them I know you will find funny.
Miami Here We Come
We headed to Miami to shoot Collins Avenue and all the changes in the city. I knew we would not find much of old Florida there but Dad talks about how things changed so we needed to include it.
Besides, it was the first time Kim had been to Miami and I hadn’t been in years.
My mom and sister warned us about getting mugged or attacked, but we were determined to go anyway and that hint of danger made it all the more intriguing. We weren’t planning on going to any bad areas anyway since we booked two nights in the Chesterfield in the famous Art Deco area just blocks from South Beach and we heard it was pretty safe. The hotel had rave reviews and offered a nice breakfast. Many European tourists chose to stay there so we were excited.
That turned out to be quite an experience.
We really enjoyed exploring the Art Deco area and South Beach.
When we arrived at the Chesterfield Hotel after our explorations, the porch was inviting and the lobby was very clean and nicely decorated. Customer service was great and check-in quick.
The interesting part came after we made our way upstairs to our room. The hallway was dimly lit from lights down low and painted a sumptuous red. It was not what we expected from the clean, crisp white decor of the lobby.
We both looked at each other and thought, “Hmmm, What type of place is this?”
They did say this was a place well-liked by families.
Our room was pretty small but the decor from the lobby had made its way here. Very nice and clean.
The best part of the hotel was the big porch where we could people watch. It was there we saw some intriguing comings and goings.
Strange Connections Made On The Porch
Later on our first night, after a failed attempt at going to a nightclub – I’m saving that story for a later post – we decided to have a nice glass of wine and people watch while lounging on the porch.
At one point a man walked onto the porch and joined us. He had no drink in hand and chose to sit in a very straight-backed chair that was beside Kim even though there were other nice lounge chairs available. His posture was very rigid and he rested both hands on his knees. He grabbed our attention because he looked so stiff and standoffish.
A short time later, a car pulled up and stopped. A young woman in a short, tight jean skirt with high heels got out and went up onto the porch. The car drove off. She stopped at the hotel door and looked around as if confused.
That’s when the man jumped up and asked, “Conchita?” in a very thick European accent. She turned her head and nodded. Then he stiffly gestured for her to go into the lobby.
Well, that made Kim curious and she stood up to get a look at where they were headed.
To the left, past the check-in counter.
Hmmm. The only thing on the left of the lobby was the staircase to the rooms. The bar was on the right. Kim ran over to me.
“They’re going upstairs! Do you think what I’m thinking?”
Well, you know what we suspect we witnessed that night on the porch! Maybe our earlier suspicions about the hotel were semi-correct. It was a nice place and we saw other guests with children there. We chalked it up to the Miami South Beach experience!
And it wasn’t the only suspicious activity we witnessed that night.
Our Next Adventure
The next morning, we enjoyed that wonderful breakfast they offered. The lobby was filled with families. It was such a different scene than the night before so maybe we just dreamed it.
Home Version – $19.95
View Online – $9.95
Public Performance Version – $95