Every film had a beginning. Whether it was first compiled by someone with a movie camera, camcorder or digital camera, the idea for the screenplay was the first step towards a completed movie. Sometimes, the producer of a movie is also the writer of the screenplay and the creator of the characters. Having characters in a film isn’t always necessary to make a movie. It all depends what the movie is about. For instance, a movie about nature may have just a narrator and various scenes shot at different angles.

A movie about animals may be filmed at a sanctuary for wild animals or even at a neighborhood park where squirrels or other small animals live and routinely go about in search of food while interacting with the other animals. A two person movie might consist of a couple on a first date that goes comically wrong. With a bit of imagination, the right movie plot will come to mind. The best movies will be about the things that the filmmaker knows the most about or has done the most accurate research about.

Many completed films are done by what would be called amateurs or someone who just wanted to give filmmaking a try. If the film is good, it can be presented to a film festival for showing. Some of the most accomplished movies had their beginnings as a very inexpensively made film. Just because it didn’t cost much to make the movie, doesn’t mean that the movie can’t make money and end up a very lucrative investment. With movie making software, it’s rather easy to incorporate words on the movie screen, whether it is rolling script or stationary words. The title of the movie and the names of the movie’s producers, as well as the names of the actors are shown at the beginning of the movie. The end of the movie lists the actors again, plus the names of all who were involved with making the movie and the copyright credits.

If a filmmaker can get that far, it’s only a little bit further to get the movie into the media. IMBd, an Amazon company, has free pages for filmmakers to prepare the movie to be distributed via several types of media vehicles, the main one being via the internet with downloads from Amazon’s company, CreateSpace. The link site, Withoutabox, specifically for indie movie makers, enables the filmmaker to submit the movie to selected film festivals. Copying relevant portions of the movie to make a short trailer as well as creating a graphic picture for the movie renders the film ready for showing. There is also a PR and Press Kit section to let people who browse IMBd know about the new movie. Include a favorite movie review on the PR page. A good start with reviews for your movie includes possibly setting the tone for future movie reviews.

Even if your movie is only five minutes in duration, a filmmaker can still submit the movie to film festivals that accept five minute movies. Several of these film festivals carry a six figure prize for the movie chosen as the best. The duration of the film is a bit flexible, as the requirement is for no more than 7 minutes, yet last year’s winner entered a film of 20 minutes duration. It is a good movie and is perhaps the form by which all other indie movies are measured at The Doorpost. There are 7 possible topics for The Doorpost Film Festival: authenticity, sacrifice, identity, community, commitment, truth, hope.

It’s a good idea to attend some of the film festivals, especially the ones that are showing your movie. Start and keep a blog about the progress of your movie, in addition to your professional IMBd pages. You will see the reaction of your audience and gauge as to how you would change or improve your next movie.