The biggest tip would be: plan everything as well as you can beforehand. Go through the script and make it as good as you can, check the locations so you know what problems you're going to have (e.g. if there's a loud road nearby you need to think about how you can record decent sound), figure out which shots you want to get, and which shots you absolutely have to get to make the movie (that way if you're running low on time you can drop some shots and make sure you have enough to get a complete movie anyway). Basically think about what might go wrong and have a plan to deal with it... that way when things do go wrong it's not a big problem.

Also, try to get hold of a decent microphone for recording the sound: most camcorders produce a pretty good picture these days, but most have pretty lousy internal microphones.

don't do the VCR thing. i did the VCR thing when i was in high school. tsk tsk... not a good idea. if you're absolutely, positively cornered, just do linear editing on the camera. (ie. rewind over shots you don't like and shoot them again)

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Write a great screenplay. By great a mean interesting, and doable. Don't write in locations you can't get, or effects you can't do (burning building, tanks). Keep the number of actors down to a minimum so it's controllable. Keep the number of characters down as well (not the same thing as number of actors, see Python, Monty).

Watch Clerks. Pretty much nothing happens. It's all dialogue and it's intersting because it's really good dialogue. That's your key.

RJSchwarz
San Diego, CA