Post this in Shop Talk: Directors. You'll get a lot more traffic on it in there.
I'd say start with writing what you feel is a really good script. Hone, refine, craft that script until it's to your liking. Everything else stems from there.
Then cast the roles, the characters properly, with the best people, actors, you can find, that you see in your imagination as being perfect for the characters you create in your imagination in your script, and are willing to work for free, for food, for a demo reel, for whatever you can pay them. If your friends aren't right or available, do an open casting call at your local high school or the nearest university. Usually you can find a lot of young, hungry, starving performers there who will work in exchange for a DVD (demo reel) of the finished film, or at least, their moments IN the film. Actors need samples to line up other paying gigs.
Any camera will work. The more expensive, snazzy ones have bigger imaging chips and more manual controls, which, yes, are mandatory in terms of controlling the look of the image. Yes, you do need to be cognizant of lighting.
Best thing to do, if you have no, nada, zero, camera experience, is to hire a DP (Director of Photography or Cinematographer). It'll be the very best money you could spend, in terms of getting the look you want. And, before you start shooting, know and be able to verbally articulate, describe, say, to the DP, the look you want! Doesn't have to be a highly technical explanation, but it does have to be visually descriptive. See samples of the DP's previous work, so that you'll know the DP can deliver, based on something you've seen of the DP's earlier work, and so that you can say "make it look like THAT (the previous sample)". Will save a lot of long dialogue between you and the DP, and create a kind of short-hand, on the actual shoot days. Be organized prior to the shoot (schedule, storyboard, draw the whole script in a comic strip) so that things run smoothly and quickly during the shoot days.
Have a rather large (at least 40") output monitor, so you can see exactly what the DP sees, and make adjustments, if necessary, right there. Don't wait to "fix it in post".
Get yourself a sound operator, or buy the best quality mic you can afford, preferrably with an XLR output, which can then be connected to the camera's XLR input. Monitor the audio yourself if you can't afford an operator. Listen for hiss (audio level too low) or distortion (audio level too high). You'll probably be too busy LOOKING at the performances to listen to audio, which is why hiring a sound operator is best.
Stay on schedule and on budget as far as how long you told your DP and actors it was going to take. Easier said than done, of course, and a lot of this, of course, will only be learned through the baptism of fire, experience, but, if you do table readings and rehearse with your actors days before you start shooting, days before the DP, crew and all the equipment is there, and if you storyboarded and scheduled the thing correctly (shoot out of sequence, to milk all the shots needed at one location before moving to the next location), you'll move much more quickly on the actual shoot days.
Don't waste a lot of takes on the wide, master or two-shot. Get the first few lines "in the can" on the wide shot, then move right to closeups. I've found that is the best way to not exhaust your actors and crew.
Know your actors, and how many takes each actor requires get their performance right. This will be learned during the table reading. Some actors nail their performance, in terms of energy, emotion, reading the line with proper diction and tonality, etc., on the first take, others take 10 or more takes just to get warmed up. Knowing this, you'll first shoot the actor who nails their performance on the first take, then shoot the actor who takes 10 or more takes just to get warmed up (!).
Any editing program that can handle the HD codec your DP shoots will work. HD codecs should be part of the discussion you'll have with your DP. HD codecs will be listed in your editing program under "capture settings" or something of the sort.
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