Know what you want from your talent and crew. Be open to suggestions but YOU are the director and you have the final decision.
Create a realistic schedule, everything is going to take longer than you think it will.
Be flexable, problems will crop up that will require fast, creative solutions. As Randy Thom (
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0858378/) says: "A craftsman knows how to avoid mistakes, an artist knows how to use them."
KISS - Keep it simple, stupid! ( I use a nastier word than "stupid" when applying this to myself!)
Most important, thoroughly pre-produce.
Have a complete list of your equipment requirements and decide how to use what you are able to acquire to your advantage.
Get together the best crew that you can and include them in the pre-production process. Tell them what you would like to accomplish and listen to their ideas.
Do the same with your talent.
When on the shoot make sure that everyone who is not busy has someplace comfortable to wait (it's November, so that means someplace warm to hang out if you're shooting outdoors, etc.). Keep them well fed. A happy crew works hard for you.
You don't have the time or budget for endless re-takes, set-ups, breakdowns, etc. so you must know exactly what you want to do and budget your time wisely. So rehearse, pre-produce, refine your script, rehearse, pre-produce, refine your script, rehearse, pre-produce, refine your script, rehearse, pre-produce, refine your script, rehearse, pre-produce, refine your script, rehearse, pre-produce, refine your script, rehearse, pre-produce, refine your script........
It's your vision (and, I guess, your grade) that's on the line. You are a general leading your troops into battle. If you think you are going to lose, you will lose. You must project the feeling to your troops that you are totally in control so that your troops have confidence in you, and the worse things get the more in control you have to appear, even if you are throwing a pounding-the-floor, raging, crying two-year-old hissy fit on the inside!
Oh, yeah; PAY ATTENTION TO YOUR LOCATION SOUND!!! Unless you are doing a silent film the dialog will be telling the story as much, if not more, than your visuals. Audiences are very forgiving of poor visuals as long as the dialog is clean and intelligable. "Sound is half the experience" - Steven Spielberg. You don't have the budget that he does, so you probably won't have the time, facility availability or talent experienced enough to do any ADR, so you are going to have to live with the sound that you capture on set. If the location sound is good you will be able to use audio post to enhance you project sonically instead of attempting to bury flaws.
Good luck and have fun; believe it or not the more you prepare and the harder you work the more fun you will have.
