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Video courtesy DAILY VICE.After graduating from university I worked several unpaid internships at various film production companies. Eventually I was offered a position, but serving coffee, filing papers, and reading shitty scripts was not worth the money, the long hours, or seeing my name in the credits of a Lifetime made for TV movie. It was exhausting, allowing no time to explore my own artistic endeavours. Instead, I chose to heed the advice of Werner Herzog: "Beware of useless, bottom-rung secretarial jobs in film-production companies. Instead, head out to where the real world is."In order to live as any sort of artist in contemporary culture, you have to have some other source of income. This is why I work a mindless minimum wage job.Let's break it down. Below you can see my income and expenses from the past 6 months.I quote $450 as my total freelance income because that was the case for the past couple months. However in June my only writing skrilla was $10, and the $300 I made from film editing last month went directly toward paying a sound designer for another project.So we're back to minimum wage.What does life in Vancity look like living paycheck to paycheck? My last apartment was down the street from a methadone clinic. Now I live near a crack park, but everyone does in Vancouver so it doesn't mean much. I don't buy new clothes. I don't own a TV. I read a lot of books and watch a lot of movies—the library is a kind lover.
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