For the last 6 months, I have taken a break from posting on Smaller Pictures. Admittedly, there are an array of reasons as to why I did this. I thought I’d write this little post to explain some of the reasons and discuss where I am going from here regarding Smaller Pictures.
Since starting Smaller Pictures in 2015, I have managed to grow it into a site that has given me so many amazing opportunities such as covering festivals and writing articles for various outlets that I could only dream of writing for. I loved that I was able to connect with other film lovers who were also passionate and discuss all sorts of films.
One main ethos I adhere to when writing is to remain as positive as possible. If I do have something to criticise, I will always offer something positive in return to balance it out. Filmmaking is the sum of many different components that come together to create a finished product and it’s important to shine a light on the parts that work just as much as the parts that don’t. This isn’t to say that every film critic is negative as this is far from the truth. However, I personally like to keep the overall tone of my site as positive as possible.
So, why did I stop writing reviews at the end of August last year? After all, my site was only growing and my outreach had been snowballing exponentially. It doesn’t make sense to go cold turkey when everything is going so well and yet, it seemed to be the only solution I could think of.
You see, I simply found myself wrapped up in the world of statistics and popularity. I was constantly on Twitter looking to see how many people engaged with my posts, how many followers I had, etc. On top of that, when I was watching films, I was viewing them from the angle of reviewing them. Essentially, I found that I wasn’t able to fully immerse myself in the film-watching experience. This isn’t to say that film critics can’t immerse themselves fully, but I was writing a minimum of four 1,000-word reviews a month on top of my full-time job. For my full-time job, I am a Content Writer working in the property sector and on this site, I write on film. When you combine the two, it just felt as though I was writing non-stop and my brain was always working, even when I should have been relaxing.
It got to the point where I couldn’t enjoy watching films because I knew I was going to have to submit a review quickly or risk losing the traffic from the buzz of opening weekend.
Therefore, for my own mental health and wellbeing, I took a step back and allowed myself a break. I didn’t watch any new films for a while and had a breather. Over the last couple of months, I have gotten back into watching films. No matter how stressed I may be, the excitement of awards season will always lure me in!
So… what is the future of Smaller Pictures? Truth be told, I’m not 100% sure, but I definitely want to get back into writing. Even if my audience isn’t as big as before, it doesn’t matter. I’ve deleted my Twitter and am resisting looking at the statistics on WordPress. I plan on writing less than 4 posts a month initially, but who knows, maybe I’ll be able to find a happy medium where I don’t burn myself out.
If you got this far, thanks for reading! The support for this site means the world to me and I’m excited to get back into the swing of things whatever that is!
Nikki xxx
Smaller Pictures Film 