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Chatting with Michael W. Dean

by Kari Ann Morgan

Michael W. Dean is the author of several books, including The $30 School books (which consist of Music, Writing, and Film school), Starving in the Company of Beautiful Women, and The Simple Pleasures of a Complex Girl. He wrote and directed the documentary DIY or Die: How to Survive as an Independent Artist, and has finished another documentary called Hubert Selby Jr: It/ll be Better Tomorrow. He likes cats, music, cats, books, cats, writing, and oh, did I mention that he likes cats? He currently resides in LA… with his cat.

After having (respectively) read and watched The $30 Film School and DIY or Die and thoroughly enjoyed them both, I really wanted to talk with Michael and see if he would share with us some of the things he’s learned as an independent artist and filmmaker. And he was cool enough to do just that…

Kari Ann Morgan: In both your book $30 Film School and your film DIY or DIE: How To Survive As An Independent Artist, you put special emphasis on professionalism. Because of the independent nature of the people that gravitate to DIY, some of them view professionalism as a restriction or as something unnecessary. Two-part question: First, how can you tell the difference between a professional DIY-er and an independent slacker?

Michael W. Dean: I don’t know if it’s my place to tell. I certainly am not in the business of certifying people, so I am never called to “place judgement” on someone. But I do know that I tend to work with people who possess certain attributes. Basically the same attributes that would be valuable in a large corporation: punctuality, attention to detail, keeping your word, and ingenuity. Though in large corporations, ingenuity is often not encouraged at many levels.

As for attention to detail, I am somewhat lacking in that myself sometimes. Primarily because I’m wearing so many hats on so many projects at once that something is always going to slip through the cracks. In an average day, I do probably 300 separate tasks connected with projects I’ve got going. And I do about 295 of them correctly. I am usually my own support staff as well as the creative guy. On some projects, I have one or two main collaborators that I work with every day, but we all still end up doing everything. On a big Hollywood film shoot, the director does not have to lick stamps and put them on outgoing promo copies. In independent film at this level, we almost always do.

And as for artists in general, I give everyone an “A for effort” if they’re making art for the right reasons, but I don’t have time to view and consume films, records and books that I don’t love. When I was in high school, I had a teacher who told me to finish reading any book I started, and I carried that credo into my early 30s. Now, if something doesn’t grab me in the first ten pages or ten minutes, I put it down and pick up something that does.

One thing I do like about the way I do projects is that I get to work, very intensely, with different people on different things. I came out of a background of being in rock bands. In a rock band, you’re stuck with the same three guys for ten years. You get to know all of their personality quirks, and the smell of their respective socks, a little too well. On projects I do now, film and music and books, it’s usually different people on each project. And even a lot of that is done via e-mail, phone and fax.

I love what computers have done for my life and my productivity. I wanted them my whole life, even before I knew what they were. My whole world is now on a password-protected laptop (backed up weekly on data DVDs, of course), and I could literally slip the laptop in my messenger bag, walk out the door, move to another country, and never look back. And keep doing what I do.

I’m moving out to the suburbs soon, to live with my girlfriend, DJ. This has surprised a lot of people who know me well….because I’ve lived in cities (DC, San Francisco and Los Angeles) for over 20 years (I also haven’t had a roommate in over ten years.) But I can do what I do as well, if not better, sitting on a hill in the sticks as I can in the heart of a major metropolitan area.

In fact, I’m doing this interview without even using a computer. I’m typing on an Alphasmart Neo. (http://www.alphasmart.com). Very cool thing. The Neo is better than a laptop for when you only want to write. No distractions…..no e-mail, just text. I love it. And it weighs two pounds, boots up instantly and runs 300 hours on three double-A batteries. (I don’t do paid product endorsements, but I do like to share my love of simple, elegant tools that make my day easier.) And I’m in my backyard in the sun with my cat at my feet.

I love my life most days.

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