MP: Another bit of weird phrase that I tell myself a lot now is: the point of an artist is to maximize risk, and the point of a business is to minimize risk. At the end of the day, business people aren’t close-minded or shitty or bad at their job. It’s just not their job to challenge what works. That’s your job as an artist.

 

The ability to take that risk is a craft, and it’s a thing that takes time. You have it, and it’s not their job to have it. It’s your job to say,  “This weird, quirky thing? I think people will like it.” You’ll try to prove that to them as much as you can, and at the end of the day, it’s their job to try and fit it in a box. Every art and industry place of contact is 100% opposed. It’s not like you’re kind of on the same page. It’s literally opposite goals. I think, when I realized that, it was a helpful motivator to take that risk. Because when you get that doubtful energy back from people, it’s not because it’s a bad idea or your gut instinct about it is wrong — it’s their job. Their skillset is to see that that is nothing like what’s working.

 

CH: I think the best force at your disposal, as an artist, is skepticism. It’s part of why it’s so hard to live in the middle of that Venn diagram between having the self-confidence to put out anything at all, and being self-deprecating and skeptical of your own skills enough to push yourself to make something good. The best art lives right in the center of that Venn diagram.

 

CD: Setting a goal for yourself of producing a video every week seems like a way to fight against preciousness. Even if this isn’t perfect, there’s going to be another one. You end up just working to make each one better.

 

CH: We had to really embrace wabi-sabi. It’s this incredibly liberating thing to realize that nothing’s ever complete. Nothing’s ever perfect, and nothing’s ever finished, and it does let you just be able to say, “I’m not going to sit on this student film forever, or send it back to the guy who’s going to score, because that’s the one missing piece and I know that I can make it perfect.” No, just put it out there and make another one.