There's a lot of creative people on here, and I'd just like some input.

A group of friends and I are in the middle of shooting our own short movie. My best friend has previously been involved in three short films, all done by the same person. The rest of us working on my movie were all involved (one way or another) on the previous film done by said individual. Let's just say the results were horrid, and we decided to show this guy up, and, in general just have fun with it.

So... has anyone else ever made a serious independent film? I'm not talkin' something you shot on an ancient vhs video camera, but, y'know, a quality production with the intention of sending to film fests, etc.? Any advice on commercial DVD replication?

Obviously, we're tryin' to go cheap here.

Share your experiences, please.