A guy name Michael W. Dean made a nice little movie called D.I.Y. or Die: How to Survive as an Independent Artist. It is made up of conversations with artists in many mediums who have made it on their own. Visual artists who stay away from the gallery system. Musicians who refuse to sign to labels. And performance artists who do not hire managers. All in all it is a very inspiring film for an artist trying to make a go at it without a lot of cash.
My favorite quote from the movie is: “Zines are more important than Rolling Stone.”
The movie was cheap at $8 for the DVD with no copyright protection in place. In fact the cover of the disc tells you to, “Burn The DVD.” But now you can watch it free on YouTube. The filmmaker has listed his reasons for putting it on you tube here.
Here is the first part of the film:
And here is part two:
Click here to check out the rest of the movie.
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I am still don’t quite get why people feel the need to go out of their way NOT to make money as an artist, but hey, if thats what they want, they should do what makes them happy. I just think sometimes people are short sighted.
I think sometimes, people just do whats easiest without thinking about what they want. What kind of artist, what is the long term goal. Where do you want to be in 10-20 years? Then what is the path to get there.