Making high quality movies from the comfort of your own home has now become a reality. As recently as ten years ago, home made movies looked literally "home made". With the amazing advances in technology, movie making software is now a readily affordable option for us all. Recent years have seen a world wide explosion of amateur movie makers. Some of these movies made by these "amateurs" have even gone on to become box office hits (Blair Witch Project).

The affordable availability of advanced and easy to use movie software is no longer the exclusive domain of the rich mega studios. This advance in this kind of software, coupled with high internet speeds and powerful personal computer technology make it easy to create, edit and upload good quality films on the net for the world to see.

It seems the hardest decision for the home movie maker is choosing the most appropriate movie making software. There are a vast number of factors to consider and your own requirements, goals and resources are the best place to start. Do you simply want to video a relative's birthday party, or are you looking for software that will help you make the next home made box office smash?

A growing number of serious amateur film makers are interested in advanced movie making software. More often than not, this kind of software used to be prohibitively priced, but as with all technology we have seen prices tumbling to the point that a powerful software package is within the reach of all of us. Alternatively there are a plethora of "free" movie making software packages that don't seem to do much other than clog up your hard drive.

So, what do you do? You have the script and you're ready to go, but what software package do you use? The most effective way of choosing the right movie making software is start with a simple checklist. What is it that you are trying to achieve? What level of technical experience do you posses, both in filmmaking and computer skills? What technical and creative elements do you need to get your movie made? These are simple questions that when answered will give you an excellent check list to use in your search for the ideal movie making software.

A prudent approach that is recommended is to prepare your checklist and search for trial, or evaluation copies of movie making software. Do a simple search engine search and you will be surprised by the number of options that are presented to you. Download several different packages and experiment to see if the software matches your needs and expectations.

Once you have test run the software, then you are in an ideal position to purchase the right movie making package for your needs. Even if the first package is not the ultimate movie making software package that you use, it will give you invaluable experience at using this kind of software. You can hone your skills and if needs be, upgrade to a more powerful package at a later stage, as needs and resources allow. The beauty of today's movie making software packages is that they are very similar in terms of operation. So mastering one package will stand you in good stead if you need to move onto to another.