The financial crisis cost Taylor Guterson his job, but it may have opened up a new path for the Bainbridge Island native — filmmaker.

Guterson’s movie, “Old Goats,” will open at Galaxy Theatres in Gig Harbor on Friday, the latest stop on a tour that’s taken the independent film, produced for less than $5,000, all over the country.
Guterson was working as a videographer at Washington Mutual in Seattle in 2008, and the collapse of the financial market led to the loss of his job at the bank, which also folded.

“I really didn’t have anything to do, and it was during that period in time when the whole economy was crashing and jobs were nowhere, and it was just like, ‘Well, the world’s falling apart,’ ” Guterson said. “I’d always wanted to make a movie, and this was the time to do it.”

He used his time on severance pay to finish a script he’d already been working on, a loose, somewhat improvised take on the lives and antics of three retired men.

Guterson said the idea for the film came about partly out of practicality, as elderly actors had open schedules and would work for free. But he was also interested in telling a story about something outside his own experience as a 30-something young professional.

“I wanted to visualize what it would be like to be in a different stage in life,” Guterson said. “That was more appealing to me than a story about a character my age dealing with the sort of relationship problems or career problems that make up most independent movies, I would say, nowadays.”

Guterson hopes his film appeals to an older audience that might not see their stories reflected in many movies. He said the way the film was produced also could make it appealing for other aspiring filmmakers.

Guterson’s credited as the writer, director, producer, editor and cinematographer of “Old Goats,” and his producing partner, Johnathan Boyer, was the only other person involved in the production. The actors who played the three main characters, Bob Burkholder, Britt Crossley and David VanderWal, used their real names and contributed much of their own dialogue.

“It’s such a different way of making a movie,” Guterson said. “There’s so many people trying to make movies now, and I really think that this is an example that really shows what you can do if you set your mind to it.”

Now he’ll bring his movies for at least one week of screenings in Gig Harbor, where his brother, Travis, lives and works as the brewmaster at 7 Seas Brewing.

The Gutersons grew up on Bainbridge, where most of “Old Goats” was filmed. Guterson said he hopes local viewers will enjoy seeing the Northwest on the big screen.

“I love the fact that it’s a local movie,” he said. “You’ll get to see a movie that was made in your own backyard.”

But he added that, while people tell him his movie reflects life in the Northwest, he didn’t set out intentionally to make a “Northwest” movie.

“It’s authentically Northwest,” Guterson said. “I’m just not thinking about ‘being Northwest’ while I’m making it.”

“Old Goats” has mostly screened in Washington and Oregon so far, although it’s also showed at festivals and theatres as far away as Boca Raton, Fla. The film won a “best of the fest” selection at the 2011 Seattle International Film Festival and the 2012 Palm Springs International Film Festival in California.

Guterson is grateful that his first film has found such a wide audience.

“People have been able to see it for what it is and embrace it, because it is a low-budget work,” he said. “And there have been a lot of people who’ve been able to kind of look past that and find something meaningful in it.”