New time-lapse documentary illustrates life in the Lakes Region, then and now.

Anyone who’s taken a family vacation in New Hampshire’s Lakes Region is bound to harbor enduring memories, whether it was 50 years ago or just last summer. A new documentary shows how the region has changed and how it’s stayed the same over the decades, with time-lapse images of scenery, landmarks and more.

The latest “Drop-Frame” film from TC Pictures documents the shifting natural landscapes and downtowns in places like Wolfeboro, Alton Bay, Weirs Beach, Meredith and Center Harbor. Directed by local filmmaker Thomas Clark, the film includes 68,876 individual pictures, with 47,536 more left on the cutting-room floor, all taken between the summer of 2008 and the fall of 2010.

The photos are strung together in rapid sequences, creating a sense of life and action from a streaming succession of frozen moments. It begs the question: if a picture is worth a thousand words, how much is 70,000 pictures worth?  

The film begins with footage of Wolfeboro, which, as the sign at the town entrance declares to visitors, is “the oldest summer resort in America.” We see cars zipping through town, tourists riding trollies or eating snacks on a dock, a band playing in a sunny gazebo, canoes and mini sailboats racing around Lake Winnipesaukee, and fireworks exploding over the water’s glassy surface.

As with other sections of the film, Clark digs up decades-old photos of Wolfeboro and then lets them fade away to reveal present-day footage of the same locations. In some instances, buildings have been replaced with more modern structures, and whole neighborhoods have been cleared into parking lots. We see old automobiles, clothing and dwellings evolve into their most current incarnations.

Many of the photos also show the bustling swell of tourists shopping at local gift shops, candy stores, galleries and restaurants. In one of the most visually fascinating segments, we witness the process of making Kellerhaus ribbon candy at Weirs Beach in fast-forward, starting with a gloopy mass of what looks like pancake batter and ending with colorful ribbons of hard candy.

Each chapter of the film follows a similar pattern, progressing from each lake community’s local scenery to then-and-now slideshows to retail sprees. Clark composed the accompanying score, featuring computer-generated tunes that often have a video game sound—especially appropriate for the arcade shots at Funspot.

The documentary also reflects the dramatic seasonal shifts that separate Lakes Region lifers from summer tourists. Breathtaking autumn foliage gives way to bare trees that loom over frozen lakes and snow-covered docks. With the changing seasons come new activities—an ice sculpture taking shape in Wolfeboro, a fisherman drilling through the ice in Alton Bay, a view from a chairlift at Gunstock ski resort.

The film’s most compelling moments come when it displaces time-worn images from the past with crisp new photos of the present. In most cases, the contrast is a bit depressing, characterized by a huge net growth in asphalt-covered surfaces and motor vehicle traffic. Numerous relics of the past are still embedded in the landscape, such as half-buried train tracks, old buildings and refurbished docks. We see early motorcycles at Weirs Beach transform into the hulking steel bikes of today; we see a line of tourists filing onto a ferry in old-time black-and-white and in full color. And, with the aid of time-lapse, we then watch the ferry back up, turn around and sail away.

Clark’s last “Drop-Frame” picture focused on Portsmouth, illustrating several development projects that have changed the city’s character in recent years. The new film covers a geographic area that’s only about an hour from Portsmouth and yet seems, in some ways, like a wholly different world. Both documentaries convey a similar theme of cherishing the past while bracing for the inevitable changes to come.

For more information, visit www.drop-frame.net.