Conceptualize your story and determine the movie format and movie genre you want to use. You can shoot either a documentary movie or a fictional narrative, which can fall under any genre like action, comedy, drama, horror or suspense.
Make a script from your initial movie concept, then break down the actions that you are going to shoot for each scheduled shooting day. Make a shotlist. The shotlist should separate each shot you will be filming into shot numbers so it will be easier for you to edit your footage.
Scout for your movie locations. After finalizing your locations, you may opt to make a storyboard to guide you on the framing of your shots. Others prefer to create a text version of the storyboard because of the amount of time and effort required to draw an actual storyboard.
Hire the actors and movie crew you need for the production. Depending on your arrangement for the services they will offer for your movie, you may simply provide them movie credits and free meals. Or you may have to pay them honoraria or talent fees. Although it is possible to make your movie on your own, seeking assistance from other people is always better. This way you can allot more time and effort in the creative aspect of filming instead of spending more time attending to all the logistic and technical concerns of the production.
Schedule your shoot depending on the availability of your cast and crew, your movie locations and the movie equipment you will borrow or rent.
Conduct pre-production meetings to brief your cast and crew about the movie you are making. Discuss all concerns that should be addressed prior to shooting the movie.
Prepare all your financial, technical and documentary requirements for the shoot. Your finances should be enough to cover any printing, communication, transportation, location permit and equipment rental fees. If you are paying your cast and crew, make sure you have enough budget for this as well. Your technical equipment should include the camera and the storage device it needs to capture video footage, tripod and other camera accessories you have access to. These accessories may include additional camera lenses and batteries and lens filters.
If you have budget for lighting and grip equipment, you may take advantage of these instead of settling with available or natural light and camera movements that only use a tripod and handheld camera movements. You can also capture better quality live sound when shooting if you use an external microphone instead of the camera's built-in mic. However, some low-end consumer cameras don't have audio-in ports that can be used for attaching an external microphone.
Start shooting the movie. Depending on your pre-production plans, you may shoot all the footage you need for a single day, within a few weeks or even within a few months. Before the start of every take, don't forget to record the shot number, tape or roll number and take number of each shot on a clapperboard or any piece of paper that can substitute for it. Log each shot on a dope sheet, a document where you record the information shown on the clapperboard. This will assist you when editing the movie.
Start editing your movie using a video-editing software. The first stage of the editing process requires gathering all audio and video materials. Then assemble the shots you intend to use for the final movie. Polish you video edit until you get the right timing and pacing for each shot. Use the "Video Monitor" of your video-editing program to play your edited video.
Finalize your edited movie by incorporating any special effects in your video and the rest of its sound and music requirements. Export the rendered video material using your preferred video file format. Popular formats include MP4, MOV, AVI and WMV used in burning DVD movies and making copies of the movie for multimedia devices and media-playing programs.