We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Melinda McCormick. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Melinda below.
Melinda, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.
I learned about photography through trial and error, and my mom. When I was little, I remember my mom taking photos everywhere we went, and even going to special events to capture on camera. I would go with my mom to some of the events and she would let me take pictures on her old digital camera. I really enjoyed photography back then, but I decided I wanted to follow my dreams and pursue being a screenwriter. Fast forward to now, I am a Marketing Coordinator for a company in Spokane, and I specialize in photography/videography. I leaned on my mom for some photography advice and how to make sure I get the best pictures possible. With her help and the process of trial and error to discover my photography style and what pictures I find best, I have been able to take some beautiful pictures for the company and myself.
I learned about screenwriting when I was 15 years old. I read a lot of books, and I studied a lot of scripts posted online. I had the technique of writing a script down very early, but I really needed my school education to help me hone in on my writing style and make each script the best it could be. In 2023, my short script, “Seven Minutes in Heaven,” won 3 Screenplay Competitions, and was a finalist in 5 other competitions.
Knowing what I know now, I would say that I should have continued to do photography when I was younger. It would have sped up the learning curve I had to do when accepting my current position, and possibly gotten into this position sooner in life. For my screenwriting, I should have trusted my instincts and submitted my screenplays to competitions sooner. I was scared to put my writing out there, but now that I have, I could have easily sped up that process quicker and be further into pursuing screenwriting full-time.
The only obstacles that stood in the way of me learning more, would definitely be myself. I was scared to take the next step and further my knowledge of photography and the screenwriting industry because I was scared that I wouldn’t be good enough. I can see now that I was wrong. If I didn’t stop myself from pursuing either of those careers early on, I think I would be further ahead than I am now.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
Currently I am focused on my job as a Marketing Coordinator for a Hospitality company, and developing my writing skills so that I can continue submitting to Film Festivals. My current position started as Social Media Management for a few of the companies’ properties, but with my education and experience background, my position has shifted into the designated Photographer and Videographer for all of the companies’ properties. My job gives me the chance to attend numerous different events and photo shoot opportunities including rock concerts, tribute band concerts, and weddings.
Being able to attend so many events is what is most exciting about my job because I get to experience things I never thought I would. It’s an added bonus when the artist or guest sees the photos on my Instagram and messages me to send more of my photos for them to promote. Two recent experiences that stick out in my mind is a Queen Tribute Band that saw my photos, asked for more, and posted my photos on their social media accounts and tagged me. I also got the opportunity to shoot Daughtry when he was in town, and his verified Instagram liked and shared the photos. Both of those experiences are incredible and leave me speechless. I love getting to take pictures of people and share the photos with them not for the exposure, but just because they liked my photos.
Previously I mentioned the success of my short script. Winning 3 Screenplay Competitions, and being a finalist for 5 other competitions. With the success of my script, it has motivated to keep writing and work on some of my other scripts. I am currently rewriting the first script I ever wrote, and I plan on submitting that to Film Festivals as well. Now that I have some recognition, it pushes me to continue pursuing a career as a writer. In the meantime, I am so blessed and honored to be where I am and with my current position.
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
Currently, I am still building an audience on social media, but the journey has been great. With all the pictures that I take at work, I have started posting to my own social media account on Instagram, @melindacorephotography. I am clever with my hashtags and make to sure to tag every artist/restaurant that I am posting a picture of. There have been numerous occasions when the profiles would like and share my photos to their page, and that has gotten my name out to thousands of other people. I have people visit my page and like my photos, but not follow my account, so that’s what I’m currently working on changing.
That leads into the advice that I would give others when they start their own social media accounts. Make sure to tag relevant people/profiles, and get creative with the hashtags! That’s how the content gets mixed into the social media algorithms and seen by so many people. And it’s important to not get discouraged if your content isn’t getting a lot of notice at first, it may take a few posts for it to get noticed, but all it takes is that one post.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
The most rewarding aspect of being a creative person is being able to express myself through art. With all the different types of photoshoots I get to do, I get to look around the room and see what catches my eye the most. I envision what the pictures could look like, and I make it happen. And being able to do that, is what is making me a better photographer. I’m finding new ways to make pictures stand out and get others to stop and think how beautiful it is. And it’s similar with my screenwriting, I envision how a scene could play out on a screen, and I’m able to put that into words in a script in full detail. I love being able to put my creativity into a script, or into a photo, and get to share it with the world. That is truly the most rewarding aspect.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @melindacorephotography
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/melinda.core/
- Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/melinda-mccormick-40726a136/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSL0enpJ9GOdpmNeDvv990g