Day 8: Short Film

I came into work around 10a this day also. When I got into the office, Derek briefly stopped me as I passed by his desk. He said that he wasn’t going to send me to Luling for the watermelon story after all. The gay marriage ruling had happened, so they were going to be running other stories and have other things for me to do. He said that he would be by in a little bit to get with me on a story to cover.

I have to admit, I was a bit relieved. The watermelon story sounded very interesting, but I had a very difficult time sleeping the night before and was completely exhausted. I was at the beginning of a raging sinus infection that had kept me awake the night before, so I wasn’t feeling too up to walking around with the public. Also, my AC is still broken, and that meant a 15 minute drive in the heat with the windows down aggravating my sinuses.

Jessica was sitting at my desk talking on the phone. I didn’t want to disturb her, so I went to the break room. Usually I’d buy a soda and some cookies from the gas station that’s next to the Taco Cabana in Seguin, but I didn’t have time to this morning. There’s some kind of charity thing going on in the break room though. The room is filled with various types of soda in cans and a bunch of delicious snacks. You can take a can/treat and put money in this little piggy bank on one of the tables near the door.

I wanted a Dr. Pepper, but there weren’t any cold ones in the fridge so I settled on a Coca-Cola. I also grabbed some M&Ms. As I was putting money in the piggy bank, Derek came up to me. I told him, “I needed some caffeine.” And he laughed and said that he was wired up on coffee from the morning. He told me about my next assignment: someone had emailed him about a short film they were making and to call them back and do a short story on it. He also asked me to try to get a hold of the New Life people. I told him about how I thought they may not hold service until Saturday, so they might call back then, so he said that if they did do that then he would take over the story. I didn’t word it like I was trying to pass off the story, just gave Derek a heads up in case I couldn’t get a hold of them still.

When I went back to my desk, Jessica was still on my phone. I put my bag on my desk and then sat down at Felicia’s and observed the things that she had on hers. I didn’t touch anything, just looked at what she had sitting out in the open. It was really just cords and some old various issues of the Gazette.

After Jessica finished her phone call, she apologized for being at my desk. I told her it wasn’t at problem at all, it really wasn’t! I didn’t mind, I knew that the day would likely be very slow so I wasn’t in any kind of hurry.

After I settled in, I looked over an email that Derek had sent me about the short film. It didn’t list a lot of information, so I decided to do some research. I like to know as much about a story as I can before I go in, even if I have the source explain to me about it anyway. Going in knowing a bit about the subject at hand means you have a better shot at asking the questions that need to  be asked.

In particular I was looking for a Go Fund Me page about the movie. It was tough to find though. Google wasn’t being very successful, nor was the GoFunMe’s internal search. So I started getting creative. I figured out the production company that was handling it and started searching for them. I finally found them through their Facebook page, where they shared a link to the project.

It was a short film about a guy who enjoyed a spring break with friends at his parent’s house, but something went wrong and all of this friends were killed. Then, he had to figure out what happened that night, and was the prime suspect. It sounds pretty interesting!

So once I had a better grasp of the story, I gave the source who had contacted us about it a call. I got her voicemail though, so I left a message. After, I tried contacting the New Life lady again, but just got her voicemail as well.

It was mostly a waiting game, but the newsroom was a bit entertaining. Derek and Jeff were talking about how to handle the gay marriage news. Derek wanted to write an opinion column about supporting it. Jeff was very hesitant to let him do that. He said that in a town like Seguin (with a lot of older, religious folks), doing that could alienate almost half their readers. Jeff decided that the newspaper should remain neutral and not take a stand on right or wrong. Instead, Derek’s column would focus on how right or wrong, it is now the law and must be followed, which is more of a neutral take.

I guess in a lot of ways I agree with Jeff’s decision. Personally, I am extremely happy that gay marriage is now legal. I feel like it is a fundamental human rights issue, and gay people should have the right to marry. However, I’ve always respected the view that newspapers and journalists remain neutral in coverage and not take a side. Journalists should report the news, not comment about it. This is why I’m very private about my personal views on social media. You will never find me ever mentioning religion or my support or being against this issue or that. If you were to ask me in person though, I would gladly talk about the issue or my personal views on things, as I do have my own beliefs and thoughts. So, I really respected Jeff’s decision.

Around 1p-ish, it had been a couple of hours, so I tried calling the short film source again. The interview went okay, but I had to dig at the source to get them to talk a bit. It was a bit odd to me. They were the writer/director of the film, but they didn’t reallly give much info on the plot or about making the film without me poking. I was able to get the info though, so after the interview I set out and wrote up the story.

The lead on this story was tough. I decided to make the logline of the movie the lead. When I emailed the story to Derek I explained that I thought it made the story more engaging, but that if it was too casual that I could rewrite it to be more newsy. He emailed back though “Good stuff,” so I think he liked it.

After this I decided to give the New Life source another call. I finally got a hold of the person! But, they told me their husband had a heart attack and was recovering. They wanted to do the story, but it wasn’t a good time. They asked if they could call back Monday, so I told them that would be okay. I figured that Derek wanted this story asap, if he was willing to do the interview on Saturday himself. I told the lady that I wished her husband well and then let her go.

I told Derek about the New Life lady. He passed the story onto Ron. I wrote up some notes about the story and the lady from my research, in case it would help him. Then, I proofed some pages.

After proofing the pages, I waited around for about 30 minutes. I was honestly done for the day, and I didn’t really want to wait around like I did yesterday. So, I went up do Derek and asked if he had anything else he would like me to do. He said that if I was done for the day that I could go home. It was early, not quite 3p, but man was I happy. I felt very crummy because of the sinus infection and looked forward to getting home early.