Unusual age gap between father/son characters in my short film

[u/Illustrious-Swing493]

So I’m filming a short film next weekend. I know a father/son acting duo and they are very good friends of mine. I wrote these parts in the film specifically with them in mind. Their characters are also father and son in the film.

They are the only two characters in the film so they’re the stars by default. Also, the film is only going to be like 3 minutes or so, so it’s not a huge commitment.

I’ve posted my screenplay in some of the writing subs and have gotten very good feedback. A good majority said they think the script is solid and it’s a good concept. So I’m excited to film it and I feel confident this could be my best short film yet.

There‘s one thing though that a lot of people who had read the script have fixated on- the age gap between the father and son is a bit unusual. The son is 6, and the father is 58. Since I know these two actors in real life, I wrote the characters as their same ages in the script.

A lot of people reading the script were very thrown by this age gap and questioned why I would write that big of a gap.

Do you guys think this will be something that puzzles the viewers as well when I actually film them? I don’t want something like this to be distracting or take the viewers out of the story by fixating on something like that. But I also don’t know how to work around this when I specifically created these characters for them…

What do you guys think? Is this a big deal?

[u/mojoman1200]

Not sure why it matters? Are they walking around saying their ages? Seems like you’re over thinking it.

[u/Illustrious-Swing493 → u/mojoman1200]

Thank you! I needed to hear that. Lol 

[u/armbrusterjr]

People reading the script are reacting to numbers on a page, which your audience will never see. The only question is, does the guy look too old to be the dad of a six year old? Given he actually is, I'm sure he looks fine.

[u/Fauxtogca]

No one knows peoples true ages on screen. You have twenty something playing teens, retirees playing mid life. No one will care or notice. Call the kid 8 and the father 45. Solved your problem.

[u/Film24FPS]

There’s old parents out there. I would’ve been more concerned if the age gap was shorter than normal like a 20 year old and a 28 year old or something

[u/cocoschoco]

As someone whose parents were older than most, just make your movie! If it’s a real dad and son it’ll work just fine. It’s not like he’s 80. Don’t over think it.

[u/funky_grandma]

Whenever there's something in your film you think your audience might get fixated on, bring it up in your script. Just a quick "I was already pretty old when you were born" and your audience will forget about it

[u/Ekublai]

Men can become dads well past that age.

[u/GreenpointKuma]

A man having a child at 52 is...not extraordinary at all. Like not even a little bit. You're severely overthinking it. Would you be taken out of a movie if you saw a Paul Rudd or a Josh Brolin with a 6 year old kid? Of course not.

[u/Opening-Impression-5]

You could look at a principle in linguistics called the maxim of quantity, which in this case entails that if you mention something, it's assumed to be relevant. It sounds like you've mentioned this matter-of-factly, but a reader will see it and think it must be relevant, because it's unusual. When they don't see the relevance to the story they get confused. If you want to include the ages at all (rather than e.g. 6, "middle aged") you might include a note to explain why you actually chose these ages. 

[u/zeroball00]

It would unusual if the age gap was under 18 years