Do you get allured by the glitz and glamour of some of the movie worlds hottest film festivals? If you do then you are not unlike so many other filmmakers who decided that the best place to display their vision and their dream is at a film festival. You might be at home right now thinking about doing the same thing. You might have the script in mind that will really say something about you and your view on the world. You might have something to share and hope that it will be you receiving awards and making movie industry contacts. But if you are going to imagine your name in lights then you need to be smart enough to know the score and what you need to make it into the big film festivals.

The first thing that matters and the only thing that should really matter at any time is the story. You know you won’t have the budget you will want to work with special effects and these action packed storylines. You know that the most important part of the movie you want to make is to have meaningful connections and relationships between characters. Make your story about that and everything else will fall into place.

The next most important thing is the sound. You can have all the great cinematic shots that you have ever dreamed of. You can have cameras coming from all over the shot and you have the best story line imaginable but if no one ever hears the dialogue the movie then becomes an audition reel. You need to make sure that if you can only afford to pay for one thing then pay for the right sound person. Without that your movie will fail. There is no getting around it. This should be all that matters to your film. Sound and story.