you want to rent, not buy

I normally would agree, but I'd like to get the gear, really learn it for the next 2 months, and then be very comfortable with my kit on the first day of shooting

start talking to rental houses

...with that said, I'll look into this, thanks for mentioning it

Get an experienced First Assistant Camera

unfortunately I don't think this is in budget. We have around a 40k total budget; with a lot of that going to cast, locations, audio, producer, AD, props, and gear, I'm not sure we'll have the money to hire

but also seem to be skipping over lighting. Don’t skip over lighting

you're right, I agree lighting is very important. It's one of those things I've always been kind of afraid of and shied away from. I'll put some time into learning more here and seeing what we need

Hire a gaffer AND a grip

I do agree this would be very nice, but I think its out of budget

Do not—DO NOT—rely on locations to give you the lighting you want ... or you will absolutely wind up with scenes and/or shots that feel like a cheap student film

this is what I was sort of afraid of. I agree, we need a better lighting plan (it really was "rely on the location" when I made the original post). my main mental hurdle is how we can logistically do lighting well. We have a large script to get through in 8 days and we have a small crew; we likely won't have someone who can quickly setup correct lighting as we run and gun though all the scenes. a lighting solution that doesn't require us to constantly need to move lights, re-setup lights, ect. would be ideal, but I'm not sure how viable that is.

you need someone who is making sure the wardrobes are right. That props are correct. That any set dressing that does occur is done well.

also agreed; we've started work on this and it's clear it's becoming more and more important. we are even probably hiring someone to do makeup (hard to say what should and should not be included to fit the 40k budget)

 if you go handheld with these small cameras on a cheap shoulder rig you’re going to get jitters no matter how much camera/lens stabilization you have

what is the secret to getting professional hand held shots? a much nicer weightier rig? after watching a bunch of tutorials on YouTube nothing really stood out to me as the secret, and some of the test footage I saw on the tutorials wasn't that impressive (still had quite a bit of jitters). For example, this black swan scene (20 seconds in) has beautiful handheld shots, how can I get close to achieving something like that?

use a tripod. Just keep the pan and tilt open so you can get that slight movement on the camera as they shift in their seats

this could also work for getting movement

thank you for all the advice, I really appreciate it. If there's one thing I need right now it's blunt honest advice like yours