Before a movie can be a movie, it has to be a written story. Specifically, it has to be a written story, formatted according to script regulations that are designed to detail how the script will be adapted to a movie. The formatting style can be found online by using google and explanations for it's sometimes arbitrary rules can be researched likewise.

The fun part is the creative process that occurs while writing. All stories have four axises: Plot, Theme, Characters, and Style. That last one is even more important in movies than in written works.

The plot is the story itself, how it unfolds, what twists and turns it takes, how long or short it is. From the beginning to the end, everything that actually happens in the story is the plot. (Example: Harry met Sally; Harry screwed things up with Sally; Harry made a heart touching speech to win Sally over; Harry and Sally lived happily ever after.)

The theme is what the story says about life. Some stories have very deliberate themes, while others have ones that the writer might not have even intended. No matter what you do, even if you don't try to include a moral to your story, unless your script is utter nonsense, there will be some sort of theme. (Example: Anakin demonstrated how even the simplest temptations in life can snowball into an enslavement to evil.)

The characters are obviously the fictitious people making up your story. (Example: Neo, Morpheus, Trinity, Agent Smith...)

The style is how you want to make your story come across. It's very important in movies. A film could have a fantastic plot, a brilliant theme, and interesting characters, but if you tint everything green and throw in random camera angles then you could ruin everything (I'm looking at you Domino).

When you start, you may only have one of these four concepts in mind. Maybe you want to make an epic fantasy movie (plot) or a political satire (theme) or a story about best friends (characters) or you just know you want your movie to have a documentary feel to it (style). Whatever you start out with, you have to fill in the other four categories to round your movie out or else it will just be a gimmick, relying too heavily on one aspect of it. A movie too heavily relying on it's plot would come off as shallow. A movie too engrossed in its theme can be too preachy. Movie's focusing around characters can be just plain annoying (think 80's action hero movies with no purpose but to show you how cool the main character is). Movies too focused on style can be obnoxiously artsy on one hand, or be overly laden with special effects on the other.

The planning process is long and arduous. If it isn't, you're not doing it right. The hardest part about planning to film a movie is that you can feel like you don't have anything to do when really you have tons to do. You can think, "I have a camera, a microphone, people willing to be in it, and a place to shoot" and completely forget something very important like lighting, or whether your microphone will sound as good as you like in the location you're filming. What if the location has fluorescent lights? Did you think of that? Fluorescent lights emit a soft humming sound that people often don't notice but that microphones are darn good at picking up.

I recommend keeping a written checklist of everything you can possibly think of that needs to be done. And keep it handy so that you can add things to it as you thing of them.

Filming a movie is no where near as fun as it looks. You're trying to act, you are probably not in a professional studio and may be filming somewhere public with permission so people are starring at you, you might even be in costume. Lines are not exactly easy to memorize, but they are your key to making the filming process go smoothly. If you memorize your lines very very thoroughly, then you don't have to think about them while you're trying to act. They will just come out while you can focus on your inflection and tone. And you will be more confident and relaxed, so all those people at the park giving you dirty looks can cram it...you're an actor who's memorized his lines; you don't need to worry about the likes of them.

This is where all the magic happens. This is where you edit together all those different camera angles, and cut out the parts where people messed up. If you nailed your line but your partner blew hers in one take and then later, she got hers right but you screwed up yours, the editing process allows you to splice the two takes together, using the best footage and make it look like the both of you said your lines perfectly in one try.

In order to edit, the first thing you will need is editing software. I do not recomend Windows Movie Maker, but if that's all you've got, then it'll have to do. If you do not have a computer and are going to edit your film the old fashioned way, then you will need a pair of scissors and a whole lot of tape.

The second thing you'll need is an absurd amount of patients. And I mean heaping piles of it. You will need so much patience that you will have to be patient with your own sense of patience because sometimes it will break down and you will want to punch something. Think about it, you're done filming, everything went off with out a hitch, and yet your movie still isn't made. But it's not post production's fault that your movie can't be magically edited into a masterpiece as soon as the camera stops. You just have to grit your teeth and get through it, because the finished product is worth the many hours you will spend staring at your computer screen...hopefully.

How do I know so much about what can go wrong while making a movie? Well, here are links to the short documentaries a friend of mine put together about our failed attempts to make a Star Wars fanfilm called Perception.

The Not Making Of

The Not Making Of 2