AddThis SmartLayers

News editor quits daily for career as film-maker

The news editor of a flagship daily has quit the newsroom to embark on a new career as a documentary filmmaker.

Chris Marks, left, has bid farewell to his colleagues at The Scotsman after taking the enhanced voluntary redundancy package offered by the paper’s publishers Johnston Press towards the end of last year.

The 42-year-old, who has been news editor at the paper for three years, has recently jointly produced and directed a documentary, My Brother the Ark Raider, with friend Jonathan Carr for Plainview Films.

The feature films follows the journey of Donald Mackenzie, from Stornoway, who was hunting for the remains of Noah’s Ark on Mount Ararat in Turkey when he disappeared three years ago.

After working as a journalist for 16 years, Chris is keen to do something different with his life and develop his filmmaking skills.

“I loved my job at The Scotsman, it was a great job which I loved right up to the last day,” he told HTFP.

“But the voluntary redundancy has come at the right time and filmmaking uses a lot of the same skills as journalism so it is not a radical step into something different.

“I still see myself as telling stories but on the screen and not in newspapers.”

Chris joined The Scotsman ten years ago as deputy foreign editor and has since been foreign editor, assistant news editor and then deputy news editor.

He is taking some time off before the upcoming Glasgow Film Festival and then he will get started on his next project.

“I am looking forward to getting started, I have a whole list of potential ideas and things in the pipeline,” he added.

2 comments

You can follow all replies to this entry through the comments feed.
  • February 24, 2014 at 9:06 am
    Permalink

    Good luck with this. Sounds like a good move. It strikes me that JP are willing to let some very talented, enthusiastic people go.

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(0)
  • February 24, 2014 at 10:18 am
    Permalink

    Ten years’ service and the enhanced VR offer made it a no-brainer… well done for escaping and good luck!

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(0)