Our 2011 interview by RobWrite was featured on HubPages.com.
The stay-at-home dad behind Movie Scores shares more about his excellent film-centric, fan-inspired Hubs
Rob Write: 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?
Cogerson: 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.
Changes since 2011? Well most is still true….though our database is close to 30,000 movies now and Movie Scores are now called Ultimate Movie Rankings Score. Plus I should have mentioned that Joel Hirschhorn’s Rating The Movie Stars book was also a huge influence on me.
Rob Write: How do you choose your next Movie Score subject? Is it by reader request?
Cogerson: 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.
Changes since 2011? Finally got smart and got rid of the notebook and now have a Request Hotline page….which is our 9th most popular page with over 300 comments.
Rob Write: 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?
Cogerson: 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.
Changes since 2011? That page ended being my 3rd most popular page on Hub Pages…trailing only our James Bond and Pixar vs DreamWorks pages. As for Steve Lensman….years later and he is still offering up some great ideas.
Rob Write: 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?
Cogerson: 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.
Changes since 2011? Still a stay at home dad. Still one of the best decisions of my life. It is now almost 9 years since leaving the grocery business. Those two kids are now 7 and 10 years old….and Dora has not been seen in my house since 2012.
Rob Write: 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?
Cogerson: 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.
Changes since 2011? About four or five movies a year get added to our sports pages….with one making it into our Top 100. Our Top 100 Sports Movies page is ranked 109th of 4860 pages/posts that get views on our website.
Rob Write: What new ideas for Hubs are you working on now?
Cogerson: 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.
Changes since 2011? We ended up with 158 hubs before moving most of our pages to our own website. During our stay at HubPages we crossed over a million views, won 3 Hubbies and ran across lots of great people.
Rob Write: Is that anything else you’d like to add?
Cogerson: 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.
Changes since 2011? This is still the best part of writing online. We have received over 15,000 comments over the years….and almost all of them are appreciated….even the ones that question the rankings we list.
When WoC suggested I get this interview movie to our website…I reached out to RobWrite and got his permission to include his questions. For those that remember RobWrite…he is doing well….he has had some success writing on a television show and still writes online about movies.
Dude
Thanks for all of your help WoC. You are awesome.
Hello Bruce,
I discovered your hub pages in the beginning of 2013 just after you received your third hubbies. Your work, like your web site has only improved with time. Your work is remarkable and it is a pleasure to read you often as possible.
Hey Laurent….very cool that you have followed these pages from HubPages to this new website. That is the only thing I miss about HubPages….the community….which was very supportive. HubPages is doing their 6th annual Hubbie voting now…..I remember those first two years…and how happy I was when I won a few. Sunshine out did me….she got a Hubbie for at least 3 years in a row….maybe 4…..I will have to check out year 4 and 5 winners. Thanks for the nice words and the visit.
Hello. Bruce.
Happy that you shared this Cogerson review with Robwrite.
This website really is a labour of love as well as a great work of art.
Both you and your wife work a long time on this site.
Ah, the days of Hubpages.
My mother forwarded me some emails which I had lost when my other computer crashed about Jame Garner’s page, my Hubbie award for my poem about my cat Amy and many others.
Yes, your number one job is stay at home Dad and I am sure that you are getting your girls ready for back to school.
Your request page is really one of the busiest.
Thanks again to you and Debbie.
Interview – not review – spell check does not help if you write the wrong word correctly.
LOL.
Got it…sorry we do not have an edit button of your side.
Hey Flora….yep….it was fun dusting off this interview. Seems like only yesterday that I was doing my first ever hub…Mr.Bruce Willis…..I was so proud of it….and then about a month later I could not believe how bad it looked….it was a steep learning curve for sure.
Glad you were able to get back your Garner e-mails. The 6th Annual Hubbie Award voting is going on right now…HubPages has been posting the previous winning links. Yes being a stay at home dad is my number one job for sure. The kids are only moderately excited about the new school starting tomorrow. Thanks for the comment and the nice words.
You’re still awesome five years later!!
Thank you Katie…..and thanks for commenting…..a nice surprise.
I love it. I liked the updates. Is HubPages still around?
Yes. Hubpages is still around.
Steve Lensman has pages on it with movie poster art articles.
Hey Flora….thanks for answering Helakoski’s question about HubPages.
Hey Helakoski….glad you liked it. Yep HubPages is still around….it actually has been buying other like sites and getting bigger as the years have gone on.