Have you ever planned of joining a film festival, a film-making contest or just simply express your natural cinematographic talent? With the necessary tools and today's technology, it's very attainable. Whether it is a highly commercialized film with a sky-high budget or an indie film with minimal budget, it's always achievable.



However, film-making is not as simple as it looks. Although you may have all the tools you need, you cannot do a film on your own. You cannot be the writer, director, cameraman, make-up artist and actor all in one. There is a need for you to search for your team of film-makers, because film-making is not a one-man show. Once you have found your crew, or you are part of a crew, you can start working.

One of the things you and your group need to think about is how to produce the film. Who is going to pay for the expenses? You can invest some money and produce the film yourselves, or you can check for independent producers. Producers would help launch a film if they see that it has a lot of potential. You should also consider whether or not you would want to enter a film festival or not. Most young film-makers join film festivals to be immediately recognized.

When making a film, you cannot just place actors in front of the camera and ask them to act. Of course there should be a concept, a story line and a script, not unless you are making a documentary where everything is natural and nothing is scripted. Filmmakers ought to know the type of movie they are planning to make. Is it a horror film, a chick flick, a drama anthology or a suspense-thriller? There are a lot of options to choose from. Generally, the movie writer and scriptwriter have this task.

Once your script is complete, you have to distribute the character portrayals of your actors. Movies are unlike stage productions where a person can take multiple roles; here you have to assign only one role per individual, lest you want to confuse your viewers. Studying, memorizing and internalizing the script are one of the specialties and responsibilities of the actors.

Next thing you need to do is hire a crew who will set-up your location. But if you are working on a small budget, you can fix the place with the help of your group. Even if you are a novice film-maker working on a meager budget, this should not be an obstacle for you. After all, this is just the beginning.

Once everything is prepared and you have your equipment, you can start filming your movie. The best thing about recent digital technology is that filmmakers do not use film rolls, hence it doesn't matter how many takes you make to perfect a scene, because digital memory is easily attainable. After all the shoots, you then have to have your film edited. The director must be involved in the editing so that the editor would know which scenes should be included and which should not.

Once everything is complete, you can then send your movie to independent producers or you can send it as your entry for the film festival that you want to join.