The Self-Bought Artist
As the weather gets colder, the days get shorter, and people start to put away their halloween decorations, there seems to be an instantaneous switch in the cultural mindset. There is an unmistakable transition from the peacefulness of Fall to making a sharp left turn and veering directly into the holiday season which can only mean one thing: shopping.
Although Black Friday will never be what it once was in the mid 2000s glory days of crazed, in-person shopping, the Ghost of Black Friday has transcended into online shopping through almost all retailers. O.K.-- you might be thinking,
“Yeah, I know Black Friday is different now. Big whoop. Next you’re gonna tell me that Black Friday isn’t really a day but has essentially bastardized the whole month of November with not-so-great deals and decent prices. And even if you miss Black Friday there’s still Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday, and let’s not forget Giving Tuesday. We’re putting a hat on a hat, we’re jumping the shark, we’re… well you get the picture. And if you miss all that there’s still Christmas sales. And if you miss that there’s of course end of year New Year’s sales! There’s a reason why birthdays and the holidays are so special. Even though they’re expected, it’s still this precious occasion. If your birthday was everyday it wouldn’t be worth celebrating!! What happened to us?!”
To which I’d say, slow down there overtly-cynical-but-brings-up-some-uncomfortable-truths reader. You are right. Now, let’s both step off the soap box together… good. Now, please take a seat on this Tommy Bahama’s™ chair that I got for a killer deal at Costco™ online. I’m kidding. All this to say shopping is fun but also bad. We live in a society. Boohoo.
The point is that as a society, like it or not, we have become accustomed to the normality of the rising tide of shopping. And as an artist or someone who makes things, I am no exception to this rule.
Yes, I might tease some friends and family members who still obsess over Black Friday deals, since I typically don’t buy into the holiday shopping hype. But, 6 months from now, I’ll be in their same position frantically Google searching “Best Sony Camera 2024 reddit” or “Sony A1 vs Sony A9iii reddit” or “Mirrorless Cameras Pros and Cons reddit” or “Is this version of camera/lens/equipment really better than that version reddit HELP!?!” Pretty soon, I’m going down a dark Youtube rabbit hole of watching videos like “Cinematic Sony A1 Short Film 4K! Or “ULTRA High Quality Cinematic Footage SONY CANON”. And it’s always just this empty, soulless footage that might look cool sometimes, but what’s the point if there’s no real intention behind what I’m watching? Where’s the story? Where are the characters? What difference does it make if you have the highest quality equipment and materials if you don’t have the know-how to really make something worth making?
It is so easy to consume especially when you fall into this independent artist category where there is no big studio or company or patron financing your artistic ventures. As hard as it is to enact self-discipline, as an artist, it’s a necessity. Not only for my bank account, but also because I don’t want to be reliant on my equipment. Though the shopping hype frenzy about how you need this to be a real filmmaker or real artist has what I can only describe as an alluring siren’s song, a real artist will never be defined by their equipment.
Just like how I’ve grown out of the mindset of buying into sales and what are the latest brands when it comes to clothing and instead have matured into just buying clothes that feel good and that I personally like, I need to do the same with my own artistic attitude. Because, I should know by now that there is no shortcut or cheat code of buying your way to becoming this amazing, inspiring artist that makes incredible work just because you have the latest, greatest camera. I know this, because I am not rich. And if all you had to do to become a successful filmmaker or artist was to be rich and buy equipment that just made you good, there would be a whole lot more success stories out there. The equipment is a tool, not a crutch.
I say all this, and I myself, have just purchased a brand new Amazon Kindle Scribe™ because I mean… it was an actual justified purchase. It’s definitely one of those things that I need as a filmmaker. I’ll be using it to read and annotate all the scripts I’m reading, it’ll get me to read more books, I mean– how could I NOT buy it?
by
Nate Velasco
DEC 2023
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