Each colour film reacts differently to light and renders colours in it's own unique way, if you are trying to accurately simulate film then you need to learn the properties of the particular emulsion.

However if you are trying to get a generic retro look to your images then this is much easier. I shot a wedding a few years ago and decided to do the whole classic film look to all of the images.

The main things to adjust are white balance and saturation, I tend to go for a very warm WB that looks both nostalgic and film like and the same time. For older films reduce saturation. Some times a bit of split toning helps, here I pushed the shadows toward magenta and the highlights toward cyan:

Another useful cue is shallow depth of field, most film images were shot with "full frame" SLRs or medium/large format cameras, and fast lenses were often used wide open due to the poor ISO performance of film, combined with a bit of film grain the look is fairly convincing:

An incidental, less clinical approach to shooting is recommended, film was expensive, you could rarely afford to just shoot a few hundred images and pick the best:

Finally the image content helps, look for retro vehicles/buildings, avoid people using smartphones etc:

Finally don't be afraid to boost contrast, it can look just as "film like" as low contrast instagram images, but don't overexpose and digital images feature hard clipping of highlights, film had a more gentle roll off: