Just over a year ago, on May 22, 2016, I published this post about the programmers’ meeting that took place at Documenta Madrid, with which I began a more continuous publishing dynamic. This past year, I have managed to publish every week without fail, initially on Mondays and Wednesdays, and shortly after on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I only slowed down a bit in August, with the publication of one weekly post. Until last year, publications had been very sporadic.
In the five years this blog has been active, I have published a total of 134 articles. It all started in April 2012 when I published the presentation on digital formats for festivals organized by the Community of Madrid. These were years when the new digital exhibition and viewing formats for festivals were not very clear. The first blog posts focused on these new formats and the radical change we were experiencing. The post I dedicated to the end of 35mm was one of the most visited before May 2016.
This year, in addition to publishing every week, I have worked extensively on the technical and design aspects, changing the template to Metro Pro from Genesis Framework and migrating to a more powerful server. I am handling everything related to the technical aspect myself, learning along the way.
The result of publishing every week has been very positive, both personally and professionally. On one hand, it creates a routine that helps one be more organized and productive, and on the other, it has allowed me to build an archive of what has sparked my interest this year, in addition to reflecting on my day-to-day work. During these months, many directors and producers have contacted me, finding the blog helpful in promoting their work at festivals, not only in Spain but also in many other countries. This reception has been one of the best things that has happened in my professional life, and for which I am very grateful.
Visits have grown at a steady pace this year, with a daily peak of 673 on November 8, when I published the post about fake festivals, one of the most shared. Visits in May 2016 closed at 1246, the best monthly figure for the blog until then. This May 2017 has seen the best figure, with 5749 visits. In this graph, you can see the evolution since January of last year:
This year I have also worked on materials to aid distribution, such as the list of Oscar-qualifying festivals ordered by deadline, which has been available for download since January and has been downloaded by over 340 people who have subscribed to the blog; last year there were only 8 subscribers.
In addition to this positive reception, some articles have been shared by other digital media, such as Cortosfera, the Malvalanda blog, and Film Festival Life in Germany. It was also mentioned on produccionaudiovisual.com as one of the essential blogs if you are involved in audiovisual production in February.
In short, it has been a year with a lot of work, but also many satisfactions.
Thank you for being there!