Reflective Blog - Week 5
Exploring the uses of data and data collection has been a very valuable tool in many areas of my professional life. Each time I create a facebook page I can see who is connecting, where they are from and other information. However facebook pages don't allow you to collect contact information, which limits how I can interact with the fans and introduce them to other films and activities I am doing. From the basic facebook information I am able to see who is interested in the films I am producing, where they know about all my projects but are only liking some of them it indicates to me their preferences. Most film makers starting out make a particular genre that they like but for me I like to make a lot of different styles and the information my audience feeds back to me tells me which ones are going to be more popular with my audience.
How does this effect what I make? It has a direct relation to how I market the films. Ones my fan base like will organically be publicised without a massive amount of effort on my behalf as long as I give the fans what they want for sharing. This is invaluable support because the world of Indy film making is controlled by how easy it is to get your films to the public and the hype you can create to entice people to watch your film. Films that I want to make that are not as supported require me to put in a lot more time and effort to find a market/audience for. It doesn't mean I won't make them it just means my marketing plan and requirements will be different and more time intensive on my behalf.
The most important data collection I currently use is those people who support my film projects with cold hard cash when they donate to my campaigns. These platforms provide me with a means of contacting those who financially support my efforts and are the people I nurture with extra benefits because they are helping me achieve my goals! The people who come along on your journey from start up to success are in my mind the most important people. They are the ones who believe in me and in my film making and without them I would do it tough to get my films made. I can still get them done because I am stubborn and tenacious and will do it but it would take me a lot longer to achieve those goals.
Psychologically speaking though when times get tough, as they do in the hard world of indy film making, knowing you have support from other people who like what your doing and encourage you, it helps you not to give up on the dream and to fight through whatever obstacles you come up against.
I used to have an issue with collecting data about my fan base originally because I thought I was breaching their privacy and I hate information being collected about me. What I have come to learn since then is that I am not collecting any information that isn't public knowledge and they have given me permission to retain the information as they wish to follow the journey with me. I don't have any desire to share the information or profit from it by on selling the data as it is against my ethos and because these are my carefully cultivated followers.