well it is the next day which is the tuesday of fall break, me and my friend kasey, head down to peruse the continental breakfast spread out at the hotel lobby, i wanted eggs and instead frozen pancakes, oh well that's why its complimentary, i get a cup of coffee and head back to make some phone calls. when trying to call the arts center in wilson, i am informed via automated messaage that they don't open until 10 am, well i got to get some stuff together anyway. so i practice with light meters and load the bolex and get it light safe. we pack up the car and start the journey to the other part of wilson, nc.
i got to say the iphone is pretty cool, we had used it the night before to find food and a hotel room (which are way too expensive for such a small town, i guess it had a nice view of a car dealership) so we have full confidence in our device and get lost as hell. it turns out we were looking for a street which has multiple listings in different towns, and the iphone guided us directly to the wrong town. we checked the hotel address on our receipt and it turns out that that is a billing address and not the actual address of the hotel. go figure. we finally get on the right track and head to downtown wilson. we went through downtown wilson the night before and it was kind of dark and scary, like on the wrong side of the tracks kind of thing. but during the day, it was so different and i was impressed and it actually kind of reminded me of wilmington and how its downtown has remnants of the past scattered throughtout while it tries to merge with the present. we find a parking place nearby the arts center and make our appearance known.
after about 15 min. mr. barry page, the executive director of the wilson arts council came out to greet us, mr. page was quite helpful with his interview and gave us many suggestions of other folks around town to talk to and also gave us some more locations around town to find more of vollis simpsons work. he also invited us to the banquet/gala event scheduled to kick off the whirlygig festival nov 2-4. he told us of how vollis's daughter carole commissioned an artist to sculpt his hands and asked me if i had ever seen his hands, i of course had. mr. page then led us up to miss sandra holmes' office in the same building. miss holmes heads up the wilson visitors bureau and told us she was leaving for lunch but to let her know if there was anything she could do for us. i told her i needed old photographs of the whirlygig farm and told her we were heading back out to meet mr. simpson later that day, she told us she might stop by since she needed to speak with him also.
after cruising for shots of wilson whirlygigs and having lunch we arrived back at the whirlygig farm to no wind again, except for short bursts, nothing was really happening. me and kasey instead did some road shots, abandoned car shots, haunted house shots, and kept filming until mr. simpson arrived...at 6 pm! i guess his doctor appt. took a little longer. kasey and i interviewed a visitor to the farm and i then called mrs. simpson and let her know we were locking the gate and heading back to wilmington. i explained to her what we had and that we would be back especially for the festival, and i let her know how nothing was blowing or moving and how i still would need to shoot some more. i thanked her and him and she told me to drive safely back to wilmington. i said i would. getting in the car and driving away i was very happy for the things i had accomplished the past two days, but also disappointed that it would take more filming. i hope very much and please say prayer that we get a weather change soon, b/c the whirly gigs must turn, without that i have only a half movie at best
jm
1 comment:
I think the sculpture of his hands is/are awesome!
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