Robwrite Interviews Cogerson
The stay-at-home dad behind Movie Scores shares more about his excellent film-centric, fan-inspired Hubs
Your Movie Score Hubs are very popular. Could you say a bit about the formula you use to evaluate movie scores and how you came up with it?
One of the first things I read when I started writing online was to write about something you like and find a niche and stick to it. Well, I love movies, so that choice was simple. So taking a page from Bill James, a baseball statistician, I decided to create my own formula that would give each movie a score. I then looked at what makes a movie successful. I identified that positive reviews from critics and audiences, a strong opening weekend, stamina at the box office, outstanding box office grosses, and major award recognition were factors that most successful movies demonstrated. My formula gave each factor a percentage of the score….with the maximum score being 100. At first I was doing all the calculations manually, but then my awesome wife designed an Access database that allows me to enter all the movie’s statistics and then the Access program generates the Movie Score. My database now has over 6,000 movies with Movie Scores. Currently the highest rated movie is The Godfather.
How do you choose your next Movie Score subject? Is it by reader request?
When I first started writing the Hubs I picked actors that I liked the most. Bruce Willis, Tom Hanks, Cary Grant and my wife’s favorite Julia Roberts were the very first ones. After about five or six Hubs I started receiving comments and requests from fellow Hubbers. At first the suggestions, were coming in slowly. Now I feel like Lucille Ball in the famous chocolate candy factory scene, where the candy keeps coming down the line faster and faster. I had to start a notebook so I would not forget any requests. I greatly appreciate the fact that people are interested in my Hubs and the requests are greatly expanding my movie knowledge.
You got 500 comments on your Top Films of 2011 Hub. That’s an impressive amount of comments for one Hub. Were you surprised by that?
That Hub has surprised me beyond words. I got a suggestion from fellow Hubber, Steve Lensman, to do a Hub that only looked at one year. I figured I it would be interesting to look at 2011 and update the information weekly as the new movies were released. I really thought I might be the only person checking out the Hub, as it is a work in progress Hub. Boy was I wrong. It has easily become my most popular Hub. Through comments I have received great suggestions that have made the Hub bigger and better. My latest suggestion was to link current movie reviews from fellow Hubbers to my Hub. So if you write a movie review, let me know and I will link it to my Hub.
Your HubPages bio mentions that you're a stay at home dad, with two young children. How does that feel after working so many years, and how does it affect your creativity?
I became a stay-at-home dad almost four years ago. Although people I worked with thought I was crazy, it has turned out to be one of the best decisions that I have ever made in my life. My family’s quality of life has greatly improved even with living on only one income. Finding time to write Hubs is always interesting. I do most of my writing late at night while everybody else is asleep. Being creative with a 2-year-old and a 5-year-old running around the house can be challenging. Ah, the joys of nap time. The only negative thing about my stay at home dad experience? Four solid years of Dora the Explorer will drive any sane person a little crazy.
You're a baseball fan, too. You write more movie Hubs than sports Hubs. Are you going to do more sports Hubs in the future?
I have done a few sports Hubs, and the response has been lukewarm at best. A couple of months ago, I got a request to do a Top 100 All-Time Sports Movie Hub. That Hub request required me to research over 1600 movies and write seven different Hubs on sports movies. The final Top 100 Sports Movies is one of the Hubs I am very proud of in my HubPages career. Just keeping those Hubs updated is a challenge in itself as new movies like Moneyball and Warrior have since joined that list and required it to be updated on a weekly basis.
What new ideas for Hubs are you working on now?
Looking at my request notebook, I have 18 suggestions/requests to do, with William Holden, Sidney Poitier and Matthew McConaughey coming soon. The Hub that I am really looking forward to writing is Hub number 100. I am only 3 Hubs away from a number that I never thought I would reach.
Is that anything else you'd like to add?
I think the best part of Hub pages are my fellow Hubbers. Without the awesome feedback that I have received there is no way I would be still writing movie Hubs and having such a great time doing it.
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