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Another topic of discussion: is it better to try and make something commerical and profitable that will get you into the business, or should you make something truer to your heart? ideally, you would combine the two.

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you should do something truer to your heart. Since we're talking like you'd be shooting an independent movie you should go into it knowing that:
1. you should plan on not making any money.
2. making a movie is really really hard.
Assuming you go the indie route you need money. if you believe filmmaking and finance, by the woman who got the blair witch project financed, then you're looking at somewhere between 30-50% of the profits of the film. assume closer to 30 for being a first time person. Now once your movie is done you need a distribution deal. Let's say it cost 5 million to make your movie. Now you hope that the distribution company that decides to buy your movie pays you more then this. Let's say they give you 5 million. so your investors have recouped their capital but you still haven't made any money. In buying distribution rights assume that they will cover prints/ads costs in return for 1/3 of the movies profits (post theatrical's cut) now figure the theater gets ~half (assuming it isn't a hit the first weekend it's released) as I'm sure you can see now, you're not left with much, except for whatever you decided to pay yourself in the initial budget. but obviously whatever you pay yourself is more money you need to raise, which makes getting the movie financed more difficult. This was longer then intended but I hope it proves why you should do something you love.