Indie Audio Mix: Fairlight + Freesound for Pro Results?

Hey everyone,

Grace Nakamura here. I'm a casting director, but I'm trying my hand at producing a short film, a passion project shot on an ALEXA Mini with an MKH 416 mic. We captured decent audio on set, but I'm realizing the post-production sound mix is where things can really fall apart.

We don't have a big budget for a dedicated sound engineer. I've been experimenting with DaVinci Resolve's Fairlight page for dialogue editing and some basic EQ, and I've started poking around Freesound.org for ambient sounds and foley. It feels like there's a lot of potential, but I'm definitely in over my head when it comes to getting a truly 'professional' sounding mix.

For those of you who've successfully navigated this, how can an indie filmmaker truly leverage free tools like Fairlight and Freesound.org to achieve a professional-sounding mix without a large budget? What are the key techniques or workflows I should be focusing on?