Interview for Kat Weeler’s 8^th grade careers class.

Done via e-mail, 1/5/2006

1. Describe your job?

I have a few jobs. I am an independent filmmaker, and also an author.

As a filmmaker, I produce documentary films.

I directed D.I.Y. OR DIE: How to Survive as an Independent Artist, which was released in 2002. I co-directed HUBERT SELBY JR: It/ll Be Better Tomorrow, which we just finished making. It has not been released yet.

I wrote the books $30 Film School, $30 Music School, $30 Writing School, as well as the novels Starving in the Company of Beautiful Women and The Simple Pleasures of a Complex Girl.

I am currently co-writing and editing a book called Digital Audio DIY NOW! It will be out this summer.

I edited the book DV Filmmaking: From Start to Finish, which is coming out in about a month.

I am freelance, and do not get any of these jobs as "assignments" from anybody.

With the films, I come up with an idea, finance it myself, make the film with help from others, then find a buyer or distributor for it. As a writer, I come up with ideas, write a proposal and two sample chapters. Then I have my agent submit it to publishers and get a deal. The deal usually involves a little money up front to be able to take the time to write the book, and then royalties on the back end from sales. The agent takes 15% on any deals she gets me.

I am not rich. I make only a little more money than someone would make working in retail. But I get to work at home, and I make my own hours. I am getting more jobs coming at me lately, and more recognition for all of them. I am making a little bit more money each year, and I could see this trend continuing for many years. But even if it doesn’t, I love doing what I do and will keep doing it.

Everything I do, I did as a hobby for years before I made money at it.

2. What tools or special equipment do you use?

For writing, I just use a PC laptop computer, running Windows XP Home Edition.

I currently have an HP Pavilion, with a 2.4 gigahertz processor, a gig of RAM, and a 40-gig hard drive. I also have a wireless card.

I love my computer, and I often go to a café and work. I also often work while traveling.

Part of my job involves travel…I travel to interview people for my films, and then later I travel to tour with the films or attend premieres at film festivals. This travel takes me all over the United States and Europe. I also travel sometimes to do book signings, and I am also flown out to lecture at colleges and museums occasionally.

I write in an old version of Microsoft Word (Word 97). I use a cheap digital camera and an old tripod to take photos for the books, and I use Photoshop to edit the photos, and to prepare screen shots of software interfaces for the software sections of the books.

For filmmaking, I use a three-chip mini-DV camera, a good external lavaliere microphone, and we edit on a PC computer running Avid Xpress, augmented with external FireWire drives.

The gear used for filmmaking has become much cheaper and more portable than it used to be. You can now carry a film studio in a backpack.

3. How did you get interested in your line of work?

It was a natural progression out of a few hobbies. I have always done photography, since I was about eight years old. I also played in bands, and learned to edit audio on a computer before it was possible to edit video on a computer. I have been writing since I could read (I learned to read when I was five), and first had something I wrote published when I was about 13. (It was a poem published in the local paper).

4. What academic skills do you use on your job?

Even though I’m very smart, I didn’t do very well in school. I’ve never been diagnosed with A.D.D., but I’m sure I have it. (When I was a kid, they just called it "hyperactive", and that label was often applied to me.)

I didn’t do well in school because I have trouble paying attention, and also didn’t feel challenged. But I do love to learn. I actually used to cut class to sneak down to the school library to read.

But I can thank my grade school and high school for teaching me to read & write and do basic arithmetic. I probably have a ninth-grade level comprehension of mathematics, which is enough to balance my checkbook, and also know if someone is trying to rip me off in business.

Computers have allowed me to focus my A.D.D. and be able to work in many mediums.

I love computers. Even just the spell check is amazing…I was always a good writer, but a bad speller. When I was in high school, there were no personal computers, and thus no spell check (except actually using a dictionary, manually, on each word.) My teachers back then would have been astounded that I would one day make a living writing, because my spelling was so horrible. But with computers, that’s not an issue.

5.What do you like most about your job?

Freedom. I get to work when I want. But I do end up working a lot. I probably work 70 or 80 hours a week. But most of it is fun, so it doesn’t really feel like work.

I like the fact that I get to do cool stuff, and that my work seems to make a difference in some people’s lives. And I get fan letters, probably ten a week, mostly by e-mail.

A good example of why I love my job is this: I don’t think you’d be contacting me for your careers class, (or even know who I was to want to contact me) if I worked as a plumber halfway across the country instead of as a writer halfway across the country. (Not that being a plumber is a bad job, it’s an essential job, and pays well, but people don’t write fan letters to plumbers.)

6. What type of person would dislike doing you job?

People who need total stability.

Work, and paychecks, in writing and independent filmmaking are sporadic and often small. If you’re someone who gets nervous at not getting a check every Friday at five PM, you’ll hate doing what I do.

It takes a lot of discipline and dedication to be a self-employed artist. I’d certainly call it "Taking the road less traveled." It’s not for everyone. A career like mine is good for people who are very intelligent, very creative and very restless.

If I had it to do all over again, I would have taken a year off to learn a trade, like piano tuning, or being a plumber or carpenter, or a computer programming. Because on my way to making a living at what I love, I’ve had some very lean times, and it would have been good to have something to fall back on.

7. What are your hobbies or other special interests?

I don’t really have many….All my hobbies are very integrated into my job. I like writing, filmmaking, photography, and travel. And basically I do all that for a living.

I’ve set up my life that way because I hate having to do what I’m told.

I don’t know if you can call this a hobby, but I really love cats.

I used to be a volunteer cat socializer for the SPCA, and I really really love cats. Cats are excellent.

8. How much education/training does your job require?

I graduated from high school, and then took a few non-credit classes in English and computers at a community college. But I have constantly kept learning on my own. I could say with certainty that I have the working knowledge of English and of The Arts that someone with a Master’s degree in each would have. And I have the working knowledge of music, science and computers that someone with a Bachelor’s degree would have.

I have many friends with these degrees, and constantly converse with them and even collaborate on projects, in all these subjects, and hold my own as a peer in the conversations and projects.

I think it’s interesting, and somewhat ironic, that even though I didn’t get a degree in college, my books are required reading in several colleges, and recommended reading in many colleges.

9. Did you have other jobs that helped you prepare for the job you have now?

In a way. My jobs before were playing in a rock band, and later I worked as an executive assistant in offices. The rock band prepared me for facing any adversity, and the office work honed my computer skills, taught me people skills, and also taught me that I never wanted to work in an office again.

Before I did these jobs I was a bike messenger for three years, which basically just toughened me up for the road that followed in my life.

10.What is the most important thing I should be doing now to help me prepare for this career?

Like I said, learn a backup skill. Lol…..

Actually, I would say that you should study everything you can, stay curious, take notes and investigate as many diverse fields as you can, not just filmmaking and writing. Because you have to have a well-balanced life to have something to write about and make films about, you know?

I think it’s a problem common with all specialized fields, the people end up being experts in such narrow fields that they have trouble talking to people outside their area of expertise. You know, doctors who only read medical books, musicians who only read magazines about music, athletes who only watch sports programming on TV, etc.

Also, take some business classes, in high school and in college. Also some contract law courses. Many artists who are brilliant at art don’t know enough about business, and they end up getting munched in the real world.

I recommend reading the ancient book The Art of War by Sun Tzu. It was a guide for leading armies 2000 years ago, but it’s equally valid as a business blueprint today.

I also recommended that you read The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli.

You need to stay sensitive, but also develop thick skin against criticism. Not everyone is going to like your art, and the more the masses see it and like it, the more people get a chance to not like it. If you are outspoken, talented and even modestly successful, people who are outspoken, untalented and unsuccessful will try their best to "cut you down" and "put you in your place", because they are jealous.

The real world can be kind of like grade school in this way, but on a global level. But in most cases, if you learn to ignore it, it’s easier to deal with than grade school, because the people are usually attacking you in print or in the Internet, rather than face to face.

Thank you, Kat,

It’s been an honor to answer these questions.

Michael W. Dean

Los Angeles