Making movies

Your movie’s strengths are your script and your actors

By KO’D
Posted July 11, 2026

One important thought: If your independent movie succeeds, it will be on the strengths of the script and the performances, in that order.

We can’t compete with Hollywood for big stars, mind-stunning special effects, multiple exotic locations, huyge action set-pieces, etc. But we can absolutely write a script as good as anything that ever won an Oscar. As Steven Spielberg said, “It all begins with the word.” Too many creators equate "movie-making" with "principal photography"; they’re in so much of a hurry to shoot-shoot-shoot that they neglect to give their script another pass. Especially if you’re a newbie, your script *always* needs another pass.

Once you have your script as good as you can make it, you need to cast the best actors you can find. Not your friends. It’s a stereotype of student shorts that the middle-management businessthingie is played by a 20-year-old. Remember that it’s much easier to find girls than to find boys (of any age) who want to act.

Your first indie movie is not your big break! You are not going to become rich and famous from this. You are, in greatest probability, not going to make back your budget; fewer than two percent of all movies make do that. You might dream that some powerful Hollywood insider will see your movie and love it and write you a blank cheque for the rest of your career, but that is not going to happen. That is a dream. Most indie movies are never completed; of those that are, most are never distributed beyond the cast and crew’s friend and family. There are tens of thousands of features on YouTube stuck at 39 views after 11 years. (And, let’s face it, your first movie is going to be horrible. Professional creators and critics (and audiences) might find it "Pretty good, considering.")

So don’t bank on becoming that one freak viral hit — a fate which is beyond your control. Being a creator is about building a body of work. It’s a marathon, not a sprint.

Kill your dreams, and make a plan!