Fun and rewards at JACC16!
Life for a theater student at Skyline?
For a theater student, rejection is a common occurrence, and one that you learn to grow with. Theater is an art form, and art requires you to step out of comfort zones, and go out on limbs. The unfortunate truth about leaving those zones, and hanging off of those limbs, is that you then have the chance of falling.
Theater is all about falling. It’s about rememorizing and reviewing a monologue that you already know by heart each day leading up to an audition. It’s then replaying every minute of that audition back through your mind, looking for any moment that could have been better. There is this constant awareness that you may not get the part that you auditioned for, you may not get any part at all, but for some reason, we continue to do it.
Despite the chance of falling, for a theater student, the stage gives one this indescribable feeling inside. We can complain about rehearsal, or costuming, or weekend cue-to-cues, but if someone told us to quit, to stop this and put away all those chances of falling, we wouldn’t considerate it.
Theater is the place where I feel at home. When I am surrounded by others who also enjoy and participate in theater, I know that my personality will be accepted.
We are a rowdy bunch. A loud gathering of improvised arguments, random song lyrics, and an excess of emotions. There is a balance we must find between our nerves and the trust we have for ourselves and our ensemble. Nerves, however unpleasant they can end up being, are a reminder to us that we are alive. They are a reminder that we can feel. And the challenge that actors face is the process of taking those nerves and turning them into emotion.
We learn to invite that hesitance that builds in our stomach closer, we learn to recognize it as it is. Then, with time, practice, and wonderful influence from directors or fellow actors, we can transform that into a variety of sensations.
The seductive essence of acting is its realness. It’s a contradicting thought to process—the realness of acting. It can be argued that acting is a form of pretending. Which, in one way, is true (most of us aren’t Henry V). But, in another way it is a very honest art form. Theater takes very complex subjects and presents them in a way that an audience can sympathize with.
When you are on the other side of that—when you are the one who is sympathizing for the audience, you are connected to emotions that may not wholly be yours, but in some way, you embrace them. Actors are able to swallow and express very human experiences and emotions. We help to bridge the gap between reality and fantasy through language and motion.
It is because of this expressive nature that acting continues to thrive despite the harshness of rejection.
By Erin Perry
Skyline College student
TSV newsroom tour
The Skyline View newsroom is where the magic happens and our school paper gets produced. We hope you enjoy this tour video of our very last production day of the semester!
Taking “Artistic License”
Artistic License is the editorial cartoon of the Skyline View, but more specifically, it is the brainchild of myself and our opinions editor, Steve Perotti. Steve and I both operate under the guideline “if you’re not pissing someone off, you’re not doing your job right.” That credo doesn’t hold true for news, sports, or features, but opinions, by definition, are subjective. If an opinion is so mildly subjective that it doesn’t elicit a response from those in opposition, then what was the point of expressing it in the first place?
Pondered over days, sometimes weeks, then frantically doodled in the back pages of my binder when I should be paying attention to my day job, the editorial cartoon is the wall against which we nail those too foolish to see their own idiocy.
The criticism of editorial cartoons and late-night comedians should be expected when a person takes a position that grants power, privilege, or public attention. More and more, however, that expectation is being willfully ignored under the assumption that a well-crafted temper tantrum is a perfectly mature and legitimate way for established adults to level a playing field that is already tipped heavily in their favor.
When the cartoon began as an unnamed editorial, I felt the need to tackle larger issues that affected students and young people. Obama, global warming, and rape culture were easy targets. Spending more time on campus gave me a better chance to get riled up about what went on at Skyline in particular, and my second semester featured more cartoons about our school specifically.
It shouldn’t surprise anyone that my Obama critique did not get a response, as Obama is probably too busy reading security briefings to pick up a Skyline View. My criticism of our school and its administration, however, got quite a response. One particular cartoon insinuated that many events on our campus are ego-stroking pet projects aimed more at faculty and administrators seeking praise and prestige than at the students who might actually benefit from the events. This message was misconstrued in a very roundabout way as a racial attack, and the cartoon took on a narrative structure during my second semester at the View.
As a proud student of Skyline College, it was difficult to endure week after week of scathing charges that could easily have hurt or ruined the future career and educational prospects of our staff, especially when those charges were being thrown at us from people who didn’t actually understand the true feelings of the person who took personal insult to the cartoon in the first place. To make things worse, the staff of the View found it hard to believe that the cartoon was misinterpreted the way it was, or that the insult that was perceived warranted the amount of blowback that was allowed to persist, unchecked.
The cartoon endured. It had to for many reasons, but mostly because my editor, much of my staff, and I all needed a way to voice our frustration over the treatment of our newspaper staff, not just regarding the aforementioned issue, but on many issues we have between students and faculty/administrators for which the blunt-force trauma of a good editorial cartoon is needed to shake things up.
In my third semester, I let the issues of the past die. I think this was a mistake. To remain professional and mature, I felt it was best for all parties to accept that their voices had been heard. I admitted to myself that, though we had clearly been heard once, we would be misinterpreted, ignored, or spoken over until we changed the subject. So I changed the subject.
But the intention of Artistic License must endure.
Though I, as the wit and pencil pusher behind the cartoon, am on to other things, I am calling for a replacement. Someone as dissatisfied with the status quo as I am. Someone who will commit to being immature enough to draw cartoons with dedication, but mature enough to use that power to say something meaningful. Someone who can weather the ramifications of their work. It’s not about how well you can draw or use Photoshop, but about using a single image to speak a thousand words, and occasionally to be able to write a thousand words to defend that image.
As the physical newspaper slowly fades from our cultural landscape, the political – or editorial – cartoon will have less and less usable real estate whereupon to set its soapbox. Until that day when the last paper goes to print, The Skyline View has space available. All we need is you.
Dave Newlands
TSV Digital Editor
To be the Online Editor or not to be, that is the question?
The decision to change the title for the Online Editor to Digital Editor, was made sometime in the past that has been lost to the ages. But it really started with one question, is there a point of having a Online Editor when we have camayak and the Editor-in-Chief (EIC) can just approve the articles for online publication in place of the Online Editor?
The answer developed slowly, as I was EIC that semester, and by the end of it we had the answer. Yes, we did indeed still need a Digital/Online Editor, because without the position it would fall to either the EIC or a group of staff members which is a problem because it means increasing there workload during the semester. And as student will tell you, more work regardless of the kind it is, is not or ever fun.
If you’re thinking that the Digital/Online Editor just post articles online, well you’re wrong. The job has moved on and expanded over the years to what it is today, the Digital/Online Editor no longer just post articles to a community college website, it has expanded into handling the Google Analytics, managing and designing/updating the website, and depending on the college newspaper handling and directing both the social media and the multimedia section, since both sections are online.
Building on this and going of my experience these last few semesters in the position, it’s a unique position compared to the section editor positions. Where the section editors deal with laying out the print bi-weekly and assigning stories weekly, the online section is different. It’s different because the deadlines are malleable, even though we have set up hard deadlines and requirements for articles, social media, and multimedia.
These deadlines and requirements, we haven’t always meet them but we try our best.
In regards to the workload for the Digital Editor and I’m sure that someone will come along that will be able to handle it, alongside another editor position but we have yet to have a such a person join staff. So until then we’re left with the current, system in place. A system that been working relative well so far, with plenty of room to improve massively in the future, just like multimedia was like when I joined the newspaper.
This is what we discovered during my time as the Editor-in-Chief, so we kept the Online Editor position and updated the name to Digital Editor.
Will Nacouzi
TSV Digital Editor
Launched! The New Skyline View Magazine, Viewpoint
Every semester that The Skyline View has been publishing (over 15 years now!), each staff has left a legacy of some sort, be it growing from a newsletter to a tabloid, or moving the paper to online, or building a stronger multimedia presence, or ramping up its social media presence, or expanding the newsroom. This semester is no different.
Or perhaps it is. Because for the first time ever, The Skyline View has published a magazine, Viewpoint. This is a great leap forward. And of course, with every leap comes risk.
When the editors first spoke to me, their adviser, about doing a magazine, everyone was very excited. After all, for years, staffers have been asking to do a magazine, and now it was finally going to come to fruition. But with no magazine class, no magazine-specific staff, in fact, no real plan at all, it wasn’t going to be easy.
And just because the students were committing to tackle a magazine didn’t mean they could abandon their bi-weekly print newspaper. Or their daily website. Or their hourly social media presence. All of which means it was quite difficult to focus on the logistics of How. To. Get. A Magazine. Out. So, why in the world would an adviser say, “Go for it!”?
Here’s why: Back in 1999, when Skyline College gave me the green light to revive the 11-years dormant journalism program with a single class, news writing, I decided mid-semester that having a news writing class made no sense without having an actual newspaper. So on a wing and prayer, the students started The Skyline View.
That first semester, only two issues were published. They were four-page newsletters, really–far less impressive than the tabloid-sized 12-pagers the students produce every two weeks now (not to mention the daily publishing they do online and through social media).
Had they not pulled the trigger and gone for it, whether they were ready or not, there’s a good chance The Skyline View would not be thriving today. So the logic is this: Start a magazine. Just start. It may not be great. You’ll run into problems. But you’ll find ways to solve those problems. And they did. They figured out how to design pages that are more visual and oriented toward the long read. They learned something about setting up art that lands a strong visual punch. They learned that magazine articles aren’t quick-hit pieces that can be written in a day. And, yes, they learned you have to closely proofread the table of contents.
And you know what? We’ve already put the magazine in the calendar for next year. We’re already thinking about whether or not the college could support a magazine class. We’re already considering how to enter magazine contests.
Sometimes the only way to do something is to jump in. And jump in they did. The result is a great-looking first edition, one they can rightfully feel proud of. Check out their PDF version here.
Nancy Kaplan-Biegel
Journalism Program Coordinator
Adviser to The Skyline View
Team work for the win, as far as handling online goes. Otherwise, it’s just bags of fun and endless joy by yourself
It has been an interesting experience the last couple of semesters as the Online/Digital Editor. Which hasn’t always been fun, but in the end it has been a learning experience when I look back at it all really. I say this because at the end of the day, that what it means to be a part of a community college newspaper.
During my time on staff as the Online/Digital Editor it hasn’t always been easy or fun. When I first started as Online/Digital Editor, I found myself as the only person handling the online (it was nothing new for anyone who has been Online/Digital Editor for the TSV before) and boy that was fun and when I say fun, I mean it was fun because I was the only doing everything on the online side of things for The Skyline View (TSV).
When Spring 2013 rolled something something that rarely happened on staff happened, I actually had help with the online for once. This help was in the form of Shaquill Stewart, who was our Social Media Editor, and Nico Triunfante, our Multimedia Editor. It was odd at first but there help actually made the workload easier.
Since then, we have improved massively in terms of our online but it still needs work. I say this because that semester was the same semester, that we started doing the News Briefs weekly for Spring and Fall. A weekly multimedia project that has benefited everyone involved from weekly host Nico Triunfante, Miguel Garcia, Katelyn Payne, and everyone else who has been part of it over the semesters. Even I’ve learnt from the experience, from writing the script each week to working with the equipment behind the camera.
As seen this semester, this has grown with the addition of Angelica Fregoso, who is a multimedia reporter, and whom has been producing multimedia content for the section throughout the semester. Of course, this even applies to the News Briefs (NB) which has changed since it started.
On the social media side of things, it’s kind of obvious now but I’m surprised that it took this long for us to develop it. Namely we’ve developed two systems for handling the social media aspect of The Skyline View (TSV). The first system we tried towards the end of last semester was granting the section editors access to the TSV social media accounts.
That system didn’t worked out as well for various reason, so this semester we tired another system. One that broke the TSV Staff into social media teams, that would update them regularly throughout the week and the semester. This system has worked much better that the previous semester, with plenty of room to improve on in the future.
In short, it’s not fun when you’re the only one managing more then one position but when you have a team helping with it, the job becomes much easier and fun to do, as it allows you to focus on other areas (not to mention homework and college work) that need the attention of the Online/Digital Editor.
Will Nacouzi
TSV Digital Editor
A look at the now, from the past
Ive been at Skyline College for seven years and on The Skyline View on and off for about six years. I’ve seen people come and go and I’ve seen people go and come back. Honestly, not much has changed here at The View, people change, stories change, ideas, layouts, pictures, and technology all change but the feeling of the newsroom has always stayed the same.
This has always been a place for people to come and work but at the same time bonds are formed here that last years. Some of my best friends I’ve met on the paper and when I come here occasionally I see the same friendships forming among the new staffers. It’s almost like a clubhouse of strangers who come together under a common goal of putting out news to the masses and leave as friends or more. It’s almost like working on the paper brings out everyone’s real self.
They may be peppy or grumpy or quiet but everyone begins to understand each other as the semester goes on. They start to go out for drinks or food, hang out on the weekends or even begin dating. There’s pressure here for work but where isn’t there pressure to do something?
They work hard but in working side by side for what could be 25 hours a week you gain a respect for one another and an appreciation for your “co-workers”. It’s always been that way, you almost can’t help it. There’s another part to it that for some reason seems to occur naturally. Almost everyone that comes in here doesn’t matter their age, race, gender, or experience, everyone seems to be generally cool.
Sure, there are some occasional crazies who disrupt the flow but this room almost attracts similar people who are all different in so many ways but go together so naturally it’s weird. And it’s always been that way, six years now and counting I’ve seen it over and over, mutual respect and friendship forms as naturally as a river going downstream.
Jay Johnson
TSV Editor at Large
How the sex column “Trojan Man” was forged from the fires of Mordor
It was spring 2013 and I was a fresh-faced writer moonlighting as a journalism student stuck in scorching Sacramento at the Journalism Association of Community Colleges conference (JACC for short). I was immensely bored, but desperate on staying inside to avoid the fireball scaring away the clouds outside. I wandered into an interesting-sounding workshop: “Beating It: Writing about sex on a deadline.” Without completely realizing it, I was walking into a how-to workshop on writing a sex column. It was in that room that what would become the Trojan Man began to form.
We were given a lot of information about what a sex column could do for a publication. It increases readership, since everyone likes to read about sex. We were told how to approach the subject, given it’s potentially controversial content. We were inspired to do something interesting, to write about the things that people normally just whisper about.
Over the next couple weeks, the sex column came to form. We came up with an impressively clever name: something that centered it to the Skyline College campus, that obviously identified it’s content, and suggested it’s male-oriented perspective. Things were starting out well.
But I remember sitting in my room, setting my own set of rules for the column. I knew that I didn’t want to write it like a dating advice column. This wasn’t about dating or relationships, it was about SEX. But more so than that, it was about sex education. “This isn’t going to be about your sexual conquests, right?” I remember my editor asking me. So I wrote down all of the things I needed to remember every time I sat down to write an article.
1. Make it personal: this is a man’s column: write like it
One thing that I remember from the sex column workshop was the sentiment that, somewhat surprisingly, journalistic sex writers were primarily female (thanks Sex and the City). What male perspectives were out there were associated as crude. I didn’t want that. Yes, I wanted a masculine perspective, but not a neanderthal’s.
I have definitely broken this rule.
2. Always come from a personal, but informed, perspective
I didn’t want to just talk about sex. I wanted to have a conversation about sex-related topics. I didn’t want people to read the column to find Joe Schmo talking about how girls should just do anal, but to have articles about the facts someone who might be thinking about experimenting sexually would want to know.
3. Be inclusive
I knew I would fall into the trope of writing specifically for a male audience. I had to remind myself, then, that the Trojan Man needed to have a wider reach. This has to be information that lesbians could use. This had to be something that a girlfriend could get ideas from.
4. Be proud, be confident
Whatever I wrote, I needed to own up to it. I made it clear from the very beginning that I wanted to have my name associated with the column. It’s far too attractive to be anonymously talking about all of these socially unacceptable topics, but it takes a different breed to own your perspective on those topics. It meant that I had to be somewhat careful while writing, yes, but also that I had to take things seriously. It not only kept me on my toes, but it legitimized the idea that sex shouldn’t be this taboo topic, but something that should be openly discussed
I certainly haven’t always abided by all of these rules for every article I’ve written as the Trojan Man. Sometimes I rushed out a late assignment and had to bare the backlash. Sometimes I finished an hour after deadline and knew, if anyone ever asked if I wrote that article, I’d confirm with eyes down and shoulders shrugged.
But I’m proud of what I started, for the most part. When I left the creation, it inspired a woman to pick up the slack (Trojan Woman), and even now we have the Amazon’s Angle. If nothing else, I’m proud of the legacy it lead, and I’m excited to see how The Skyline View will continue forward with it sex columns.
Nick Major
TSV Staff Writer
Guest hosting feels natural
Last Wednesday, April 22, I had the privilege of hosting the news briefs (NB)for the first time this semester.
I’ve always been the one doing the Focal Point and sports section in the news briefs, and it was very new to me to step out of my comfort zone and actually stand up in front of the camera. Not to say that I was nervous, but it was very weird for me to stand up and talk rather than sit down and read off a paper. I might have felt weird just being around everyone else because I’m so used to recording in our back room. I think I was a little anxious to have done it in the actual newsroom. I was definitely shy to do this in front of everyone, which is contradicting because I don’t feel that way when I talk in front of two or three other people in the other room. Honestly, shooting in front of everyone made me feel pressure to be “perfect” and not mess up as much as Miguel does because I like to do things good the first time around.
Overall, it was a good experience because I genuinely love being in front of a camera. It’s hard to explain why I feel that way but it’s something that I feel has always come natural to me. Also I have considered majoring in broadcast journalism, so hosting the news briefs this week was a good step forward with experiencing what it could possibly be like in the future as a potential career.
As for editing the video, I found it to be hard at first because I was not familiar with editing anything. Honestly, I’m not that great with editing and technology. I was thankful Miguel walked me through the process of it. And after a while, I got the hang of it and finished editing it with less help from Miguel.
From him, I learned how to edit out extraneous parts of the videos and put the pieces that went well together. Also I learned to add in audio and B-roll (the background image) to the video. I thought it was fun to do for my first time editing something all the way through the end. The most fun part of it for me was adding special effects to the transitions between me and Miguel’s scenes.
All in all, if I had to do it again, I definitely would because the more practice I get will benefit me later on. I hope the camera loves me as much as I love it.
By Katelyn Payne
TSV Staff Writer
The Skyline View Blog 