Category: raves

Funky Prairie Boy – My Favorite Film of DC Shorts

Go see the best of DC Shorts on Thursday night at E Street Cinema.

It was a great festival again. I’ve volunteered with DC Shorts for more than four years now and each year it gets better and better.

My personal favorite film in the festival was Funky Prairie Boy. It won the Diversity Award (presented by Verizon). This short Canadian film is about:

A young boy living in a small prairie town during the early 1980s, befriends the only black kid at his school and soon discovers the prejudice that exists within his friends, his family and even in himself.

It’s got the most well-developed story of all the films I saw at DC Shorts. The characters seem real, all of them a mix of good and bad impulses. The short film captures the awkwardness of children dealing with adult issues of race and prejudice. Yet, it’s not an afterschool special, where the plot is driven by social points to be made. Instead, it’s a messy and funny look at kids trying to be kids. While they’re trapped in a rigid world that they didn’t create, they just want to dance and hangout.

Funky Prairie Boy
Funky Prairie Boy

Continue reading “Funky Prairie Boy – My Favorite Film of DC Shorts”

Behind the Scenes at a Screenplay Reading

Now in it’s sixth year, DC Shorts has been named by MovieMaker Magazine as “one of the nation’s leading short film festivals.” The festival features 100 films from across the country and around the world. What’s unique about DC Shorts is its focus on the filmmaker, many of whom will be in attendance this year.

I’ve been involved in DC Shorts almost since the beginning. I volunteered with Jon Gann, founder of the festival, and  was a film judge for a couple years. Me and other volunteers watched and rated the hundreds of submissions that came in. We used a clever online system to do so. One key trait about DC Shorts is how professional and well organized it is, from top to bottom. Continue reading “Behind the Scenes at a Screenplay Reading”

Eurabia Now a Semi-Finalist in PAGE Awards

After three rounds of competition, the PAGE Awards judges have selected the top 25 Semi-Finalists in each of the ten genre categories. My screenplay, Eurabia, is a Semi-Finalist in the Science Fiction category.

Eurabia is set twenty years in the future. In my timely story, America has lost the war on terror and Europe is controlled by radical Islam. But the CIA has a plan to change the course of history…

Read the first ten pages online.

The Internet Life of One Photo

A few weeks ago, I received the following email:

Hi Joe,

I moved from Scottsdale, Arizona, to California last summer, and brought an unfinished painting of Papago Buttes along with me.  I looked around for a photograph to help me finish the painting, and I found one that seems to be attributed to you on Wikipedia.  The shot helped me enormously, and I ended up finishing the painting and giving it to a friend.

The more I learn about artwork and photography, the more I realize that asking permission before using a photo, even when referring to it for painting, is the right thing to do.  I just wanted to be in touch to apologize for failing to do this, and to offer to email you a photograph of my finished painting.  I think you’re a good photographer and you helped me by sharing your image online.

Thanks,

Robert Collins Continue reading “The Internet Life of One Photo”

Eurabia is Quarterfinalist in The 2009 PAGE International Screenwriting Awards

My screenplay Eurabia is a Quarterfinalist in the The 2009 PAGE International Screenwriting Awards. After the first two rounds of competition, my script has made it to the top 10% of all entries. Eurabia is the timely story of what would happen if Europe was ruled by radical mullahs like in Iran.

Read the first ten pages online.

Murder in Ocean Hall – Where'd the Idea Come From?

Since I finished writing Murder in Ocean Hall, I’ve gotten questions from friends and family regarding the book. Creating something from nothing seems enough of a magical act to inspire some questioning. The question I’ve gotten most is:

Where’d you get the idea from?

I originally planned to write a much different book, something much more serious and literary. It’s a manuscript that I’ve worked on for three or four years and exists on my laptop as a mix of disparate scenes and ideas that have never quite come together. The novel that I had in mind was a much grimmer story, about DC during the summer before 9/11. The book is about people chasing success, unaware that their world is about to be undone.

Finishing that big serious book was my plan. It’s why I decided to leave my government contractor job. Continue reading “Murder in Ocean Hall – Where'd the Idea Come From?”

Murder in Ocean Hall – Update

Just a quick update to let people know where I’m at with my book.

I finished writing Murder in Ocean Hall at the beginning of April. It’s a murder-mystery about a controversial explorer who’s killed in the Smithsonian’s Ocean Hall, when a giant replica of a whale falls from the ceiling and crushes him. It’s up to a cynical DC detective to solve the murder of a man who was equally admired and hated among scientists and explorers.

There really is whale hanging from the ceiling of Ocean Hall – go check it out.

The book was loosely inspired by the three years I spent working as a web site manager for NOAA’s Office of Ocean Exploration and Research. Of course, no one was murdered while I worked there but a lot of what I learned about ocean exploration, government bureaucracy and the occasionally big egos of people in the field has made it into the book.

I’m represented by Stuart Chang of Samara Literary. I’ve known Stuart for several years – we used to be in a writers’ group together – so I was really happy that he agreed to be my literary agent. Samara Literary will be focusing on DC authors. I’ve signed a six-month contract with the agency. Literary agents work like other types of agents – they get paid a percentage, if the book gets sold.

I’ve submitted the manuscript to Stuart and he’s gotten back to me with some excellent edits and suggestions that I’m in the process of making. A select group of readers has also provided invaluable feedback. After I get the book in final shape, we’ll start looking for a publisher.

This is the beginning of the long process of getting the book published. Coming from a career in web site development, the publishing world seems positively antiquarian with its lengthy lead times and schedules. If we sold the book today, it would be a year before it’s in stores.

But I’ve done the hard part – I wrote the book – so I’ll keep pushing on. 

I’ll let you know what happens next!

Lessons from a Webby-Winning Web Site

I was excited to learn that The Nature Conservancy won a Webby for their web site, nature.org. They beat out the competition (which included the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation!) in the category of Charitable Organizations Nonprofit.

I worked on nature.org from 2003-2005 as a Web Producer. I think it’s a great site though, of course, I’m hopelessly biased 😉

Nature.org was recently redesigned but it follows a core set of design principles that I think helped it win the Webby. If you look at past screenshots of the site, these principles have been pretty consistent over the years. They include:

  • Excellent use of white space. Text on the home page is given room to breathe, making it easier for people to scan down the page and absorb what’s on it.
  • Strong photography. What sells nature? Great photos of nature. The photos selected for the site are more than just pretty pictures, they tell a story.
  • A consistent color palette. Using the same set of well-matched colors across the site provides a consistent experience, one that underscores that this is a professional, well-designed site.
  • Third-party validation. The home page features endorsements from the Better Business Bureau and Charity Navigator.
  • Concise copywriting. Many nonprofit web site are either hopelessly wordy or incredibly vague. In a limited amount of space, nature.org manages to communicate what the organization is about and how you can get involved.

Note how simple this is. Readers aren’t overwhelmed by flash animations or crowded blocks of content. This simplicity is a design choice that has paid dividends for The Nature Conservancy.

Murder in Ocean Hall – Almost Done!

I’m in the final stages of my book, Murder in Ocean Hall. I’ve spent a lot of time at Caribou to get this far. Right now, I’m busy proofing the book. I’m done writing it, have edited a couple times already, and am going through the book once more. I’ve printed all 235 pages and and am closely reading the book to catch any mistakes.

Am I really done with the book? Hmm. I could probably spend the rest of my life tweaking it but eventually you have to send it off into the world. “Real artists ship,” to quote Steve Jobs.

Am I happy with the book? Yes. It’s got a beginning, middle and end, interesting characters, some good info on ocean exploration and urban life in DC, and a couple of plot twists. It might meander at times, a bit.

Is it perfect? No. Nothing is as perfect as it is in your head. By putting your idea to paper, you take it out of the ideal world and put it into the real one. This fear of sullying your own creation is a cause of writer’s block. It causes many people not to write anything because they know it won’t be perfect.

What’s next for my book?

Plan A – The Traditional Route.  Look for an agent, try to sell the book to a publisher, and then wait for it to appear in bookstores.

Plan B – The Nontraditional Route. Self-publish it using Lulu or Blurb. Sell it online using one of these print on demand services.

The first path is more prestigious and accepted but the print publishing world is in really bad shape these days. The second road is much easier – I could have a paperback version of the book next week- but it’s more of a DIY project.