Writing, Self-Publishing, Book Marketing

Browsing one of my favorite Web sites, The Internet Movie Database, for information on Joss Whedon’s new TV series for the Fall, I stumbled upon a link at the bottom of their home page.

There’s a guy, Adam Box, takes his inspiration from Kyle MacDonald’s book, One Red Paperclip, and the non-profit organization The 1 Second Film, not to mention some random guy who collected pictures of sheep from around the world. Considering all this, Box decided to put together a film project for his family—specifically his daughter—and called for submission.

Called Counting High, numbers from 1 to 123,465 will each get their own frame in the film. And everyone who participates in the project gets their very own number to design as they please, in whatever medium they choose.

My number’s 23. Which I’m totally loving—it’s prime, figures somewhat extensively in Lost lore, it’s sort of round—it’s just a cool number.

But I can’t, for the life of me, figure out what to do with it. I could paint it, I could sculpt it, I could choose a font and have large black text on white paper…I could have my hapless co-workers form the numbers on the floor of the auditorium and take a picture. Hee, hee.

The ways in which I can use this number are endless so, I’m having trouble focusing. And, really, with 25 frames per second, the chances of anyone seeing my number and being profoundly affected by its design are pretty low. It’s not about any single number, is it? It’s about the effect of the whole, all 123, 456 numbers.

So, if you want a number, visit Count High, read the background behind the project and e-mail Adam your request for a number—I think he still has a ways to go. Maybe I’ll get “23” tattooed on me somewhere, take a picture of it and use that as my submission. Problem solved!

-Jenn