J. Robinson Wheeler

Writer - Artist - Filmmaker

Email: jrw _at_ jrwdigitalmedia.com

Profile
Self-employed creative professional; President, JRW Digital Media (1994-present), business name for freelance work and self-publishing.

• Freelance contract worker, operating in print, web, audio, and film/video.
• Continuous flow of personal creative projects that I conceive, plan, execute, revise, finish, and deliver on a self-imposed schedule, in a variety of media and styles.

Skills and Experience
Writing

• Professional screenwriter (scripts have been optioned multiple times).
• Author of highly regarded interactive fiction games since 1998.
• Studied creative writing at Stanford University and screenwriting at USC School of Cinema-Television.
• Script consultant and editor for other writer's scripts.
• Freelance manuscript editor and proofreader, including the popular science book Cosmic Catastrophes.

Drawing

• Freelance illustrator, traditional pen and ink as well as digital art.
• Artist for the web comic ACX: Academy X, a 300-page graphic novel.
• Art Director for the movie Sixgun.
• Conceptual artist for the game Max Blaster and Doris de Lightning Against the Parrot Creatures of Venus.
• Founding member, Austin Cartooning Circle, 1994-1997
• Writer and artist for the web comic serial Less Ordinary.

Game Design: Interactive Fiction (modern text adventure games)

• 15 released games, 13 Xyzzy Awards nominations, 5 wins, plus 3rd place in IF-Competition 2000. The shareware release of First Things First (2001) was covered by a feature article in the Austin American-Statesman. Published games include:
• ASCII and the Argonauts (2003) - Xyzzy Award winner (Best Use of Medium)
• Colours (2001)
• First Things First (2001) - Xyzzy Award winner (Best Puzzles)
• The Tale of the Kissing Bandit (2001) - Xyzzy Award winner (Best PC)
• Centipede (2001)
• Being Andrew Plotkin (2001) - Xyzzy Award winner (Best Game, Best NPCs)
• Four in One (1998)
• Contributed writing and/or programming to the following computer games by others:
• Little Falls (2007) ( English version) by Alessandro Schillaci, Roberto Grassi and Enrico Simonato, published by Mondi Confinanti
• Narcolepsy (2003) by Adam Cadre

Filmmaking

• 29 years experience making movies, from childhood films to professional credits; Super-8, 16mm, video, DV, and HD.
• Professional credits as screenwriter, art director, camera operator, sound consultant, sound recordist, sound designer, film editor, visual effects technician, title designer, and foley artist.
• Highly experienced and fluent in all aspects of cinema production and post-production.
• Produced and directed The Krone Experiment (2005), a straight-to-DVD feature film.
• Other specialized skills and experience:
• Videography/cinematography, lighting design, video camera operation (single and live multicam).
• Audio engineering and recording, sound design and editing, audio mixing, music recording and mixing, location sound recording and mixing, foley recording, mix re-recording, ADR recording.
• Visual effects design and animation, effects compositing, model design, greenscreen videography, Flash animation and programming, titles design and rendering.
• Music videos
• "Rejoice" (2007) - Artist: Amit Shoham, Tarantic Records. Director/Editor/Animator/Compositor.
• "Sinner to Sunrise" - (2003) - Artist: After 909. Camera operator.
• Documentary Film
• "Our Beginning" (2004) - Director/editor.
• "Marilyn Horne Foundation: Master Classes" - Videographer, sound recordist (2001).
• "Souzay: A Life in Art" (1999) - Sound recordist, editing consultant (uncredited).
• "Prisoner/Victim Mediation Sessions", for the Texas Department of Corrections (1996-97) - Camera operator.

Awards

• 5-time Xyzzy Award winner for interactive fiction, including Best Game of 2000, Best NPCs, Best Individual PC, Best Puzzles, and Best Use of Medium.
• "4 Short Films by Rob Wheeler" included in "25 Years in 25 Hours: Highlights of Austin Access Cable" compilation, of the best of PACT programming, 1994-1996.
• Honorable Mention, Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting, 2007.

Published Articles

• "Mapping the Tale: Scene Descriptions in IF" for IF-Theory, edited by Emily Short.
• "Make IF Fast!" On the use of mock transcripts to speed IF design and authoring, for Brasslantern.org (formerly interactfiction.about.com), Mar 2001.
• "It's all in the family for The Krone Experiment", for Indie Slate magazine, Jan 2001.
• Reviews of IF-Competition games, for SPAG e-zine, issue #35, Dec 2003; #36, Mar 2004.
• Film criticism and general movie reviews, personal website and blog, 1995-present.

Technical Skills and Software

• 7+ years professional experience with Final Cut Pro, After Effects, Photoshop, Illustrator, Commotion DV, and DVD Studio Pro.
• Photoshop, Illustrator, Acrobat, AfterEffects, Pagemaker, Quark, Premiere, Final Cut Pro, Commotion DV, Flash, Director, Paint Shop Pro, SoundEdit 16, ProTools.
• Audio engineering and A/V equipment set-up: cameras, editing decks, patch bays, sound mixers, microphones, instruments, monitors, computers, cables, etc.
• Typesetting and desktop publishing, book and package design.
• DVD design and authoring.
• HTML & CSS authoring, Perl CGI programming, website design.
• Flash animation and ActionScript.
• C, Inform 6, TADS, Java, Perl, Carbon API programming.
• Word processing and data entry (94wpm).
• Windows, Mac OS X, Unix.

Additional Work Experience

• Web Programming Guru, Hush Communications (HushMail.com), 1999-2000.
• Website Designer, Venable Industries (venableind.com), 1997-1999.
• Word processor and typesetter, Sheshunoff Information Services, 1993-1994.
• Chief VJ and Head Librarian, XTV Student Television, Stanford University, 1989-1992.

Education

• Graduate study in Film Production (emphasis on Film Sound and Editing), University of Southern California, 1992-1994.
• B.A. in Communication (emphasis on Film Aesthetics), Stanford University, 1988-1992.

Groups and Affiliations

• Stanford Alumni Association
• Stanford Alumni in Hollywood
• Austin Film Society (Filmmaker membership)

Other Interests

• Crossword puzzles, music composition and recording (piano, drums, guitar, bass), videogames, voice acting, learning French.

References Available upon request.