How to record your story? Front of camera

1) what's in front of the camera -- casting, acting, locations, props, vehicles, logistics

It doesn't matter how good a DP you have, if you don't have anything interesting in front of the camera all you have is unusable footage and wasted time.  Every time you cheat here -- and you will have to many times, trust me -- you risk finding yourself with serious problems downstream.

During production, my co-producer and I pretty much split the duties between us using the camera as the dividing line.  He handled most of the issues in front of the camera, I handled stuff behind the camera.  And I mean everything in front of the camera.  Here is the Topanga Caynon location before he added the green bus and landscaping:

Which became this:

He also did all the casting, including his co-star, seen here in a test shoot inside the green bus:

Which became this:

He came up with a bunch more stuff I'll get into later.  Locations, props, transportation, casting, everything in front of the camera all need attention.  Corollary: Anything outside the field of view of the camera does not exist in the character's world.  Only show the audience what you want them to see and make sure what they see is interesting.  Much more on this later.

Have you begun working on your story by shooting images?  This will begin to answer questions of what and where you might have available for a story.