Amateurs are people who do filmmaking purely for their own entertainment or for the purposes of learning the filmmaking process. Amateurs can be high school students, film students, or anyone else who makes films for fun.

The films are typically made on low or no budget, though this is entirely dependent on how much the filmmakers are willing to spend on their hobby. Amateur films are often made with equipment and media that are considered low quality compared with their commercial film and broadcast equivalents -- for example, 8mm film and home camcorders. However, in some cases amateurs use commercial equipment that they have obtained used, or have rented. Some of the digital formats can be low budget yet quite high quality.