{"id":5655,"date":"2012-05-03T09:59:56","date_gmt":"2012-05-03T13:59:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/?p=5655"},"modified":"2012-05-10T11:21:53","modified_gmt":"2012-05-10T15:21:53","slug":"caught-on-film-10","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/2012\/05\/caught-on-film-10\/","title":{"rendered":"CAUGHT ON FILM"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Documentarian John Wilson<\/strong><br \/>\n<figure id=\"attachment_5716\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5716\" style=\"width: 80px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/film.small_.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/film.small_.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"film.small\" width=\"80\" height=\"90\" class=\"size-full wp-image-5716\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-5716\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Wilson<\/figcaption><\/figure><br \/>\n<strong><em>by Margot C. Lester<\/em><\/strong><br \/>\nWhen John Wilson matriculated at UNC, he was headed toward a career in medicine like his uncle and grandfather. His major was biology.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153But in the summer of 1983, something magical happened that completely changed my life,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d says the Chapel Hill filmmaker. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153My best friend in high school was Brian Henson, the son of the late Muppet creator Jim Henson. In the summer of \u00e2\u20ac\u212283, I was with Brian and Jim while they were shooting the second Muppet movie, <em>The Muppets Take Manhattan<\/em>. Jim kept asking me, as someone not directly involved in the production, what I thought of the footage they were shooting. I had no film experience, but Jim really made me feel like I had something valuable to offer. So I came back to Chapel Hill for my junior year very excited about doing something new.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Plot twists<\/strong><br \/>\nShortly thereafter, Wilson stumbled on the unused University Access Channel and decided UNC needed a student television station. He co-founded STV (Student Television) with Walt Boyle in 1983.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153There was a biology major frantically reading camera and editing manuals trying to produce the 30-minute premiere show that had already been advertised to air just one week later,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he recalls. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Somehow we managed to finish that first show, and UNCSTV (uncstv.org) is still going strong 30 years later.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Wilson chairs the channel\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s board of directors.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153UNCSTV helped me realize my future was in film and television rather than medicine,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Wilson allows. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It also gave me production, creative and leadership experience that enabled me to get into graduate film school at the University of Southern California.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>While in L.A., Wilson worked in various roles at Jim Henson\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s production studio, a place that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153was filled with people who, like Brian and Jim Henson, believed deeply that character is all important, and that nothing is impossible.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>Wilson aimed to make scripted, narrative films. But during the UNC Bicentennial, he was hired to do a one-hour documentary for his alma mater. <em>A Place on the Hill<\/em> featured Tar Heels like Charles Kuralt, Bill Friday, Doris Betts, Charlie Justice, Michael Jordan and Dean Smith. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153That great experience of interweaving individual stories into overall themes confirmed for me that I wanted to make documentaries,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he says. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I love telling true stories through the voices of people who were either directly involved or who have a unique perspective on the story.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p><strong>Political thriller<\/strong><br \/>\nWilson has made two documentaries on polarizing political figures in his native North Carolina: Frank Porter Graham and Jesse Helms. (View these and others at <a href=\"http:\/\/vimeo.com\/album\/220893\">vimeo.com\/album\/220893<\/a>)<br \/>\n<figure id=\"attachment_5657\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5657\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/Film1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/Film1.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"Film1\" width=\"300\" height=\"182\" class=\"size-full wp-image-5657\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-5657\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Chapel Hill filmmaker John Wilson with Bono during a 2005 interview with the U2 frontman for Senator No, Wilson\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s documentary about former-Sen. Jesse Helms.  Photo courtesy of John Wilson<\/figcaption><\/figure><br \/>\nDuring interviews for <em>A Place on the Hill<\/em>, several people talked passionately about Frank Porter Graham\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s influence on them, the university, the state and beyond. Wilson also stumbled onto a treasure trove of 1962 interviews with the former university president and U.S. senator. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s when I realized I had to make a documentary about Dr. Frank,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Wilson allows. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The film took about three years to make, including raising all the money and doing other video work to keep the lights on.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>The effort was worth it. <em>Dr. Frank: The Life and Times of Frank Porter Graham<\/em> won a regional Emmy. <\/p>\n<p>The Helms film, <em>Senator No<\/em>, was inspired by the infamous 1984 Hunt-Helms Senate race, the most expensive campaign in history at that time. Helms saw and liked Dr. Frank when it aired in 1994, and agreed to let Wilson produce a film on him with no strings attached.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I wanted to make a film that would hold people\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s interest regardless of their prior feelings about Helms,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Wilson says. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I wanted to show people who hated Helms why so many loved him, and people who loved him why so many hated him.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Everyone from Bono to Joe Biden weighed in. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Whether you loved or hated him, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no denying he was at the heart of the conservative movement that changed America starting in the \u00e2\u20ac\u212270s.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>Though both Graham and Helms were true characters, telling a balanced story about either iconic figure requires an even hand. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The biggest challenge for me is not letting my personal feelings about the subject, whether positive or negative, interfere with making a balanced, engaging and informative film that people will watch, regardless of their own feelings,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he says. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s important to get varying perspectives from on-camera interview subjects, and to write your narration carefully, because viewers understandably consider narration the filmmaker\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s voice. Multi-dimensional films are much more interesting than one-dimensional tributes or hatchet jobs.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Nature films<\/strong><br \/>\nWilson and his wife, Ashley, also a Carolina grad, returned to Chapel Hill in 1998. Recently, Wilson has turned his talents to producing films about land conservation. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s on the board of the Conservation Trust for North Carolina. After five historical documentaries, he welcomes a change to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153spend time in the present \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and outside!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>He says the Old North State is a great place for a filmmaker. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153North Carolina has a rich history made by fascinating people. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s amazingly fertile ground for a documentary filmmaker. There are a lot of very talented people in the film business here, most who choose to live here because of the state\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s great quality of life. I like working with people like that.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Documentarian John Wilson by Margot C. Lester When John Wilson matriculated at UNC, he was headed toward a career in medicine like his uncle and grandfather. His major was biology.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[319],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5655"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5655\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5715,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5655\/revisions\/5715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}