Sure Steven Spielberg has turned 'only' 62 this week, but the guy has been dabbling in film-making for 50-years.

It's obviously been an incredible career, but what's also incredible is having a look back at where it all started for the man regarded as one of the most influential directors of all-time.

There's a few videos on youtube that show the very, very early work of Steven Allan Spielberg - so early he was just starting out in high school, and stilll many years away from creating one of the scariest film characters ever, Jaws.

Fourteen years in fact before his breakthrough hit about the killer shark and the creepy music, and a full decade before his first claim to fame Duel, was Escape from Nowhere (1961).



Just into his teens he made this 40-minute film about soldiers in the Second World War. He used other kids as the cast, including his sister Anne, and shot it using an 8mm camera near his home in Arizona ...



Of course, Spielberg would go on and make three classic WWII movies - the under-rated Empire of the Sun (1988) and Academy Award-winners Schindler's List (1992) and Saving Private Ryan (1998). The latter certainly has shades of Escape from Nowhere ...



Next up for young Spielberg was his first sci-fi epic, the 140-minute Firelight (1964) about a town that comes under attack from aliens. He premiered this movie at Phoenix Little Theatre (now Phoenix Theatre) in Phoenix, Arizona at the age of 18.



The film was of course the forebearer for a host of alien-related movies that now include (spoiler) Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008), as well as War of the Worlds (2005), ET (1982) and Close Encounters (1977) ...





Next came Amblin' (1968) about two lonely - and possibly mute as there was no dialogue - hitchhikers who become friends. It's been described as pro-marijuana hippie flick ...



Love stories are not something Spielberg has bothered with much through his career, with only really Always (1989) and The Terminal (2004) fitting into that category - and probably for the best ...



Interesting to note though (according to wikipedia) after Sidney Sheinberg, then the vice-president of production for Universal's TV arm, saw Amblin', Spielberg became the youngest director ever to be signed to a long-term deal with a major Hollywood studio.

He dropped out of Long Beach State in 1969 to take the television director contract at Universal Studios and began his career as a professional director.

The rest is history.