First of all, we should talk about your script. It's horrible. No, really, it's great; it just needs a few changes. It's too depressing, for starts, and blah, blah, blah blah blah...

Have you ever heard anyone talk about your work like that? You shouldn't have to. Artistotle once said that the purpose in art is used to express the inward significance of things. If they tell you they don't like it, tell them they didn't understand it. The script is superficial, and can provide as little or as much of the backbone to the movie as you want.

Film is not the art, it's just a medium, like DV, MiniDV, 8, Hi8. It doesn't matter what you use - you're the artist. With the proper lights (depending on the situation), you can make video look almost as good as film. I'm not meticulous enough to take such specific care with each of my shots, but it happens from time to time.

Now, your concept and themes are all very important to know going into production, that way you can spruce up scenes as you go by making changes that I call 'filling the commentary'. Since the invention of DVD's, I've always dreamed of making director commentaries, because I like the idea of people listening to my voice for two hours. Anyway, it's usually good to have a little get-together with your cast and crew to discuss the moral or comic indications in the script. You'll get your crew excited this way, as well as yourself.

For equipment, all you really need is a camera. Super8 film is pretty expensive to experiment with, but when shooting on video, there's lots of room to fuck around. Shoot for hours and hours on a 20-dollar budget with a friend's digital camera, if you want.

If you want something more elaborate, they have places called Film Co-ops in large cities that rent fairly good equipment for a cheap price. I'm a member of a great film co-op in Toronto called Trinity Square Video. It offers workshops all the time on film making - the technical, business and artistic sides to it - and it's a pretty good place to develop.
I rent a typical Sennheiser 416 Shotgun and the occasional light on my average shoots, but I don't like making things complicated, so I try to do my best to keep the amount of wires to a minimum.

Anyway, once you've rented this equipment, it means you're paying for the equipment, whether or not your actors decide to show up. This is why it is essential that you get reliable people to agree to it. Just because you asked your drug dealer to be in your movie sometime in the next week doesn't mean he'll do it. Believe me, I've run into this type of situation. These actors don't need to be your friends (but sometimes they're the only people who'll do it, right?) because your friends will have less respect for you than a perfect stranger. It's true. Who made up your worst nickname? Your friends. Who made fun of you when Jessica wouldn't go to the dance with you? Your friends. But perfect strangers, they're a whole new ballpark. They don't know you or your faults.
Just think that one over before making your final casting decision.

For the actual act of production, there's not much anyone can tell you except for 'good luck.' Hire somebody to help you produce it, if you can. Sarah Weinberger was the producer for 'Symposium,' and the executive producer for both 'Uncle Sam' and 'The Portrait of an Artist,' and I cannot tell you how much of an impact she had on the success of the projects. A producer is someone who can act as a voice for you when you get too unintelligable. Production can be a lot of stress and, more often than not, things go wrong. The best thing to do as a director is troubleshoot. When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.
Be generous with time, because nothing works as planned. Don't crowd a day with 9 scenes, because that might not happen. Schedules don't always work out, because some actors you really need and don't want to fire might not want to work that day.
Remember to try and feed the actors.

"Stay out of jail," was Alfred Hitchcock's advice to young filmmakers, and, although you want to save money, you don't want to do anything that will get you disqualified from film festivals and contests. Copyright infringement is a big thing when it comes to displaying your work publicly, and that's why I've been using indie rock music from friends and local bands here in Toronto. Danny Monette, The Unseen Guest, is writing some music right now for my new picture, 'The Portrait of an Artist.' This is, of course, assuming you want music in it.

For post-production, I suggest the Media100 digital editing program. It's slightly complicated, but you can do almost anything with it. You can find editing suites at those Film-Coops I was talking about, or you can fork out the $1000 and buy it for your computer. Just make sure your computer's gonna work.

Well, there you go.