Working (or trying to work) as a creative person isn't easy, for lots of reasons. But one of the biggest reasons is that it can be difficult to make ends meet, especially when you have no guaranteed source of income over long periods of time. I have definitely felt that, even though I do have a job that is mostly steady. I work in the world of non-profit, which is just a teensy step above artist in the pay category, and then only because it's a steady paycheck. So, I thought that today I would share some of the strategies I've used to keep my head above water and live a relatively comfortable life free from financial drama. Hopefully someone out there is looking for information like this and will be helped by it. 

Step One: Knowledge is Power
Part of the whole problem is figuring out where your money goes and how to plan for it coming and going. I often feel like money is just water through my fingers, but with a little research and mindfulness, I've gotten better at knowing where I'm at. My first step was reading a book called How to Get Out of Debt, Stay Out of Debt, and Live Prosperously, by Jerrold Mundis. This book is full of strategies for taking control of your finances, such as creating a spending plan, how to pay down debt, deal with creditors, and so on. Really good advice. I'd say that's step one. Step two, (or one and a half) is actually doing the things he talks about. Now that I know exactly how much income I have, and what my expenses are, I can track things and make sure I stay within my means. I also started using a great app/website called Mint.com. It's linked to all my financial accounts, including investment accounts, and the mobile version is great for those times when I'm at the store and need to know if I can afford that extra bag of marshmallows. 

Step Two: Set Your Goals
After knowing what the sitch is, I decided what was most important to me, and how I wanted my financial picture to change. One thing I did was make a decision to not use my credit card anymore. Ever. Never ever. And by paying every month on that, I've managed to reduce my credit card debt by over half in just under two years. And let me tell you, that feels great. Aside from that, I also set other goals. I wanted to set up reserve funds for various things, and luckily, there's a goal section in Mint that lets you do that. It keeps track for you, so you can see how far you have to go. I also keep my savings in a partitioned account with a high interest rate (well, relatively high, for a savings account). It's almost like virtual envelopes that I can keep my money in. For instance, I have an envelope for the car, for travel, clothes, and the house. Plus a general emergency fund and a rainy day fund. Each month I put a bit away in each account, and over time it really adds up (plus earns interest!). Then, when the house needs a repair, or the car insurance is due, or I need some fancy new duds, I'm not scrambling to figure out how to pay for it. It's already there. Believe me, there is great peace of mind in planning ahead. And for things like travel that aren't generally cheap, I don't have to whip out the credit card. The money is already there.

Step Three: Keep Working
This is kind of a two step step three. The first part is, keep doing your creative work. Work hard at it. Keep building your body of work, getting better, and putting it out there. The more you do that, the more likely it is that you'll be able to increase your earnings, as well as your skill levels, which ends up being a wonderful cycle of being able to charge more for your work and having more people seek you out, which brings in more funds to make more work, and so on and so on. The second part is to keep working at your financial fitness. There's no way you're going to turn into Warren Buffet on Day One. But, with a little hard work and diligence, you can improve. If you have a day where you have to use the credit card, or you go over your spending plan, don't panic, and don't beat yourself up. Just tell yourself you'll try to do better tomorrow. It's impossible to change your financial picture in just one day, but in one day you can achieve small goals. Not eating out, not using the credit card, putting money into savings, walking rather than driving, whatever. And those little goals become habits eventually, and then those habits add up to a more secure financial situation where you can breathe and not worry so much about where your rent money is coming from, freeing you up to worry about your next masterpiece instead.

Now go forth and thrive.

Today I participated in a fundraiser for a great non-profit in San Diego called San Diego Writers, Ink. It's peopled with writers who help other writers become better writers, and whenever I participate in something they put on, I'm not disappointed.

But somewhere, deep down, is a nagging little voice asking me why I'm working to raise money for another non-profit besides my own. But that voice really needs to pipe down. Why? Because I'm working to raise money for the non-profit I work for every day. Yes, EVERY day. In case you didn't know, Media Arts Center San Diego has been around for quite a while, spreading the gospel of digital media and storytelling since its inception. That gospel has grown to include camps for kids, documentary classes for teenagers, partner programs with California libraries, and workshops for adults. Everything from how to take pictures with your fancy new DSLR to how to build your own steadicam.

Oh, and we also show movies.

That's my job. I often get an odd reaction from people when they find out what I do. "You mean you get to watch movies? All the time?"

Yes, all the time. I'm lucky enough to have a job that includes something most people (including myself) enjoy. I get to watch movies, meet filmmakers, and sometimes visit film festivals. I'm not going to tell you that it's not as glamorous as it sounds, because you wouldn't believe me anyway, and that's like complaining that your Maserati doesn't purr at 20 mph like it does at 80. Small potatoes.

So yes, I do love what I do. I love watching movies. But I also feel like I'm participating in something that matters. Yes, the education programs that are provided by Media Arts Center are wonderful. There is a wonderful staff of people that attend to all the details and ensure that they are enriching for kids young and old. The video production programs are also wonderful. Media Arts has managed to help a plethora of organizations that don't have access to the digital media tools and knowledge that we have in order to help them send their message around the internet and back again. Because that's what we do: provide access.

So now we have this Digital Gym, where you can get training on all things digital, like the YMCA, but for your brain and creativity instead of your body. And we also have a movie theater, which is where I come in.


But how does that fit in? Sometimes I feel like I'm not doing enough, not contributing enough, or not do-gooding enough. And then I reflect.

I've been at the organization for six years, programming films for the San Diego Latino Film Festival, Que Viva! Cine Latino, Cinema en tu Idioma, and a number of other community screenings. We've partnered with the SD Asian Film Festival, the Jewish Film Festival, Horrible Imaginings Film Festival, and countless other community groups to get messages out and spur cross-cultural dialogue within the San Diego community. Now I program the Digital Gym Cinema, and I'm constantly asking myself, what is this film for?

It's simple, really. Film is for people. It's for ideas. It's for creativity and sharing. There is not one single filmmaker on the planet who makes a film to watch alone in their own living room. Films are made to be seen, by groups of people, to share something that filmmaker thinks is important. It's just up to me, as the curator of the Digital Gym Cinema, to try to figure out what the community most wants, or what the community most needs.

So if I may, I'd like to reflect on what's come along so far. A film about the danger of greed (The Brass Teapot). A film about a family dealing with the separation of living on both sides of the border (Aqui y Alla). A film about zero-emissions motorcycle racing (Charge). A film about French capitulation to the Nazis during WWII (La Rafle). A film about women in India as the country develops (The World Before Her). A film about the pollution of our land and oceans (Trashed). These aren't all of them, but they all have a story to tell that I think is worth telling. Some films were more well attended than others. I take no offense.

What I am always looking for is the movie that is simply a beautiful work of art. Something about it reaches down deep and pulls at you, whether it's the music, the visuals, the story, or a combination of all of those that keeps you in your seat for a couple of hours (or longer!) because you can't take your eyes and ears away from the screen. And sometimes I hear, "How is that helping people?"

I despise that kind of response. Movies are art. They contain art. They blend art. And I still believe in art for art's sake. Many years ago, I found myself in Paris at the Louvre. I went through the galleries and found myself in front of the Mona Lisa. I didn't stand there and wonder how that was helping people. I admired it, and the other works, as something that makes our lives a little less dull. An expression of something someone wanted to share.

Let me be clear: artists (and filmmakers) are not required to change the world. If Iron Man has taught us anything, it's that audiences don't expect movies to change the world. They expect something to be shared. A story, an idea, a thought. Some artists are activists, and I think that's great. Some are not, and that's great, too. But what all of them are doing is engaging. 

This is what I strive to program at the Digital Gym Cinema. So as we look forward, I'm excited about the variety of shares coming our way. A film about the coming-of-age of a teenager from the Dagreb tribe (The Lesser Blessed). A transgender story of impossible, unextinguishable love and romance (Laurence Anyways). A film about the complicated world of Somali pirates (Stolen Seas). A poetic journey from schoolbus to public transportation in Guatemala (La Camioneta). A film about two musicians who tragically died before their time, but not before their genius rooted (Greetings From Tim Buckley).

I sincerely hope to create engagement. What engages you?

Sometimes it seems like there's just too many causes in the world. And maybe there are. It seems like you can't turn around or wind your watch without someone new asking for your hard-earned cash for some worthy cause. And most of them are worthy. Sure, we need to help the environment. And starving people. And victims of domestic violence. And people with muscular dystrophy,  breast cancer, prostate cancer, Crohn's disease, colitis, HIV, and so on. They all need our help.

And today, it's writers that need your help. Our help. So here's the deal. There's this wonderful non-profit in San Diego called San Diego Writers Ink, who help writers through a series of workshops, critiques, and so on. It's a relatively small organization, with a tightly-knit and dedicated staff. Simply put, it feels like family when you walk through their door. They're soft spoken, yet passionate about all things literary, from limericks to memoirs. 

And now they need to raise some money. They're having a fun fundraiser (or a "fun"-raiser!) called Blazing Laptops. It happens on June 9, and what happens is that they open their doors on a Sunday and all of us writers come in for a sort of writing marathon and just write for nine hours straight. We write to work on what we write, and we write because people have pledged their confidence in our ability to do just that. Basically, it's like the walk-a-thons that many other charities have, except without the blisters and sweat (or at least blisters on different body parts).

And this is where you come in. I promised to raise at least $100 (although truthfully, I'd love to raise much more than that), and I've already gotten 40% of the way there. I just need a few more people to show their generosity to this writing organization to help me get to my goal. At the same time, I actually have writing to do! I can spend those nine hours writing more blog posts and trying to *finally* finish that novel I started in November, which needs about 30,000 more words in order to be done.

So here is the link to pledge. Or click on the picture to pledge. It could be for $5, or it could be for $50, or even $500. Either way, you should seriously consider making a pledge. Everybody wins. Writers Ink gets some funding, I get the chance to work on some writing, and you get to feel great about yourself for being so generous.

Seriously, is Kickstarter busted? And yes, that's a double meaning. Kickstarter has been around for only 4 years, but has significantly changed the way we look at funding art, music, movies, and even inventions. But in the last couple of weeks, Kickstarter has changed to such a degree that many are questioning the model. So, did people finally figure out how to really exploit what Kickstarter is about, or did they just break it altogether?

When the whole thing started, it seemed so innocent. Artists who had no money were finally able to find funding for their projects, either through their friends, or a network of strangers that truly believed in what they were doing. People were inventing things, and since they didn't necessarily have the means to put up cash for manufacturing their doo-dads, they found people willing to buy their products and basically front the cash in order to get them made. It was a fantasyland of ideas and wonder. I even found a project recently that was just some guy who wanted to draw cats for people. His enthusiasm was undeniable (who doesn't want a cute drawing of a cat?), but alas, the artistry wasn't quite there, and his project wasn't funded.

So, Kickstarter became a place to find ideas, inventions, and all manner of emerging artists in all sorts of media. And then came Veronica Mars. Veronica Mars the television show lasted for three seasons, then vanished suddenly with very little warning and no fanfare. The series didn't even get the normal series finale that is afforded to most shows. It simply went away. Many fans were outraged. Mind you, this is a rabid bunch. They really can't get enough of their spunky gumshoe (actually, the show was pretty good), and wanted to see her move on to the FBI and 'big time' crimes. They wanted to see Veronica get her guy-- both the criminal and the love interest. But sadly, that never came. For years, there was chatter about a movie, but every time the gossip got off the ground, it quickly got shot down. 

Then Rob Marshall (the creator of Veronica Mars) got an idea. He would go straight to the fans. Warner Brothers gave their blessing that if he could raise $2 million, they would support the marketing of the film (which is actually very expensive). So he opened up a Kickstarter campaign, and lo and behold, within 2 days (2 DAYS!) fans had pledged the minimum amount necessary. By the time the campaign ended 30 days later, many Kickstarter records had been broken, Marshall ended up with over $5 million, and it looks like the Veronica Mars movie is a go. But the story doesn't end there.

Then comes Zach Braff. Many people know and love him from the TV show Scrubs. Some remember his film Garden State. And still others revile him for "ruining" Oz. Whatever the case, he decided to jump into the Kickstarter ring. And yet again, we saw a well-known celebrity manage to raise a large amount of money ($2.2 million as of this writing) in a short amount of time (6 days). However, there is a noticeable difference. In Braff's project, no amount of money can buy you a copy of the film on DVD. Or Blu-Ray. For $100 you can see the film in certain cities. For $150 you can even get a copy of Garden State (I guarantee Target has it for much less). So what's the deal?

Normally, when people fund a project, one of the incentives is that they will get a copy of the finished product. Not so in this case. Why? Because Braff wants to sell that, too. You see, big studios pay big money for the rights to distribute movies on DVD and Blu-Ray. So, in effect, Braff gets paid twice. You pay him to make the movie, then you pay to see the movie, then you pay for a copy of the movie. Are you starting to see how this is broken?

On a side note, it is interesting to note that both the Veronica Mars project and Zach Braff's project list being an 'actor' with a spoken line as one of the perks. Meaning, you pay $10,000, they let you say something on camera. Seems legit, right? Except when you realize that they are supposed to pay you for that. There are hundreds, no, thousands of actors out there trying to make a living, and somehow you are supposed to pay for the privilege to say "Here's your check, sir."? Seems like a complete negation of the craft of acting, but this is somewhat debatable (Keanu Reeves, anyone?). Anyway..

So, here's the deal. Has Kickstarter "gone Hollywood"? Is there any room left for regular people who have spectacular ideas? Is fundraising really just like being the prom king or queen, where the person who gets the most money is the one that's also the most popular? Is this how we're going to fund art?

I say this: don't forget about the world of grants. Yes, it is tough. You have to do a lot of writing. But you also have to have a project worth funding. Most grant committees care more about the merit of the work than how many Facebook friends or Twitter followers you have. Or how long you've been in syndication. Maybe we should start a fund for art that is blind to names, that looks at the work instead. Who's with me? Maybe I'll start a Kickstarter campaign to fund a grant that's for real artists. Who will give me $10?

I'd love to hear your take on this.