With the right equipment and training, you could be the next George Lucas or Steven Spielberg. You'll start out with your own home productions - maybe weddings and birthday parties that you record and eventually make into a full-blown home movie, complete with effects and graphics. As you advance and your skills improve, you'll invest in better equipment and you'll be called upon to record other people's events. When you'ver reached that level, and you're charging a fee, then you're already a professional. What remains to be seen is the final product. Have you turned a boring seminar into a well-edited training video? Have you captured the best of a wedding and turned it into a Hollywood production, worthy of an Oscar? Well.... maybe not, but your clients will expect well-edited, TV-quality products. You'll need to arm yourself with the latest digital effects and graphics to give your final work that special "something special". Depending on your clients needs, you may have to depend on larger production houses to add state-of-the-art, computer generated effects.

It’s important that you decide – in advance – which services make sense for you. Don’t bite off more than you can chew. The beauty of this business is that you can usually locate freelance on-camera and behind-the-scenes talent at local universities and community theaters. Be sure to develop a list of actors and technical personnel who’ll be ready to assist you on short notice