2021 Summary of the Reviews:
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For many of us, 2021 didn't become the rebound year we had hoped for after the pandemic of 2020, but there were plenty of silver linings for Filmtracks. The year turned out to be the best for the site since 2011, reviews and traffic increasing as the movie industry began to return to normal. After shifting to new lifestyles as a result of COVID-19, this site's maintenance has become easier than ever.
Nothing is more important than having a stable day job with fixed hours. Having worked in salaried positions for almost two decades, my switch to a union-protected hourly position has returned my evenings weekends to a semblance of normalcy that has been fantastic for my family, my health, and, of course, Filmtracks. Not being on-call 24/7 is wonderful, and losing three hours of commuting each weekday definitely helps, too.
As a result of this new work schedule, I dedicated more time to reviewing for Filmtracks than anytime since the days the site was run from Missoula, Montana nine years prior. Most years, I average about 30 new reviews and 30 re-writes of older reviews. In 2021, that production accelerated to 81 new reviews and 65 re-writes for a total of 146 "touches," three times the 2020 amount. By the end of the year, Filmtracks was up to date on current coverage after years of being behind.
While the reviewing goals for 2022 are aggressive in that they anticipate some continuation of the current pace of coverage, those goals will be tapered back to account for possible distractions. There is also no longer a substantial backlog of new and newly-released re-issues and expanded products to cover. Look for a series of all-new reviews of older scores to debut this year, filling in coverage gaps based mostly on reader demand.
By the numbers:
2021 Goals:
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New Reviews of New Albums: 35
New Reviews of Old Albums: 0
Re-Writes: 30
2021 Final Stats:
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New Reviews of New Albums: 73
New Reviews of Old Albums: 8
Re-Writes: 65
2022 Goals:
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New Reviews of New Albums: 40
New Reviews of Old Albums: 25
Re-Writes: 35
2021 Summary of the Overall Site:
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Additional time for the back-end maintenance of Filmtracks in 2021 allowed for several bugs to be fixed and secondary features enhanced. The AWS server solution has been stable and problem-free so far. The most noticeable improvement came in September with the updating of all the composer photos as seen on the reviews, new photo albums in the composers' section, and additional composer pages. These features were meant mostly to celebrate the site's 25th anniversary.
Readership to the site slowly increased over the year, likely due to the renewed consistency of coverage. But this traffic was largely comprised of the same dedicated readers visiting more often rather than an expansion of the number of unique visitors seeking information about mainstream film scores. As a result, revenue to the site remained flat while costs increased. Filmtracks came closer to breaking even financially in 2021 thanks to continued reader donations, though the site still required subsidization.
With the status quo planned for 2022, look for little drama or major changes at Filmtracks. The site is still waiting for a permanent home to be built, but that project has been held up by a legal challenge involving truly horrid neighbors who seem hell-bent on deforesting the area and driving us from the property. (Advice to all: Never buy a property that could conceivably have an easement on it, because evil and entitled neighbors could attempt to abuse you in ways you never imagined.) I hope everyone enjoys the enhanced coverage planned for the year, including reviews of some popular favorites from prior years.
Best wishes to all in 2022,
Christian
