Like many writers whose creative thoughts flow while driving, it was on the back roads to Fayetteville that Cora’s Ring began to form in Nancy King’s imagination. First, she saw the Civil War Trail sign telling of the Confederate Army’s march to Raleigh in 1865. As she came over a hill, she had a “vision” of soldiers walking towards her and saw a cabin with clothes hanging on the line. She felt back in time. By the time she got to Fayetteville, a story had formed in her mind.
Nancy was going to write this story in book form. That is, until her son who owns an audiovisual company gave her tickets to a film festival, and she came away inspired to make a film instead. So she converted the story to script form. The script was only four pages long when she met with Jill Johnson Eagan, president of the then Writer’s Guild, wanting to get the group involved. Since that time, the script has grown to over 100 pages and has truly become a community project, spearheaded by Nancy King in collaboration with The Writing, Music and Film Society, renamed to accommodate all genres of writing that joined in the project.
Cora’s Ring is a tale of love and tradition that transcends time and dimension. After a car accident, the main character sets out to look for help and eventually finds herself in rural North Carolina in 1865 as the Civil War is ending. There she meets the widow Cora whose son has just been whisked off by the Confederate soldiers passing through on their march to Raleigh. She agrees to help Cora find her son, and begins a perilous journey across North Carolina, hoping that she, too, can find her way back home again.
Nancy and Jill began brainstorming roles, considering all the people they knew. Nancy wanted the lead person to have a modern name. Jill suggested her own name. Someone was needed to play Jill. Jill said, “I am ‘Jill’,” and thus took the role. Laura Wunsch, a Fuquay-Varina resident who was in previous movies, agreed to play Cora. Taylor Davenport, a former student of Jill’s, responded to a casting call; he sings and plays the role of Tsali, one of the Cherokees on the Trail of Tears. And so it went, 140 actors joining the cast, including 48 children.
All of the actors are from North Carolina, three-quarters of them from Fuquay-Varina. In addition to actors, others volunteered as camera operators, musicians, lyricists, and to work on logistics, props, and costuming. Everything used in the film has been donated or borrowed, including locations and props. Nancy sewed all the dresses, knickers and shirts.
The film includes several original songs, five of which were written by Nancy. When she started the film, she knew that Peter Laiosa, Raleigh musician, singer and songwriter, had written a couple of Civil War songs. She asked him if he would like to write some songs for the film. Peter agreed and wrote Ode to Cora. Two of his previously written songs were adapted to fit the story. He also agreed to play Charles, the husband of Cora. And two remarkable nine-year-old twin sisters, Emery and Kennedy Cline, who were excited to play Cora’s young daughters in the film, asked Nancy if they could sing a song in the movie. To Nancy’s surprise, they not only sang, but also wrote their own song, Brother O Brother, a song so beautiful, Nancy says, she was moved to tears.
Most scenes have been staged in Fuquay-Varina locations: a coffee shop, a bed and breakfast, a nature trail, an American Legion Post, the streets of downtown Varina, a local garden center, as well as in the homes of several Fuquay-Varina residents. There are also scenes at Yates Mill County Park and Jordan Lake.
In addition to local involvement, the Moore County Historical Society proved to be a helpful resource. For Cora’s cabin, they suggested the Bryant House in Southern Pines, which fit the need perfectly. On the property were two cabins furnished with period pieces that were used in the film. The Historical Society also connected Nancy with Hugh Shepherd, the commander of a reenactment group that does living history scenes. This group set up camp for the 1865 Civil War scene, providing the reenactors, soldier uniforms, footwear, canteens, flags and tents. Anne Caliri, a friend of the Historical Society, provided a horse; and Alyssa Flynn, a Fuquay-Varina high school student and stunt double, stood in for Jill in the galloping scenes.
Joseph Melvin, a source suggested by the Moore County Historical Society, is working on the soundtrack for the film. When Joseph first met Nancy at the cabin site, he related how his grandfather used to tell him stories about the Civil War. Nancy asked if he would like a part in the film as a soldier, and Joseph was thrilled at the idea. As time went on with filming, he told Nancy he had been thinking about the film and had a scene in his head. The scene, which he wrote up for Nancy, involved his character, Samuel, escaping the Confederate soldiers and returning home to find his cabin destroyed by the Union army, his wife sitting on a blanket waiting with his baby daughter who he had never met.
For this scene, Nancy needed to find a cabin in ruins, one that looked recently destroyed. She spent months researching, traveling around looking for something to fit the need. One day, her GPS sent her on an adventure. On Highway 42, just before Old Stage Road, she spotted a collapsed cabin with a red roof. As she pulled up to the cabin, Connie Lawrence approached the car to talk to her. She related that her grandmother was born in that cabin, and it had just been knocked down in a windstorm a couple of weeks earlier. Nancy talked to her about using the fallen cabin in Cora’s Ring, and Connie agreed, grateful the little house with a red roof could live on in the film. And so, Samuel’s homecoming scene was filmed there. Connie said now she will never remove the cabin. She has had a plaque made and affixed to the cabin that reads: “Little Red House Scene in Cora’s Ring.”
When asked about the challenges in coordinating this film, Nancy says, “On the whole, for a project going on three years, it has gone pretty smoothly, with a few minor glitches.” For example, in reviewing the footage of a Civil War march scene, she noticed soldiers sitting on folding wooden chairs. When something like that happens, she just goes with it.
“The biggest challenge,” she says, “has been locating sites to film, then making the site right, moving and rebuilding stuff to fit my vision of the scene, trying to make it happen based on the available resources.” She adds, “This is a community project, and we use what we have and make it work.”
Filming came to a halt in 2020 due to COVID. This downtime was used to edit the film and to address gaps in the script. Six scenes were added to build the backstory to explain where the ring came from.
“The script is 90 percent done, but needs tweaking,” Nancy says. For example, during the editing process lots of interference was discovered—road noise, places where the audio is not satisfactory. To compensate, music will be used in place of dialogue. The idea of using a narrator is under discussion, and the process of figuring out where the narration will go is in the works.
People keep asking when the film will be done. “It will be done when it’s done,” is the best answer Nancy King could give. She adds, “The story has taken on a life of its own. It will tell us when it is done.”
https://writingandbeyond.com/corasring.
