If you don't get off the sofa and make your first feature at 27, how old will you be in five years?

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The aim of an argument or discussion should not be victory, but progress.
Joseph Joubert, essayist (1754-1824)

Geez, I'm coming up to 37 and hoping to get my first feature off the ground in the next couple of years... I was nearly 30 when I made my first short. If Ridley Scott didn't make his first feature until 40, 27 is hardly too old... after all, even at 40 you still have 30-40 years of potential directing work ahead, maybe more with upcoming medical advances. It's not as though anyone's going to force you to stop at 65 if you're still making good movies and want to continue.

Also, to be brutally honest, while many people might make their first feature on a cheap DV camera at 18/19, few of them are worth watching...

Ok, well that makes me feel a bit better. It's just you know how ageist most industries can be. I suppose it's the quality of the film that matters and I guess a few more years could be advantages if your looking for investment (imagine a 15-year old knocking on your door asking for 10 grand).
Anyway, here's another question to anyone who's interested: Why become a filmmaker? There are thousands of possible careers with regular hours, decent money and infinite-(ish) stability, who in their right mind (including me) would want make films??

Sorry - advantageous. Learn English first, be a monolithic movie god second.

"It's just you know how ageist most industries can be."

Well, there's certainly ageism in movies: for example, I often see special grant programs and awards for 'young film-makers' which I can't qualify for. But, at least for directing, no-one who matters is likely to care provided you keep making movies that bring in the profits: directors who can consistently take tens of millions of pounds and make profitable movies from it are rare.

"Why become a filmmaker?"

In my case, I've done everything else I ever wanted to do other than be an astronaut (and with Rutan's spaceships flying, that just means saving up for a few years :)). My only slight regret is that I first worked on a movie when I was about twelve, but then didn't work on another for about fifteen years... on the other hand, when I look at the technology available now, if I'd been trying to make a feature fifteen years ago I'd have had to raise a ton of money to shoot it on film whereas next year I can buy a Sony HD camera for 2,500 pounds and get something that would at least look decent on a cinema screen.

Honestly, I just can't think of anything else to do with however many years I have left that wouldn't feel like a waste of time. And having spent years working on other people's movies I think I now have a pretty good idea of how to make decent ones myself.

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Originally posted by ironfist550

Ok, well that makes me feel a bit better. It's just you know how ageist most industries can be. I suppose it's the quality of the film that matters and I guess a few more years could be advantages if your looking for investment (imagine a 15-year old knocking on your door asking for 10 grand).

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It's happened to me.

I'd be willing to give the 10 grand to any moviemaker of any age as long as the project is something I think will make money.

When you pop over to the video store to rent a movie how often to you check the age of the director, writer or producer?

Never? Me either. I check to see if it's something that interests me.

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The aim of an argument or discussion should not be victory, but progress.
Joseph Joubert, essayist (1754-1824)