VJ for a Living?
 

I'm curious. I have been a VJ hobbyist for about 5 years. I would love to get out of my bureaucratic Computer Engineering position and VJ for a living.

How many of you out there use this as your sole or main source of income? What hurdles does one have to pass and what is the stress level like?

I will throw in a poll too.

hurdles - having enough work, keeping up to date with promoters putting on events, self motivation to keep your work fresh and interesting( if you dont, promoters can get bored and look elsewhere), having the capital to hire any extra equipment that might be needed for an event.

stress - basicly the same but add.... if your sick you dont get paid... no holiday pay... having enough moneyt pay the rent / bills / eat, not having solid contracts for regular work ( unless you are lucky )

just as well im a man of few needs and i live far enough out of a major city to have cheap rent but close enough for it to be cheap to travel in.

you have to be much more open to working with any style or event that you are asked to do, cant realy just stick to your favourite stuff. i often end up doing nights that i wouldnt dream of going to but i still put as much effort in as i would if its my favourite type of music.

I have to say although I vj less and less, I do still do visuals in different contexts, so I say Vj is my sole income, but really that should be, visuals is my sole income, recently it has been more interactive projections, and content creation for shows, but to me they're still visuals.

"50% Normal Job / 50% VJ"

My math is more like 25% VJ... Integral part of my income tho.

About 50% live video for events plus 50% video production.
My overdraft gives me the biggest headache.
Video is a normal job, innit?

When I VJ, I VJ for fun.

75% live
25% video production

Interesting .. its a pretty level playing field so far.

Only people I have met in the Biz are Kyle (quite randomly) and Spot Draves of Electric Sheep (did a gig with him). Rovastar responded to one of my other threads, always wanted to meet him.

My gig on the 4th of July got me another gig doing a Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy Party in Sept. God I hope it's at the beginning of the month, I am going to Holland/Belgium/Germany for 10 days at the end of September. Woo Hoo for Oktoberfest in Bavaria.

If anybody is in that neck of the woods, would love to meet up with some of you.

Make sure you post in the "Meeting Point" section when and where you will be during your stay. I have met many artists through this feature.

I think it would be great to VJ for a living entirely, especially as far your travel preferences are concerned. Yet finding a path which gives you a smooth ride without additional jobs is not easy.

I'd say keeping your interests for additional work could sit somewhere close with video editing, film making, lecturing, event production, publishing, marketing, web, design... etc

I think overall industry is growing rapidly and for those that attach professional approach to this there are some great opportunities across numerous levels of culture.