Advances in digital technology has made it easier and cheaper for an aspiring filmmaker to create a film that is good enough to play at a festival like SXSW. Meanwhile, the disappearance of the middle-class in the film industry has made it increasingly difficult to maintain a career as a film director. Indiewire checked in with this year’s crop of SXSW directors to find out how they pay the bills when they aren’t making their passion projects.

Joel Potrykus, “The Alchemist Cookbook”: This is a question I asked other filmmakers for years. Such a mystery, and few of us give the same answers. I consider myself lucky. I teach screenwriting at Grand Valley State University and guerrilla filmmaking at Michigan State University. Also, I’ve never stopped selling junk on eBay.

When I’m not making documentaries, I’m working as a commercial director. Commercials feel like the nearest thing to a “day job” that a filmmaker can have. So I’m incredibly thankful to be employed most of the time. I constantly get to practice my craft, try new things, meet new challenges and work with truly wonderful people. I am signed with Washington Square Films as a commercial director, and to be with a company that is so supportive of their directors and has a great reputation in both commercials and independent cinema is really exciting for me, as I have one foot in both.

Garrett Zevgetsi, “Best and Most Beautiful Things”: I’m a full-time bartender at a nice hotel. It’s often a hard and humbling job but it has flexible hours, decent money and benefits. I couldn’t have made the film without those things. It’s also been a way to make connections, and some of my regulars even became financial backers.

Sudhanshu Saria, “Loev”: Nothing really. I try to come up with new ideas I can sell, or finish scripts that might get financed or focus on selling new territories or festivals for the films I have made. I’m not really someone that believes in having a back up plan.

Emma Rozanski, “Papagajka”: I’m a cinema projectionist.

Ti West, “In A Valley of Violence”: I am fortunate enough to make films for a living these days, but during my first three films I worked at Diesel selling jeans.

Matt Johnson, “Operation Avalanche”: The entire team from both [of my] films are working in Toronto on our first TV series for Viceland. Matt Miller lines up our projects so we all just roll from one thing into another. “Operation Avalanche” ended September 30th and were shooting this show October 5th.

Jamie Adams, “Black Mountain Poets”: I’m a father of three, so it’s incredibly important for me to keep working, I love to work with the next generation of storytellers so I complete workshops with film and drama students, fortunately as we live in a small town in Wales we’re able to make a living on a relatively low income so I’m able to keep focused on my work.

Josh Bishop, “The Dwarvenaut”: I’ve been working in the film business in one way or another since I was 18 years old. I started as a PA and worked my way up through the Art Department and eventually became an Art Director. After a while I got into Post-Production and built up quite a reel as an Editor. Fortunately, the past two years I have not had to do anything but direct.

Clay Liford, “Slash”: I work as a cinematographer and editor of low budget movies. I’m proud to have worked for such inspiring filmmakers as Jonathan Lisecki, the Zellner Brothers and David Lowery. And I teach film production at two Austin colleges.

Alex Lehmann, “Asperger’s Are Us”: I’m a cinematographer and camera operator by trade. For a while I was just transferring my camera operator paychecks straight into the doc…I have a very supportive and understanding wife.

Stella Meghie, “Jean of the Joneses”: I’m developing a pilot at Warner Bros. and writing an original movie for VH1 right now.

Joshua Locy, “Hunter Gatherer”: I production design commercials.

Marina Zenovich, “Fantastic Lies”: I am fortunate enough to now make a living as a documentary filmmaker. But it isn’t easy! For years I worked for an arts channel making short films about top artists – Schnabel, Baldessari, Robert Wilson, Vanessa Beecroft, Takashi Murakami – almost the perfect job to have while laboring on passion projects like “Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired.” I did a lot of corporate work for awhile, making films for various corporations that paid the bills.

Bobby Miller, “The Master Cleanse”: I’ve had a career making digital content for places like Google, MTV, SoulPancake, and BuzzFeed. Both as a writer/director and someone in front of the camera. There were a couple years there where I was a D-list YouTube personality.

Adam Pinney, “The Arbalest”: I’ve worked as a freelance illustrator and graphic designer for about 12 years now, as well as holding various on-set positions on productions. I most recently illustrated an international poster for the film “Green Room,” and on the production side, I was a camera operator on Adult Swim’s “Your Pretty Face Is Going To Hell.”

Carson Mell, “Another Evil”: I write for HBO’s “Silicon Valley.”

Nicole Lucas Haimes, “Chicken People”: I produced and direct unscripted television.