Imagine having a class project launch into a respectable piece of literature — and even getting paid for it.

Iowa State alumnus Richard Ness is relishing the experience firsthand with the publishing of his latest book, “From Headline Hunter to Superman: A Journalism Filmography.”

Ness’ filmography analyzes the evolution of the journalism film from the silent era through 1996.

The text features 2,165 entries from popular flicks like “Broadcast News and “I Love Trouble” to silent films, made-for-television movies and B-films of the ’30s and ’40s.

Ness said the journalism film is fascinating because “it doesn’t follow a pattern like other genres.”

“In journalism films, the character looks like the hero and the villain,” Ness said. “It’s a great thing they don’t look like knights in shining armor. It keeps people in the profession on their toes.”

An added bonus is that the filmography is a chronological timeline for 20th century milestones, Ness said.

“Journalists cover contemporary events,” he said. “It’s interesting because, basically, you’re covering [a piece of] the history of the United States.”

Ness, a native of Nevada, Iowa, said he stumbled upon the idea in 1983 as a graduate student in what is now electronic media studies at ISU.

He said a few of his supervising professors from the journalism department helped him “get the project rolling.

“Originally, it was part of my master’s thesis,” Ness said. “I started collecting titles and kept adding to it. I got to 1,000 and knew I had book material.”

But Ness wasn’t offered a book contract until nine years later. In the meantime, Ness was busy teaching ISU film courses, reviewing films for both the Daily and the Ames Daily Tribune and running a theater in his hometown.

He later finished graduate school and continued to teach at ISU until 1991. By then, it was time to focus on the filmography, he said.

The book, which will hit store shelves this month, stretched into an exhausting five-year writing process, Ness said.

“It just got overwhelming,” he said. “At the time I signed the contract, I thought it would take a year.”

And his work didn’t end there. Ness had received an additional contract in 1992 from a publishing company in New York concerning another book idea.

Taking a short break during his original project, he wrote “Romance and a Crazed World,” a study of film director Alan Rudolph (Mortal Thoughts, Choose Me), in just a month.

The book was printed less than a year ago and is available at Parks Library.

Ness said he finds the film industry stimulating, but that education is more gratifying than Hollywood.

Presently, Ness is working toward a Ph.D. from Wayne State University in Detroit.

“I think I get better respect from people in journalism rather than the film business. I’ve always been interested in the teaching end of film,” Ness said.