yep, and the solution for no-budget filmmakers isn't to hire the experience, it's to screw up, learn, gain the experience. H44 is that filmmaker. I'm sure he (and I) would love to be able to afford you or Alcove, but it's simply not a fiscal reality.
Yes, those are both real situations you've brought up in audio and video correction... ones I've run into and learned to overcome. I've had to, I couldn't afford someone to do it for me. I will absolutely say, I'm certain you could do a better job than I could, but I can make it passable on multiple systems and have had to do so. I've overcome those problems with limiters and carefully cutting super low and super high frequencies... and looking at my spectrum analyzers very closely.
H44, you have to dig into the problem solving process, you've made the first step time and time again... "I have a problem", "Is this a problem?" Those realizations need to be followed up by a problem solving regimen... your plethora of posts are great for bringing out information for stuffing this forum full of great searchable stuff and you're probably responsible for many of the new members here
... but you have to start shifting to figuring out how to solve these problems on your own... and having the confidence to accept that you're not going to get it perfect, but you can get it acceptable at your budget level.
The tools are on your computer already. For audio (as a visual person), you'll spend alot of time looking at waveforms (to see when sounds happen) and the spectrum analyzer (to see what sounds are happening at that point in time). In your Video work, there are the video scopes to analyze the color in the same way... learn them and love them.
From there, the solutions become: determine the problem, then open your toolbox to see if any of your tools fit as a solution. Your tool box is getting really full now with most of the stuff you'll need, you just need to put the different tools together in new and novel ways to solve problems you haven't encountered before. I've followed every single post you've made on this project... you have the tools to solve 99% of your own problems now... you just have to apply what you've learned to the new problems you're encountering.
In terms of the audio stuff... room tone has been covered in a ton of posts, dialog editing has been covered in a ton of posts. Try the solution first, then if that doesn't work and you don't seem to have the solution in your toolbox, ask the question. I was forced to learn these things with no access to mentors and it pulled my DIY mindset from my youth (dad, scouting, and geekery) into my film work... uphill both ways
but when you're on set and you're the captain of the ship (director), you need the confidence to say "I know we're behind schedule, but we need another take" or "I know it doesn't feel like it, but we really DO have what we need for the edit, let's move on and get ahead of the schedule" or (which I had to do on a shoot) "There will be a zeppelin parked behind the barn and you'll have seen it coming in as it shadowed your house... it's scary and you know it's the scavengers coming to loot your farmhouse." -- I didn't know how to do it when I made the statement, but I knew I could figure it out... so I was forced to figure it out.
Force yourself to really dig in and think through the problem/solution pair ... everything is possible, and you can do it -- we all can if we apply ourselves. If you fall down while trying, come here and we'll GLADLY help you move forward, but you have to move forward, get it close enough, move to the next bit, then if you still have time, you'll have a laundry list of the parts that need the most work... start with the worst and work down the list, when you run out of time, release it... move on. Build a body of work and a huge toolbox based on solutions that work for you, you'll start to know what will work and what won't.
Trust your eyes when you look at the monitor on set. Build crew that you use every time - you'll gain their trust and they yours. You'll have the opportunity to learn together, and you'll know that they will get the exposure correct, or ask for more light, or adjust the white balance to fit the lighting you have... or... or... This only works if you have hired experience... or fostered it. You can only foster that experience by creating more projects... you'll only get more projects if you finish this one.
Do the whole edit and the audio work, then look for the problems (watching it with people you trust to be BRUTALLY HONEST about it -- not just negative people and not family who will tell you it's great) Take notes on the comments and note the time in the edit. You may find that once you've done the editing and audio work that the problems you perceive don't exist after you lay in the room tone and ambience. Visual problems with a single shot may disappear in the edit when surrounded by other things that catch the attention... finish the edit and rough audio work first... concentrate on flow and timing... then move on to specific detaily things.
Always keep driving yourself forward... hard!
Sorry, long rant.