[Dave Colangelo]

I'm no professional but I have filmed quite a bit in my time. I cant say my stuff is perfect but its not bad so I will offer some advice here.

1) Equipment,
The truth of the matter is that on some level your video will only ever be as good as your equipment. I'm not saying that to get professional results you need to spend a small fortune, but quality equipment will go a long way to getting good results. I am a big fan of apples Final Cut Pro, and use it for all my editing. I have been shooting a lot of HD video with cannon base model SLR cameras with great success recently. I use an Audio Technica shotgun microphone to capture my audio and usually capture it on a separate device and sink it later. All of this equipment can be had for a reasonable sum of money and can be had at most local electronic retailers. My first bit of advice, if you want good video, start with good equipment.

2) Lighting,
This is often overlooked and a truly tough thing to master. I have found the more the better in this case. It is always easier to make a shot look dark in post production than it is to make a shot look light. I have had great successes using regular old work lights from home dept. When shooting outside I prefer sunny clear days.

3) Mounting,
Generally holding a camera will never look that good, a good tripod, mono pod, chassis mount of other mounting gear will go a long way in making your shots look good. Granted the pro's have access to things like helicopters and trucks with full boom arms on them. You can go quite a bit with a good tri pod and a friends convertible.

4) Color Correction
Forget those fancy transitions, digital effects and other gimmicks. Spend your time mastering color correction and your video will look better than it ever has.

5) Think Before You Shoot
Plan out your video in advance. Plan it out frame by frame, line by line, cut by cut. The better you plan the better you will know what to do with the footage later.

6) Footage vs Production
You should have exponential more footage than production length video. Always leave your camera rolling as you never know what may happen.

Regards
Dave