FAQs
INTRO • WHO? • PATREON? • GOALS? • HELP? • BUSINESS? • CONTACT?
INTRODUCTION
We thought you might like a more detailed explanation of our future plans. So here we go…
We’ll update this page as we get more questions (whether we can answer them or not!).
WHO?
We are a small but growing tribe of film fans committed to promoting the future and preserving the past of adventurous moving pictures in London. We don’t work in film or the arts. We are the audience.
Everything we do is shared at radiantcircus.com.
PATREON?
… What is Patreon?
Patreon is a membership platform that makes it easy for creators to get paid. Creators can choose between payments per creation or monthly subscriptions. We have chosen monthly subscriptions.
Creators get 90%. 5% covers Patreon’s costs. 5% goes on transaction fees (on average).
… Why not a Kickstarter-style start-up?
We thought about this a lot. Kickstarter funds burn through. Our value to audiences and promoters comes from week in, week out effort to build a reliable guide to London’s alternative screens. We hope moving picture fans who want to go on this adventure with us will support our efforts through monthly payments. There may be times when we need an injection of funds – a redesign, new tech or content – but modest regular income will sustain our services for the longterm.
… Why not a grant from public funds?
Building our site with the support of our membership community will keep our independence and means we can focus on what we think are the most exciting moving pictures in London right now. Also, we know that members will only pay us for the value we create in their lives. Every single membership payment is a sign we are doing the right things. The more money we earn through memberships, the more money we can invest back into our community.
… Why not a system that takes payment in £?
We looked at alternatives (and hope we haven’t missed anything…). Patreon combines secure methods for taking payments with systems for co-ordinating our membership community and rewards. That ecosystem brings efficiencies that are very helpful as we build.
WHY THESE GOALS?
Our future is built on achieving 3 goals. Here’s our thinking behind each of them.
GOAL 1: When we reach 350 monthly members, RADIANT CIRCUS will be fully sustainable in our current form & we will be able to continue to do what we do.
We are obsessive about tracking down and discovering the street-food vendors of film exhibition – indie promoters, pop-ups, film clubs and alternative spaces. These are people putting passion into doing their own thing. From all of the screens we have seen over the last year, this is where some of the most adventurous action is at. We want to do everything we can to help them reach even bigger audiences.
We also support London’s independent cinemas, admiring their commitment to local communities and deep engagement in preserving London’s vibrant screen culture.
We will continue to summarise what’s screening across London’s larger repertory venues and more than 60 film festivals, expanding our coverage of the city’s art screens as we build and grow.
GOAL 2: When we reach 600 monthly members, RADIANT CIRCUS will be able to hire a web developer to build a comprehensive daily screen listings service for London’s alternative attractions, greatly expanding our coverage.
We want to build a comprehensive daily screens listing for London so that it is much easier to find out what’s on where each day.
To date, we have used free/cheap web tools to build RADIANT CIRCUS but this isn’t very efficient and won’t scale. We will need a web developer to redesign the database that drives our site and address strategies for data harvesting/checking so that we are streamlined, comprehensive and accurate.
We also need more effective integration across web and email so that we can send automated mailings to those hungry for adventure. We currently do far too much cutting and pasting…
What will it look like? Screen Slate in NYC is a great example of what’s possible. This elegant service lists what’s on in the city’s repertory cinemas and galleries and sends daily email digests to subscribers. The future of RADIANT CIRCUS will balance reliable information (SCREENS) with opinion (GUIDES) and the old-fashioned joys of seeing stuff together (QUESTS).
We will consult our community on everything we build.
GOAL 3: When we reach 1,000 monthly members, RADIANT CIRCUS will be able to stage FREE members-only screenings as a (huge) thank you for your support.
Reaching this goal will mean we can pay something back whilst continuing to expand our screen horizons. We will use our resources – powered by our members – to collaborate with London’s indie venues and promotors to create a “best of the best” style programme. We think it will be special.
As a socially-minded business, we like to profile screen events that raise awareness and funds for good causes. Our RADIANT CIRCUS events will be no different and we will work with our membership community to think more about the good we can do.
CAN WE HELP?
Yes… absolutely, we probably don’t even know how yet, so please contact us!
Obvious help involves sharing our plans and calls for new members and – if you have events or a venue – giving out flyers promoting RADIANT CIRCUS as London’s alternative screen guide. Web links from your blog/site to ours also really help in search rankings.
If you have time and skills that might help us achieve our goals more rapidly, we would love to hear from you. Where have you been all our blogging life?
Also, any feedback is helpful. If there is anything you would like to see us do – or stop doing – please drop us a note. We have thick skin, although that might just be middle age… so best be polite…
BLOGGING IS OUR BUSINESS
We want to be around for the long term and have planned our blogging future on realistic business goals. Given that time is our most valuable asset, we have budgeted based on London’s Living Wage. Should we ever get round to paying anyone, that’s where we’ll start…
In addition to memberships, we will explore other ways to generate income through our activities – including advertising and affiliate schemes. Whatever we do, we want our members to always have the best experience. Nothing will get in the way of that.
And that’s the meat of it…
CONTACT US
Contact us here if you’d like to know more.
Subscribe & support
RADIANT CIRCUS – “Home of alternative screen culture in London” (Film London) – is supported entirely by readers’ monthly subscriptions. Subscribers get our listings emailed directly as well as other great rewards. With enough subscribers backing us, we will be able to: 1) establish RADIANT CIRCUS as a permanent resource; 2) fund a full site rebuild to make our listings more social and searchable; and, 3) stage free events for subscribers as our way of saying a huge thank you! Our target? One thousand passionate film fans sharing what they love so that many more can discover it. Subscribe at patreon.com/radiantcircus
“I love everything you’re doing with RADIANT CIRCUS, the output is brilliant. And just so great to see it grow. Kudos to you.” (A fan via email!).