1. When shooting a blue/green screen or a scene that you'll be rotoscoping out the background, put the camera on a tripod and don't dolly or pan it. This causes headaches of motion tracking later on. Yes you can do it in post, but try to keep it on the set.
2. If you're a student, and you want to shoot a location, tell them that it's a student film. If you can get a teacher to "advise" you, then even better as you have some credibility to your story. There are always plenty of public places, no matter where you live. Even if you're not a student and can fake it then do it. Once you are a "professional", you pay professional prices.
3. Pre-production is key. So you have a script, so you've got a camera. You're ready to shoot? Not quite. You want to have every single shot planned out before you get to the set, especially if the set is somewhere that you have a limited time on.
4. Accurately log all footage shot. This will help you in post production. Note also any FX that will need to occur. If you have someone besides you doing FX, try to have that person on set when you shoot it to make sure everything for the effect in post will work.
5. Be inventive. The waterfalls on the Naboo flyovers were salt being poured off of a ledge and then tweaked in CG.
6. Sound is half your movie. Treat it as such. Premiere has up to 99 audio tracks available. You will more than likely use 10 of them. Try to get a clear clean voice sound for any dialogue and add all sound effects in post. For on set, if you can get a boom and a nice shotgun mike from someone and plug them into the camera, do so. It will really help getting a mike over top of someone's head as opposed to 10 feet away.
7. Craft service/catering (yes, raiding the fridge counts) is key. Especially when people work for free. Make lots of little sandwiches and buy sodas at one of those price club things (or get generic). A hungry cast/crew = a non-working cast/crew.
8. Talk to your local TV station. We were able to use a green screen for a few weekends at a local station because we asked. They might help, they might not. The worst thing that they can say? "Nahhh, sorry".
AND REMEMBER--
A convincing performance and inventive camera work are better than the best equipment. The story is key. if your story sucks, don't shoot it ;) fix it first. Remember, you have a whole galaxy that hasn't been created. It's your world, you can change it.
