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As much as I preach going with your existing skill set and doing the best you can, there are still some basic principles that are good to ingrain into your working style. It can be hard to unlearn once you've established a way to do things, so doing it properly from the start has benefits.

While it is possible to simply turn on the camcorder and push record and capture decent images, it's not the way to capture brilliant images. Don't get yourself in the habit of thinking the camcorder can do all the work. You will need to tell it exactly what to do. To capture stunning photography you can't rely on the automatic settings.

Focus Moves

One of the many things that camcorders can do automatically is focus the image. Unfortunately it doesn't know when to stop focusing. So in a shot that has a lot of movement you may find the focus changing drastically during a shot. You need to develop an eye for knowing when something is in focus and keeping control of precisely what is in focus.

Exposure Changes

A camcorder can also automatically adjust exposure for what it thinks will be a viewable image. One problem with this is that it constantly does this throughout a shot and you may have a moment of momentary brightness in your shot that will suddenly turn everything dark. It also leaves no room for creative use of under exposure or control over depth of field.

Color Changes

Along with compensating for focus and exposure your camcorder will also be determining what the color white should be and hence what color everything should be. It takes a reading of what it thinks the color temperature of the light in the shot is and changes settings accordingly to compensate. Problems can occur here when moving from one color of light to another with the desire to make it clear there is a change of venue. If you begin shooting in the sunlight with a white balance corrected for that light and want to move into an office setting with fluorescent lighting the camera would automatically compensate for the green glow instead of allowing it to color the scene and make it clear we are in an office.

Matching Footage

You are rarely able to shoot an entire scene in one continuous shot. In most cases you will have to edit together multiple shots to form a single scene. Doing this in conjunction with auto mode in your camcorder will make it more difficult. You need to be able to set an exposure level, which includes aperture and shutter speed. Any accidental deviation in exposure from shot to shot will give off an amateurish feel. Probably not something you want.

Good Cameras Don't Have Auto Mode

In your journey to be the best film director you can be, you will spend a significant amount of time with a substandard cameras. These types of cameras are made for consumers and offer all kinds of time and headache-saving features. Once you can afford to move to a camera that captures a better image, you'll find they don't operate the same way. Don't accustom yourself to point and shoot camera work because when you get a good camera it will probably be fully manual.

Just because technology makes something possible, doesn't mean it should happen. Don't look for the easiest way to do things, look for the best way. Take the time to learn your tools to the fullest of your ability and they will reward you by making the best looking film they can.