Headlines are the hardest part

In case you didn’t hear, I have a job now! I work for the Foothills Sun-Gazette newspaper as a reporter! I had given them my resume several weeks ago, then checked back with them two or three times to see if they had looked at it yet. Finally, they arranged a day and time for an official job interview. When I came back for the interview, I discovered it was less of an “interview” and more of a “welcome to the Foothills Sun-Gazette” kind of meeting, which I didn’t know about. I came bringing five writing samples and a mind ready to answer whatever questions I might be asked. Instead, I’m handed a manilla folder and told that it is my hiring packet. The editor told me to come in at 1:00 tomorrow to start work, and that was it!

In my first week there I did more re-writing than actual writing. I’ve now done several re-writes of press releases into article form, as well as re-writes of police reports into short paragraph story form, into a section called “Crime-lines.” I also did one over-the-phone interview to get more information about a car show in Porterville, and a face-to-face reporter assignment where I took pictures at a ribbon-cutting (yes, I get to do some photography too!), then interviewed the new business owner (that article can be found here). Though this is only about my third week at this job I’ve found that they are slowly giving me more and more assignments. I guess that was nice of them to sort-of ease me into it, but it’s a little scary to all of a sudden be given responsibility for six stories in the paper, all but one of which need interviews with people either over the phone or in person.

I like one-on-one conversations with people, but one of the scariest parts of this job is making the phone call. Once the conversation has begun, I’m fine; it’s just the idea of me being outgoing and calling contact after contact to get a story. It’s also a little scary when I have to go in-person somewhere all by myself. I find that I am the one who has to go introduce myself to people, then I have to be the one pressing them for answers to questions, or being directive and telling people where I will be taking the picture. This job is forcing me to me more extroverted, which I guess isn't necessarily a bad thing. It's getting me out of my comfort zone.

I also feel like my editor and publisher are either testing me or putting a lot of faith in me. Either way, they are often pushing me out on a limb by myself (in a good way, I guess). For example, yesterday I had go to a sort-of press conference all by myself. I wasn’t told what questions I should ask, so I had to come up with some on the spot. It’s a kind of trial by fire, but I guess it will get me used to reporting very quickly. I’ll be learning from a lot my own mistakes for a while.

The job also has a very fluid schedule. I can clock in and clock out whenever I want, as long as I get all my hours in for the week. This means that if I get all my hours for the week done by Thursday, I can take Friday off - kind of like homeschool. I also find that it’s hard to plan too far ahead, because I never know when I am going to get a last-minute assignment to take pictures of a fire or take notes at a board meeting. This also makes it hard to commit to doing another play or musical. I was asked if I could possibly be in Encore Theater’s production of But Why Bump off Barnaby?, in which I would have played Barnaby, but this fluid schedule really won’t let me commit to something like that right now. Plus I was feeling exhausted after having just finished Oliver! and Beauty and the Beast back-to-back.

One of the perks of this job is that I now have a press pass! Suddenly, I now have access to places many people cannot normally go, and I get to meet with people that many do not get the opportunity to meet. I must be careful not to abuse this power. Like I said in my last post, with this job, “people won't look twice when I want to go somewhere dangerous and start asking questions…” And I must say, it is extremely difficult to not make myself think of Peter Parker or Clark Kent whenever I’m taking pictures or doing an interview. I also have the nerdy glasses that both of them wear. Although when I take them off I don’t become a superhero, my vision just gets slightly blurry. But of course, I have still worn my Superman shirt underneath my dress shirt. Did you really think I wouldn’t?

Another cool part of this job is that I get to write real stories. I get to interview real people in the real world who have stories to tell, and I get to help them make sure their stories are heard. It is also helping me learn how to look for stories and how to ask the right questions that will lead to stories. This is a skill that could help in the future if I ever write for TV or movies. But for now, I'm writing these stories in a form I am not quite familiar with. I’m only really used to writing academic essays, creative writing pieces, or blog posts, so news articles are a new thing to me.

For the most part it’s pretty simple; I put the most important parts at the beginning of the article, starting with a “lead” or “hook” that gets the reader interested. Before that is my new twitter handle @MNewman_SGN (which stands for Sun-Gazette Newspaper), before that is the deck, or sub-headline, and then the very first part is the headline, which seems to be the hardest part. The editor told me that headlines generally should be six words at the most. The headline also has to do the job of catching the reader’s attention and telling the entire story of the article in only a few words.

I like coming up with titles for blog posts - I think I get that from my dad who always says he spends way too much time coming up with sermon titles - but headlines are different. Unlike the title of a blog or a sermon or the chapter of a book, which gives an idea of what the whole thing is like, a headline has to grab the reader’s attention long enough to lead to the deck, then the hook, then the rest of the article. I’ve been told this is where I can be the most creative, but so far that mostly just seems to involve dumb puns. Last week I rewrote a press release about the Kruse foundation which donated a bunch of money to help buy meals for impoverished families. I titled the article “Kruseing to end hunger.”

It's cool to feel like you belong somewhere, and that's a little bit how I feel right now. I just have a good feeling that God wants me in this job right now. The day I gave the newspaper my resume, I was actually heading somewhere else, when the thought randomly came to my head that I should stop by the newspaper and drop off a resume. After I was hired, I found out that the day I dropped off my resume, the editor and publisher were feeling very short-staffed and thinking they would probably have to hire someone else. I’m not sure why God wants me here, how long it’s going to last, or what’s next, but all I know is that I’m here now, and I’m going to do the best I can for His glory. Plus, if my job, salary, and hours stay exactly the same, it is likely I will be able to pay off my school loans entirely in around 3-4 years. This is assuming, of course, that nothing will change - but change is the only thing I can be certain of.

By the way, I never did get a call back from Save Mart, but at this point, I’m fine just working at the newspaper.

Nerdy updates

There is finally an update on the Chronicles of Narnia film series!!! Though the film still seems to be stuck in what is known as “development hell,” The Chronicles of Narnia: The Silver Chair now has financing and distributors! The film will be produced by TriStar, eOne Entertainment, The Mark Gordon Company, and the C.S. Lewis Company, and it will be distributed by eOne Entertainment and Sony (the official press release can be found here). The screenplay is being written by David Magee (who wrote the screenplays for Finding Neverland and Life of Pi), but nothing has been announced as far as director, cast, or release date. It is my speculation that the very earliest this film could be released is late 2018, but it’s more likely to come out sometime in 2019 or 2020.

The history of the Chronicles of Narnia film series is a long and complicated one, but a helpful guide to it can be found in an older blog post here. That essay was initially written April 22, 2014, and this is the first real update on the movie since then, more than two years later!

Although, one piece of sort-of new was announced, during a press conference a few months ago. Mark Gordon, one of the producers of the film, said that The Chronicles of Narnia: The Silver Chair would serve as a reboot to the Narnia film series. This (probably) doesn’t mean that they will be re-making the three movies that have already been released. This very likely means that The Silver Chair will serve as a "re-quel," meaning that it is a sequel to the first three movies, but also will help to "reboot" the series so that more can be made after this. This is a trend among several movie franchises today. Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Jurassic World, and Mad Max: Fury Road, are just a few of the many films today that are sequels of movies released a long time ago.

Because of his age, it’s unlikely now that Will Poulter will return to play Eustace Scrubb, which is too bad, because he was one of the best parts of Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Also, since this is an entirely new production crew and company as the last three movies, I honestly don’t know if Liam Neeson will return to voice Aslan, but I very much hope he does.

Even though this will be a sort-of reboot to the series, I very much hope they use the same logo, and keep the same musical themes, if only just for the sake of continuity. Assuming pre-production continues on The Silver Chair, it will eventually get released. Then, if it makes enough money, the film series can continue. But which film would be made next? A safe bet would be The Magician’s Nephew, which was almost chosen as the fourth Narnia movie instead of The Silver Chair.

Nerdy update part 2:

Take caution! This contains SPOILERS for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child: Parts 1 & 2. Read at your own risk!

I have now finished reading Harry Potter and the Cursed Child: Parts 1 & 2. It was a very quick read - I probably could have read it all in one day had I not been busy with rehearsals for Beauty and the Beast. Plot-wise, the play was decent, though not quite on par with the rest of the books. But there is one aspect of the story that I had mixed feelings about.

This story seemed to change the Wizarding World’s established rules on time-travel. Near the end of my review of X-Men: Days of Future Past, I went on an extended tangent about the two main types of time-travel used in stories. I wrote that one type of time-travel follows the “whatever happened happened” approach, while the other follows the “time can be re-written” approach.

The “whatever happened happened” approach is the idea that no matter what anyone does regarding time-travel, the past cannot be changed, and the future cannot be re-written. Everything is as it is, and it will always stay that way, no matter how much people mess around with time. This is the approach to time-travel that was taken in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. When Harry and Hermione go back in time to save Buckbeak and Sirius, they see themselves. They even interfere with themselves when Hermione throws a rock at Harry’s head. But this was not new. They had already done it; they just weren’t their other selves at that point. When the executioner brings down his axe, it was always a pumpkin - it was never Buckbeak’s neck. And Harry already knew he could produce a powerful patronus to defeat the dementors, because he had sort-of already done it. Everything that happened already happened. No matter what anyone does if they go back in time does not affect the future, because everything has already happened.

The “time can be re-written” approach is self explanatory. Time-travel has a cost. A little change in the past can mean a big change for the future. Going back in time has the potential to create an alternate future, which it almost always does. This is the type used in movies like Star Trek (2009) and X-Men: Days of Future Past.

In Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, when Albus Potter and Scorpius Malfoy go back in time, they come back to find that many things have changed. And when they go back again, the future is changed to a post-apocalyptic-type world where Voldemort is alive and well. The future is saved when they go back in time again to block the spells that had changed the future in the first place.

Though it was kind-of fun reading these alternate futures, especially the one where Cedric Diggory had become a Death-Eater and killed Neville Longbottom, this type of time-travel does not agree with the type presented in Prisoner of Azkaban. Maybe this is due to the fact that J. K. Rowling did not actually write the script for this play; the script was written by Jack Thorne. J. K. Rowling’s name appears on the book only because the play is merely based on a story written by Rowling, Thorne, and John Tiffany. Thorne clearly enjoys playing with time-travel in this play, and it is fun to read, but I can’t help but be a little bit bothered that previous rules concerning time-travel in this universe were seemingly ignored.

Also, the whole idea of Voldemort and Bellatrix Lestrange having a child together was a little weird as well.

Overall, still an enjoyable Harry Potter story, so long as you don’t try to understand the time-travel too much.

The Room Where it Happens

Last time I wrote in this blog was in March, and I was feeling discouraged and stuck. I feel slightly less stuck now, even though not much has changed. In this blog post I will continue to write about my job situation as it relates to the present, the hopeful future, and the unlikely future.

Jobs I May Get Soon

Well, one answer to prayer from my last blog post is that I have a job interview next week for a reporter position at my local newspaper! This job is only part-time they said, but I would be happy with any kind of income right now (as I currently have none, unless I try to sell more things on eBay). They told me I need to bring to the interview some samples of my writing - at least one essay from school and at least one blog post from here. I’m still deciding which ones to bring, though I probably won’t bring them this post, as I’m writing about it right now.

The people at that newspaper are nice, and the lady who works at the front office seems to like me. Each time I go to visit the paper to ask if they’ve seen my resume yet, she encourages me to aggressively pursue this job. Maybe they just really want someone my age to work there; some fresh blood to liven up the paper. Not to say the newspaper has been lacking, but newspapers in general have severely lessened in popularity, due to the steady increase of online news sources.

I think I would enjoy being a reporter for a newspaper. I like writing, I like telling stories, and I like investigating. Plus, it might make me feel a little like Clark Kent :D “I gotta find a job where I can keep my ear to the ground. Where people won't look twice when I want to go somewhere dangerous and start asking questions…” (Superman/Clark Kent, when he decides to become a reporter at the end of Man of Steel).

And while I am preparing for my upcoming interview at the newspaper, I am also awaiting a call back from Savemart (a local grocery store) for an interview there. That job would also only be part-time, but it would be a job nonetheless. The position they are looking for is a “service specialist.” I would be the person who helps puts groceries into paper or plastic bags, then asks if the customer needs any assistance taking them to the car.

A job at Savemart is not exactly what I had in mind when I graduated with an English degree, but there is a potential benefit. If I get a job there, then later decide to move to Los Angeles so I am closer to all the movie industry jobs, my job at the Savemart here might be able to transfer to a Savemart in the Los Angeles area. Of course, a job at the newspaper would also be a good starting ground for a writing position in the movie industry as well…

Jobs I Would Like to Have in the Future

I like visiting movie news websites like Screenrant and reading articles about various movies in production. I recently read an article which gave a script update on the upcoming films Avengers: Infinity War and its newly renamed sequel “Untitled Avengers”, from screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely [by the way, these two are my heroes; they wrote all three Captain America movies, and the first three Narnia movies (someone else is writing the 4th)]. In this update, they explained a what the writing process is sometimes like:

“When we lock ourselves in a room with the Russo brothers and a couple of execs from Marvel, one wall has cards for movie one and the other wall has cards for movie two and another wall has little baseball cards of every character still alive in the Marvel universe… And then we looked at that began to shuffle the cards around.”

I want to be in the room where it happens. I want to be one of those people shuffling cards around, creating stories. I don’t know if I necessarily want to be the one physically writing the scripts, I just want to be part of that group of writers and directors, inserting my ideas and bouncing off the ideas of others. I think I do better with collaborative storytelling than on my own.

I’ve mentioned in previous posts that I am working on a comic series loosely (like, extremely loosely) based on Kim Possible. These comics began in 2002 and have continued on and off again since then. I am the one who physically writes, draws, and colors everything, but I do most of the writing with my brother (with the occasional input of one or both of my sisters). When it’s just me I can get some of the story done, but if I’m talking through the story with my brother, the ideas come out much faster, and it’s a lot of fun. I like to think of these comics as some kind of practice for the future, whether that be collaborative storytelling, storyboarding, or scriptwriting.

I love stories of every kind, but I’m especially a big fan of movies. My siblings and I could easily quote almost entire scripts of our favorite movies, and many of our responses back and forth to each other are often movie or TV quotes (not always intentionally). Another one of our favorite things to do is to film scenes from movies, sometimes shot-for-shot. Below I’ve posted a video my sister and I made about a year ago. This is an almost shot-for-shot remake of a scene from Spider-Man, centered around the character Norman Osborn:

This was made just for fun and is obviously not meant to be professional. Before filming this video I watched the original scene from the movie a couple times, then made quick sketches of what each shot should look like, labelling each shot. After placing props around the house, my sister and I then walked through where each shot would be filmed, and I showed her where would be the best places to stand so that she would not be seen in the mirror while filming. She also recorded my voice on her phone and played it back while filming the shots where I am talking, but my lips don’t move. This was shot using my iPhone 5S, then edited on Windows Movie Maker.

This is something I love doing; I just wish I could get paid to do it. I want my English major to count for something. Plus I’m too stubborn and proud to work at a fast-food restaurant and prove all the naysayers right that all an English graduate is good for is saying “Would you like fries with that?” I just wish I knew how to get into the movie business! I feel like I’m on the wrong side of the computer screen; I want to be the one writing and directing movies, not the one reacting to them or reading articles about them. I may know a lot about the movie industry from movie news websites and Wikipedia, but I can never fully know or experience the art of professional movie making until I’m in the room where it happens.

Jobs That are Basically Impossible, but Would be Fun

By the way, if you don’t recognize that last line (also the title of this post), then you are not familiar with the musical that has swept the country this past year: Hamilton. This musical marks the first time (at least in recent history) that a Broadway musical has become so popular or gotten so much media attention. In addition to this, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, a new play set 19 years after Deathly Hallows, just opened in West End. The script for this book is now on its way to becoming the best-selling book of 2016. Both of these are helping reignite the public’s interest in both musical theater and drama. Something which is either good news or bad news for me; someone who also has a keen interest in theater.

The bad news is that more and more people will be wanting to participate in professional theater; a field that was already extremely hard to get into, but will now be made even harder by this oncoming surge of newcomers. The good news is, however, that more opportunities will also probably open up as well, to accommodate everyone.

As I said, professional acting of any kind is extremely hard to get into, but that is also something that interests me very much. Since graduating from Cedarville, I have been a part of four theatrical productions, the most recent of which, Theater Arts Alliance’s production of Beauty and the Beast, is actually semi-professional - meaning that I am under contract with them and I will get some financial compensation from the profits the show is sure to make (you can get tickets here).

So, is there a way to say “I think I am a good actor” without sounding vain? Several directors and assistants at Encore theater have told me so. I have to be careful though; comments like that have a bad habit of going to my head easily. I can’t let my imagination get the better of me, and I can’t let a highly unlikely future in acting cloud my thoughts or my better judgement. But even so, I sometimes like to think acting professionally in theater could lead to acting professionally in films, which could lead to writing professionally for films…

Well, back to reality, even though chances are I will never be a professional, I greatly enjoy theater and I’d like to audition for more plays and musicals in the future. Coming up at the end of this month are auditions for the musical White Christmas. I love the movie, and the music is great, but I get the feeling that a musical like this would only be fun if I got a lead part (which is unlikely at this theater, because so many more talented people audition there). Next spring at Encore Theater, they will be putting on the musical Pippin, which unfortunately is not about the character from Lord of the Rings. I don’t know much about this musical, but one of the directors of Oliver! (a musical I was in earlier this summer) told me he would very much like it if my sister and I auditioned. There are many other musicals I would love to be in as well. The Music Man, Les Misérables, West Side Story… I eagerly look forward to the day when the rights for Hamilton are available so that smaller theaters like the ones around here can put it on. I very much want to be in that someday, but I’m willing to wait for it.

Prayer Requests

I don’t always remember to pray, and I often feel bad about it, but then my parents have told me in the past, that God doesn’t love me any less even if I forget. But when I do remember to pray, and if you have time as well, these are the things I need prayer for:

• that my interview at the newspaper would go well, and that I would be able to get that job
• that I would also be able to get the job at Savemart as well
• that God would provide me with money to make my next school loan payment, because right now I have basically no money and no source of income
• that God would guide my future and lead me towards the job that is right for me
• that God would guide my thoughts; that I would think only what is true, honorable, just, pure, and lovely (Philippians 4:8), and not worry about the future

Thanks for reading and thanks for praying! I’ll try to update my blog more often, especially after I hear back from my job interview.