Part OneIntroduction: Middle-Aged Olympians
They who lack talent expect things to happen without effort.
Eric Hoffer, Reflections on the Human Condition
In 2012 the United States sent 530 athletes to the summer Olympics.
Their average age: 26.
In 2012 the Academy Awards nominated 49 individual filmmakers in the categories of screenwriting, directing, producing, editing, cinematography and documentary.
Their average age: 50. Almost twice that of the Olympians.
Some more sobering statistics:
- UCLA, like NYU, USC and most top film schools, accepts less than 5 percent of applicants.
- Of those accepted, around 1 percent make a successful feature film.
All this is to say that a career making feature films is incredibly difficult to achieve. ...
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