'Filmmaker' encompasses pretty much everyone who works on any kind of film at any level. I'm not sure what answers you want exactly, but they're likely to be wildly different depending on whether you're talking to an indie DP, a studio PA, a Hollywood Director or a YouTube officionado.
I'm a DP, so whether that falls under your definition of 'filmmaker' (it seems some questions are geared towards Directors, perhaps?) but anyway, FWIW:
1) What do you like most about being a filmmaker?
I love the collaboration with people. I love the buzz of being on set, and I love knowing that everyone's pulling together to make a great product. It's always really rewarding to see your efforts come together on screen.
2) What do you not like about being a filmmaker?
Long work hours :/ It's a blessing and a curse. I'd hate to be couped up in an office 8 hours a day at the same time and place every day. Being on a film set means often completely different times and places, at least when you're on location which is great for the variety but sometimes it's hard to get sleep, especially on low budget films as they don't pay overtime, so you do sometimes go over 12+ hours (at least when you do it on a well paid show, the overtime pay is worth it
). And it's also really difficult to have any kind of social life when you're on a show. It's also difficult to have a love life, as any potential partner has to be okay with barely seeing you for months at a time when you're on a show.
3) How many hours a week do you work?
Depends on the week. Some weeks I'll have no work booked at all. Some weeks I'll be day playing on a commercial, which will earn me more for the day than the film I just spent x days/weeks on. Sometimes you're spending three months doing 10 hour days on TV shows.
4) Do you use YouTube or do you go to film festivals? Which do you prefer and why?
Most of the films I shoot are for festivals. I work on other projects in other roles, but they're neither for festivals or YouTube.
YouTube is great if you can find a way to make money from it. It's not necessarily great for the professional filmmaker. Good film festivals are heaps better as a networking tool. YouTube's good to get your stuff seen by people, but festivals are good to get your stuff seen by the
right people.
5) How do you get funding to do new productions?
I let Producers worry about that
Sometimes it's private funding, quite often there's government funding and/or television network funding. Indie films are more often funded by the Director or Producer themselves, or a combination of the Director/Producer, private funding and crowd funding.
6) At what age did you first realize you wanted to be a filmmaker?
About 8
7) When did you make your first film?
In film school. I've only ever
directed one film, and that was during film school. I spent a lot of time working as a cameraman, and
shooting all sorts of things, both before and after film school. Before was more videography/event type things, after more film-related stuff.
What kind of cameras do you use/ what do you think about 4k?
Everything. In the last year I shot on and/or worked with/on 35mm, S16mm, Arri Alexa, RED Epic and Scarlet, Blackmagic Cinema Camera, Panasonic Varicam, Sony F3 and FS700, Canon 5DmkIII..
4K is certainly the way of the future. Most films are still finished at 2k, but eventually we'll move to 4k, at least once theatres update their projectors. Realistically, I think there's a resolution race that is kinda pointless, and I care much more about the colour reproduction and the dynamic range, or really what the image looks like in general, rather than resolution alone. The Alexa is my favourite digital camera, and it only records up to 3k. I think the RED has a less appealing image, yet it records in 5k... Realistically though, it's technology, and they'll always be improving. I certainly have my preferences about what I like to shoot, but it's based around what looks the best, not (necessarily) what has the highest resolution
9) How do you get people for working on your film? Do you use friends or hire people?
Both, I guess - I hire crew who are my friends. I know the crew I like to work with, and if they're unavailable, they're the first people I ask for recommendations.
So if someone could answer these questions:
