My first blog post was on March 23, 2006. In the early posts, and a lot since, I’ve referred to my inspiration at SXSW 2006 and I’m amazed that the uberfest is just around the corner and I will be going again, but this time to be on the “Blogging About Film” panel (Tuesday 3/13). Talk about full circle. As if that weren’t enough to plunge me into deep self-reflexiveness, a new reader - Jay from the Meerkat Media collective - asked me, after perusing my site, “What’s your major goal with it?”

Certainly, it has always been an experiment. Does this technology help create community? YES! I’d love to share the many stories I have from this past year of meeting people, in person and online, that I would never have met had I not been doing this. Over and over again, I get interesting messages from the Contact page, meet people who have read something I’ve written about their movie, or simply hearing from folks I know already that they are enjoying my posts. This creates a fabric between us, a sense that while we are working on our own stuff but we are connected as well. If nothing else, this sense of community has kept me from feeling isolated in what is often a very discouraging business.

So, my next question was if the technology does help create community, how can I and the filmmakers I work with in a variety of ways, leverage this capacity to promote independent film? By “promote” I mean not only garner audiences, but financing to make films, raise the profile of amazing filmmakers within the film community as well as with audiences, and raise the profile of independent film in general. After all, if no one sees the movies, then the whole effort is defeated.

To this end, I write about the films I see and the people I get to know. They are often films and filmmakers that are out there slogging through and in some cases, earning enough to make their living as “filmmaker,” but in many cases, still looking for a break. This is perhaps one area where I think I could be doing better. Certainly Joel Heller’s new blog Docs That Inspire is a great example of what can happen in this particular area (and on short order!); indieWIRE is another. These are places that focus closely on filmmakers and their work, where I have been more generalist. I wonder if those who read my blog wish that I did more in-depth work?

I guess I’ve steered clear of trying to imitate the work done so capably elsewhere. Why replicate an interview when I can link to it? This goes back to being a part of a community - supporting the great work of others, though perhaps it has limited my own blog? I’m not sure about this and it’s one of the things I’d like to explore in 2007.

Also important to me is learning how to use the tools of technology and helping others to do it too. What tools and strategies promote independent film and what just drains time and energy? I have used Technorati, Feedburner, Flickr, all manner of Wordpress plug-ins, affiliate marketing, video sites like YouTube, Revver, Google Video, MyBlogLog, Zookada, Snap Preview, Upcoming, Google Mail and Reader, Firefox RSS Feed reader, and more, I’m sure. I have also used to one degree or another indieLOOP, iklipz, Jaman, Open Media Network, MySpace, Wikis, Second Life, Craigslist, Current TV, and again, more, I’m sure.

What have I found? Well, most of these tools are good for something and the trick is identifying exactly what they are good for and how to use them effectively so you don’t spend your life in front of the computer. Again, this is ongoing and something I’d like to continue over the next year. Pretty much anything you see implemented on my site for any period of time means I’m happy with how it is performing or the service I’m receiving. I’ll be curious to find out from the web geeks at SXSW 2007 ways to do all of this better, more efficiently and to discover new things I haven’t even heard about.

I do think that this has been a great year for me in terms of blogging, learning about technology and becoming much more involved in the indie film community in general. Moving to the New York area has allowed me many new friendships, and also the ability to travel with the Center for Social Media’s fair use project gave me not only a great reason to talk with filmmakers but insight into needs and desires within the community. Another blog function is to filter information - business, technology and critical - that I think is useful in the context of independent film. I’m always coming across this stuff and it seems like a waste to not publish tidbits and direct others to interesting resources, articles, screenings, etc.

My worry, if you could call it that, is that the blog might appear unfocused. Back to Jay’s question, after browsing, it seems he found a lot about a little, and that isn’t exactly good news to me. Perhaps I need to think more about the organization - how folks find information here - or perhaps this is a symptom of a larger issue of trying to do too many things at one time. Not that I would do the past year differently at all but perhaps serious cause for brain space allocation in the coming year.

So, that is the basic gist of where I’ve been and the things I’ll be thinking about in the future. This isn’t like AJ Schnack’s great year one wrap-up for his blog where he recapped his posts. But, I guess it’s partly for me to clarify my own thinking and to open up the discussion. There is so much by way of blogs, news, videos on the web and elsewhere, work, vacations, festivals, ad infinitum, so I very much appreciate the time you spend reading and responding.

As a small thanks, the photos embedded here are some of my most “popular by order or interestingness” per Flickr. Not necessarily my choices, but a cool feature. And just to go with the flow a bit, here are links to my top 3 most visited posts the the year (I’m not positive of the order), in case you hadn’t seen them:

May 8, 2006 - Ecstasy of Truth - Reflections on Werner Herzog’s HotDocs discussion with Sean Farnel.
July 25, 2006 - iloop, iklipz, ifilm, oh my - A discussion about several community-oriented indie film sites.
December 1, 2006 - RIP Stephen Heywood - A brief alert to the death of Stephen Heywood, whose battle with ALS was chronicled one of my favorite docs of the year, So Much So Fast by Steven Ascher and Jeanne Jordan.