Dad got me a Kodak Instamatic Super 8mm camera that I was glued to for most of my teens. My first professional job was working as a dubber-loader for a sound studio in Calgary. I've discovered it's a very tough business in which to survive. I've been fortunate enough to work in both television and features for nearly 20 years. Television is a producer's medium and as an episodic director you can begin to feel like a hired gun.
Feature films are more the realm of the director.
You have more control and, certainly, my feature experience has been far more personal. I produced my first feature film when I was 22. It was a very small crew and an even smaller cast. We spent four weeks in the wilderness of Alberta in the summer of 1983 filming Storm. The project ultimately took up most of my twenties to complete and was certainly a labour of love.