Inn on Bath Creek subject of future UNC-TV feature
Published 6:15 pm Monday, May 9, 2016
![CLAY JOHNSON QUIET ON THE SET: UNC-TV photographer and editor Bob Gunter films outside the Inn on Bath Creek over the weekend. Gunter and producer Clay Johnson are working on an upcoming feature for “North Carolina Weekend.”](https://www.thewashingtondailynews.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2016/05/NEWS_FEATURE_FILMING-INN-ON-BATH-CREEK_160510-WEB.jpg)
CLAY JOHNSON
QUIET ON THE SET: UNC-TV photographer and editor Bob Gunter films outside the Inn on Bath Creek over the weekend. Gunter and producer Clay Johnson are working on an upcoming feature for “North Carolina Weekend.”
BATH — Viewers across North Carolina will be introduced to Bath — it’s charm, history and its newest inn — through the eyes of local documentary film producer Clay Johnson.
A producer for WRAL and Capitol Broadcasting Company, Johnson also teaches a journalism class at Duke University, and in his spare time, produces segments for UNC-TV, ferreting out stories about places to see and people to know for the show “North Carolina Weekend.”
His current project is a segment about the re-opening of the Inn on Bath Creek and its new owners Maree Richards-Benson and Dale Benson. It will premier on June 2 on the “North Carolina Weekend” show at 9 p.m.
![INNKEEPERS: Owners Maree Richards-Benson and Dale Benson talk about the Inn on Bath Creek for a future “North Carolina Weekend” feature.](https://www.thewashingtondailynews.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2016/05/NEWS_FEATURE_FILMING-INN-ON-BATH-CREEK_160510-WEB-EMBED.jpg)
INNKEEPERS: Owners Maree Richards-Benson and Dale Benson talk about the Inn on Bath Creek for a future “North Carolina Weekend” feature.
It’s not the first time Johnson has filmed in the area: he’s done segments on the Schooner Jeanie B. in Washington, Goose Creek State Park, Southside Farms, the East Carolina Wildlife Arts Festival and many more.
It’s work that Johnson doesn’t consider work at all.
“I always see really interesting places and meet interesting people. It’s really a lot of fun — it really doesn’t seem like work to me,” Johnson said.
Being able to translate a destination to film, however, is work, because capturing the essence of a place involves sight, sound, scripted words and film blended together to recreate the environment on a screen.
“The goal is really to take viewers to the locations and give them a sense of not only how it looks, but how it feels,” he said. “I go into every project thinking, ‘How do I want this to look?’ before we shoot a frame of video.”
For the Inn on Bath Creek segment, Johnson did not have to travel very far to be on location. He and his wife, Debra Torrence, live practically across South Main Street from the inn.
“It’s nice when the shoot is right across the street from your house,” Johnson laughed.
While Johnson said his “North Carolina Weekend” segments are about a particular destination, for most, the real focus is not the location.
“All these features are really about people. Yes, it’s about it place, but it’s really about people,” Johnson said.
In this case, it’s the Bensons new endeavor and Bath’s excitement about the inn’s re-opening. The “North Carolina Weekend” show will also replay on June 3 at 8:30 p.m. and June 4 at 10 a.m., and will be posted on unctv.org.