These will tend to be dated, especially with regard to technical stuff and hangouts, but the basics are still useful:

sisabet made some of my favorite Buffyverse vids. I don't know if she's still active--I haven't been following the vidder world in the past few years--but she has a lot of interesting things to say.
sisabet: So You Want to Be a Vidder: Five Not So Easy Steps
How to Make a Gut Wrenching Video in Five Easy Steps or Less

Also worth perusing are past vividcon posts; they might have some meta there.

Argh, have to run, but basically, if you can chase down the LJs/DWs/Tumblrs/??? of the vidders who made your favorite vids, look for vid meta or making-of posts--those can be very illuminating.