The camera
You know how to use the video camera.
Practice the use in a pretend shoot.
The main battery is fully charged and you have a spare battery.
The camera is secured to the tripod.
The tripod is so positioned that it does not need to be moved during the shoot. If a move is needed it can only be after a shoot, before the following one.
When shooting try not to make sudden movements with the panning or zooming. Slow movements are better for the viewers eye, unless it's a really fast scene.
Use the wide angle and zoom functions as required, but not too often in a single frame, as this could confuse the viewer.
Indoors
Checklist
Is the room clean and tidy.
Is the room well lit (or lit as required).
Is the room well ventilated or cooled or heated.
Are studio lights required.
Are the studio lights positioned to prevent shadows.
Assistant - if possible have a person with you to assist - to move lighting, props, even the subject around. They can also double up as one of your cast.
Outside sounds. Check there are no interfering sounds.
Outdoors
Checklist
There are many:
Weather conditions.
Lighting.
Surrounds.
Noise.
Facilities available.
Background.
Privacy of others who need not be in the shoot, or written approval if they are.
Safety.
Sunscreen
Drinking water.
- Morning and evening light will cast long shadows and - at the same time - create a wide contrast between lit and unlit parts. Color temperature will be different too.
- Noon light will cast small shadows. As the light comes from the topmost position (depending on location and time of the year, that is) it will make everything look much flatter. High contrast situations occur with "objects under a roof" which also contains human eyes, chins asf. that "go dark".
- Intensity of colors depends a lot on fog in the atmosphere and your recording medium. At noon time with a lot of high level fog, colors tend to look significantly paler.
And here is one more thing you would want to consider, too, when it comes to editing a scene: clouds vs. light continuity
- when the sky is cloudless, shadows and change of color temperature over time are basically all you have to keep an eye on.
- when the sky is all in clouds, shooting in terms of continuity could not be easier because there is almost nothing to care about.
- the most beautiful sky however - clear blue with sprinkled white puffy clouds - is a nightmare. Especially if you have no additional light! Light conditions change every five minutes entirely, shooting slots are just as short (regardless if you try to shoot sunny or cloudy atmosphere). You're gonna get nothing done on such a day. Apart from continuity, the composition of the shots themselves might look imbalanced (no shadows in the cloudy foreground, sun shining in the background or - vice versa - summer feeling in front of a dark and ominous horizon)
So you see: you need to ask yourself what you want to shoot and what serves your purposes best.
Depending on where you shoot, the time of day might also have significant impact on things going on in the (perhaps uncontrollable) background, e. g. numbers of people in pedestrian zones, intensity of car traffic on the roads, condition of a beach, its sun beds and level of activity of its visitors etc.