For the quality it offers, Adobe After Effects is a great value for money. It is a very high end programme that can stay with you for a long time, and if you happen to be a student you can buy after effects using an educational discount for a very good price.

However, as you say some budgets are very little to zero, and for those people there are alternatives. A programme called ALAMDV gets used by a few people, and this can quickly create standard effects like lightsabres (or Laserswords as they call them), blasters, lightning effects etc. The actual quality of the results isn't as good as After Effects can produce, but it is a starting point. The plus points are that it is very easy to learn and begin using, and that it is very cheap; the cons are that the quality isn't that good, but certainly for the micro-budget film-maker it is worth a long hard look.

For Dark Skies I also used a free 3D application called Strata which was pretty good, and served me well. The downsides of it where that it took a long time for the shots to render, and controlling the programme was pretty tricky, but considering the price it was very impressive stuff. The programme is now called Strata 3D Base.

If you own a PC you might try to track down a couple of programmes. One is called Axogon (which is available at www.blenderwars.com) and is free. This can create things like lightsabres, and (if you are clever) can also key out greenscreen backgrounds. The other programme does require some money and is called Media Studio Pro (again PC only) which is a pretty good all around editing/effects programme for those on a budget. I've never actually used it, but have seen some pretty good results from people that have, so it is worth a definite look. You can sometimes find this software bundled along with a capture card which can make the purchase price a lot more reasonable.

But if you are serious about these type of films, and want to create a lot of effects, then save up, get a loan, etc and go for after effects. It is a class above these cheaper programmes. I don't think I could have made either film without it.

Also I would recommend paying the extra to upgrade to Quicktime Pro. There are so many things it can do and I use the features all of the time. Apart from anything else it is a very good movie compressor, something that you are gong to have to tackle if you want to get a film online.

My absolute favourite is called the dvmatte keyer. It is available from http://www.dvgarage.com and is part of the COMPOSITE toolkit. The dvkeyer is an incredible keyer that is so much more effective than the standard (colour) keyer in after effects. It managed to key out stuff that I had no right to expect to work. For exaple, some of my greenscreens here were so poorly lit, with joins and shadows everywhere. The dvmatte keyer took care of them, and it is my all-time favourite plug in. Plus it is WAY cheaper than similar plug-ins like Ultimatte and Primatte. I couldn't live without it now.

This is a tricky one, if this person has no graphics training at all, I would probably suggest trying to hook up with someone that does. However, without the help of anyone else, they could do what I did, and start visiting an online forum where like minded people talk about their movies, and movie problems. http://www.theforce.net/theater has a very lively forum where I picked up a huge amount of information along the way. If I ever got stuck, I would post a question and someone, somewhere in the world knew the answer and could help me. Plus due to it's interactive nature, it's more fun that learning from a book. Obviously the manuals are always a good place to start with any programme to.

I would definately recommend doing a few effects tests before shooting your 'feature film' just so you know what you can and can't achieve, and what shortcuts you can take. Dark Skies had very few physical props throughout. One chair, two lightsabres, one bag, and one holographic projector. The rest was all put in digitally, becuase I had practiced and knew what I could get away with NOT shooting. This saved me hundred of pounds in potential set construction/props etc.

Make sure you know what you are trying to acheive before getting on set, and ideally storyboard the sequence before hand, so you know what you are doing, what effects you are going to use, and how you are going to pull them off. It's obviously hopeless to shoot everything and then wonder how you are going to create the effects, becuase then it's to late. Learn how to do the basics, and then apply that knowledge on your shoot.

I would also say for your first effects film, keep it as simple as you can. You aren't going to make Attack of the Clones first time around, so don't write a script that calls for fifty thousand troops to march over the hill and fight, chances are you will end up having to rewrite if you do that. Test your skills, find out what you can do and what you can't and then tailor your story accordingly.

I learnt a lot from making Dark Skies, especially when using greenscreen. One thing was to make sure your camera is rock solid on that tripod. As you get more experienced you can begin moving the camera around, but to begin with I would recommend keeping the camera static when applying effects. So that means no dollies, no pans, no zooms etc. Effects for beginners are hard, effects plus motion tracking for beginners are even harder. Keep it simple and you have more chance of succees.

As far as lighting goes, there are a couple of things to bear in mind. Firstly, don't overlight your greenscreen. For my first effects tests I threw every light I had at the screen, and that was the worst thing to do, it made keying a nightmare, apart from anything else the green flared all over the actors making keying a nightmare. I learned eventually to 'underlight' the greenscreen, so it was about one stop duller than the subject. Obviously try to avoid shadows and joins in the background where pratical, and make sure the light that hits the screen is as even as possible. The best results I actually acheived where when I took the greenscreen outside and filmed on an overcast day just using the ambient light. That greenscreen was so nicely lit, and so flat it made keying a dream.

The last thing as I said before is make sure you storyboard the entire effects sequence before hand. It's really tricky for everyone concerned otherwise (from director to actors) if you don't. It's so easy to even make basic mistakes when you are talking to a blank wall and you have a greenscreen behind you, so shoot the movie first on paper. Then take those storyboards onto your set and film the results.

I'd probably look for the same things most people would. An entertaining film, with a good story. I'd vote for the film that held my interest throughout.

Sure I would be looking at things in a slightly different way to some of that audience, but if it's a lousy movie a few fancy effects aren't going to get my vote. It's always nice to see something new/exciting and different, but not if it's executed poorly. I ditched a couple of scenes becuase technically the effects where well below the standard of the rest, and that would have stopped the audience, rather than enhanced the story.

So really I would like to think that the 'digital specialfx' audience would vote for the most entertaining film. Hopefully by using special effects, you can make your film more enertaining, if the effects just get in the way of the storytelling, or slow the movie down, just don't use them.