Outline your idea and develop a script. The strength of the story and its characters can make or break a movie, regardless of the budget size. You don't need fancy equipment or special effects to make a good movie. Write your story and make it tight and solid, even if it takes several revisions.
Write out your budget. You may know in your head what you have to spend but having it written out in front of you presents the parameters of the film-making process in concrete terms. List every possible expense you can think of and add it up to make sure it fits within your budget.
Familiarize yourself with the video camera. If you are a beginner, you don't need anything fancy. A home video camera will suffice as long as you have manual iris and white balance functions. Examine the type of mic input it has. If it is a consumer camera, it will most likely have a 1/8" mini jack connection. If it is a higher level prosumer camera, it may have an XLR input, in which case you do not need the XLR to 1/8" mini jack adapter.
Test the camera with your microphone. Fasten the microphone to the boom pole and connect the XLR cable from the mic to the camera. Do some test recordings with friends or family by recording on the camera while you hold the microphone above them while they speak. For best results, aim the microphone directly towards the mouth of the person speaking.
Cast and crew your movie. Call up friends and family who are willing to help run equipment or act in your film. An alternate resource could be a local university acting drama class or local theaters. Many times, you will find actors just looking for exposure who would be willing to take part in your film.
Write a schedule for your film. You don't want to show up on set with just a script and a general idea what you want to shoot. Production day is not the appropriate time to "wing it." Write a schedule covering each shot you need to get; as a general rule, if you think a shot will take a certain amount of time, double it. Things are always bound to go wrong somewhere during a shoot.
Find locations that are appropriate to your story. Don't assume that the background does not matter. Find friends or relatives, or local business owners who may be willing to let you shoot on their property. If they do, be courteous and do not disrupt their business. If you are filming at a restaurant, return the favor by having your cast and crew dine there.
Begin filming your movie. Have your crew arrive an hour or two before your cast to give you ample time to set up. Make sure that you have plenty of light and that you get a clean image in the camera. If you are having trouble accessing lights, you may want to consider shooting outside. The sun is the strongest source of light you will get and it's free.
Watch back all of your raw footage and take notes. Take the time to find out which takes contribute to the story. Watch everything so that you can confirm all of your shots came out clean, and that your audio is clear. It's better to find out now you need to reshoot something than later in the process.
Connect your camera to the computer and use your video editing application to capture all of the footage to the hard drive. Most computers come with included software such as Windows Movie Maker or iMovie, however if you have a little bit of money to spend you may want to consider a more robust package such as Avid Media Composer, Adobe Premiere or Final Cut Pro.
Cut your footage together into a rough cut. Don't worry about titles, music or special effects yet. Keep the edits loose and get all of your scenes in sequential order; make sure they tell a story that makes sense. Afterwards you can begin to trim and tighten your shots until you have a compact, fluid story.
Add your music and sound effects to your movie. Often you will find that the music helps set the movie pacing and you may want to go back and adjust some of your edit to make the blending smooth and natural. Adjust the dialogue levels so that everything is even and clear.
Apply any titles, color filters or special effects to complete the film. Color correct all of your shots; you want everything to look consistent. Watch the movie all the way through a few times, and perhaps include someone else for some feedback.
Make any final tweaks, then upload your movie to the web, burn it to a DVD, or export it to a hard drive.