DIY Production Quotes

It was a song I wrote for my wife as a present, never intending for it to be a Styx song. 'Babe' was a demo. The demo became the hit record, including all the background vocals, which were done by me.

In the '80s, I can't say that Amy and I were aware of an independent film community. We could only get a certain amount of money for our pictures, which made them low budget movies, but they were distributed through studios.

When you go to cable, there are no stations and no affiliates and they allow you to do your show.

We made this movie for $17, and nobody got anything. So it never dawned on me that we would get real people.

I started to make my own films, however small and however independent they were, from the beginning. And so, even though I was nobody, I was always the master of my own work.

Stop waiting for a producer. Produce yourself.

All studio movies are the middle of the Bell curve. The only way to do something is to do it yourself. And the only way to do that is to not take any money from anyone or take as little money as possible from anyone and that's it.

On my 'Mickey' video, I was the director, producer, choreographer, editor, singer - everything.

TV is really hard to break into. This may be the worst piece of advice, but make an independent film. TV oftentimes takes people who are established. The great benefit of not breaking in yet is purity of voice.

People in independent film have a passion; they're not in it for the money.

Early on, I joined that large group of show business cadets who were 'multi-hyphenates,' 'independents,' 'self produced' or 'alternately financed.' Sometimes, most times, I've had to do it all: raise the money, write the script, produce, direct and act in the film.

I produce some of my music videos on a $200 budget. But I produce most of my videos on zero budget. I have a studio in my apartment - which is actually just a green screen I have tacked on my wall and some lamps to light everything.

I'm not a real producer, so if someone asks me to produce, it's only because they like my sound. I'm not a professional, all I have is my own way of doing things, my little tricks.

You can take your life into your own hands in terms of directing. There are ways for you to finance yourself and to write and make a film.

I learned from making a few of these low-budget videos early on that the best way to go about doing it is just to keep it honest and real.

I have actually been very fortunate to be able to make films on my own credit card without having huge funders behind me dictating how the story should be told.

I made three short films of my own which I wrote, produced, directed... you did everything in those days. My favourite one was something I shot on VHS... a little documentary.

I gladly, I voluntarily gave up the kind of commercial film career I had going as soon as I had enough money to finance my own films.

'Love/Hate' was a milestone in terms of working on something at home that felt very special.

R&B and all that stuff was always very spare and spontaneous. Nobody made those records under solid gold situations. It was just in and out, and you didn't labor over the thing. I like music like that.

I'm still not entirely sure how 'Pretty Girl' blew up the way it did. It wasn't really meant to. The song was originally meant for a compilation tape for a magazine called 'The Le Sigh', and I made the video in about 30 minutes.

You ask any moviemaker what their favorite movie experience was, and they'll say it was one of the first ones, where everyone had to pitch in and do everything together, and you had to struggle.

I'd be absolutely happy to go back and make a smaller picture. I never want my choices to be dictated by budget. That's one of the reasons why I take so much pride in being able to make films for $2 and a paper clip - because I can always get my hands on $2 and a paper clip. I never have to ask for permission for that.

There's no point in me meeting with a bunch of producers or studios, because I'll write my own scripts in my own time.

I'm betting that in two years I'll be talking to you about a film that I shot on an iPhone. It's absolutely coming, I have no doubt in my mind.