By BETH HENDERSON
Lifestyles Editor
Look out Hollywood - here comes Will Perkins.
With a drive, determination and vision that would make even Steven Spielberg blush, Perkins, 18, already has two self-made, self-produced movies under his belt, and he has embarked on a project that will surely give a boost to his future ambitions.
Following his graduation from Pillow Academy in May, Perkins and his friends set out for a summer adventure. They found it when they decided to make a movie at the old Midway Hotel on Carrollton Avenue in downtown Greenwood.
The film will appropriately be called "The Midway," and it is a 1940s romance drama. Perkins plans to use the film in his portfolio as part of the application process to film school at Savannah College of Arts and Design in Georgia.
With a new Canon GL1 professional-quality movie, camera given to him by his parents as a graduation gift, Perkins is armed and dangerous. He has written the script and is the director, producer and filmmaker all rolled into one. He also will be in charge of editing when the shooting has been completed. The film will be in black and white.
"This is just something I came up with," Perkins said. "This is my favorite building in all of Greenwood, and this is my way of paying tribute to it and to the way things were.
"When I look at this place, I don't see the collapsing ceiling or the peeling walls," Perkins said. "I see it for what it used to be."
Perkins, who works part time at Main Street Greenwood, always has been interested in history. He looked in Greenwood history books and put together random first and last names for the characters of the film. The only name he kept somewhat intact was that of his character, George Antonopaulos.
"I just really liked the way that sounded together," Perkins said. "The only thing I did was change the spelling a bit."
Perkins obtained access to the hotel through the owners of the building, Glenn and Flo Miller, and he and his crew have been working in the hotel for months.
"Most of the stuff we've used for decoration we either bought at junk stores or we had ourselves," Perkins said.
The lobby greets guests with an antique couch, artificial flowers, chairs, floor lamps and photographs on the walls. The tile floor, which was individually pieced together with dime-sized tiles when the floor was originally built, was mopped scrubbed and steam-cleaned by Perkins and his friends, leaving a beautifully patterned area that covers the lobby as well as other areas of the hotel.
"We found lots of decor right here in the hotel," Perkins said, pointing to the old card holder on the wall behind the registration desk. "We found this upstairs. The stamp on it says 'Patented in 1902.'"
The film features four main characters, including Perkins, who will play the narrator, or the "voice of reason"; Paul Brown, who will play the part of bartender Chip Mozingo; Alicia Pernell, who will play Louise Graber, Mozingo's fiance; and Sherry Thomas, who will play Rosie Gillespie, who also is in love with Mozingo.
Along with the lobby, the large dining room directly behind it also was transformed into "The Blue Room" nightclub, where many of the scenes will be shot with plenty of extras. Debra Atkinson will be performing Gershwin songs, and Brown will be playing the trombone in one scene.
The room has been turned into a makeshift nightclub that closely resembles what a nightclub would have looked like in the 1940s. Two folding tables stacked on top of concrete slabs and covered with marble-patterned contact paper create the "bar" area. Barstools were made from two-by-fours topped with cushioned, circular wooden seats. Racks of drinks and assorted candies and foods are positioned alongside and behind the bar, and tables are scattered throughout the room with tablecloths, flowers and slip-covered chairs. A piano sits in one corner of the room.
The back room is authentically filled with moonshine jugs and "pinups." Brown's character is a bootlegger on the side.
Many of the original lighting fixtures are still intact and are being used. There also is a side entrance to the hotel, which was known as the "Black Entrance," and it also will be used in the movie as just that. Many of the costumes, including all the female costumes, have been donated by Greenwood Little Theatre.
"This has been great. I think this will make people aware of Greenwood's history," Brown said. "This filming is almost an everyday thing for us. At noon, we will say, 'Okay, Will's off work. Let's go call him and see if he's going to the hotel.'"
Perkins' mother, Linda, is very excited that her son is doing this.
"He knows exactly what he wants and how he wants it done," Linda said. "And all this is coming out of his head. He thinks big. He thinks outside the box."
The first two movies he did were school projects. He filmed his version of "The Scarlet Letter" two years ago, and more recently, he put together and filmed "Death," which is based on Chaucer's "Pardoner's Tale."
"When I did this, I set it in Greenwood in 1902 instead of medieval England," Perkins said.
Perkins hopes to have the film completely edited and ready to go by next month, and, with the help of Main Street Greenwood, he plans a free public viewing sometime in mid to late August. Greenwood Leflore Hospital has offered its new conference room for this purpose, and it seats about 200 people. Perkins hopes the response will be so great that he will get to show off his masterpiece at more than one viewing.
