Is there a "starting place" in terms of colour correction before adding a stylistic LUT
Applications such as FCPX and Adobe Creative Cloud actually ship with a wide variety of stylized LUTs, so if you use either of those you can play around with them.  Most LUTs will specify what they expect as input, and many I have seen are designed to work either with LOG or REC709.  (There are many LOG formats out there--Arri Log-C, RED RedLogFilm, Sony SLOG, Canon, etc.  Some LUTs get really particular, others less so.)

A good rule of thumb is that the LUT expects a properly exposed image, meaning black, white, and 18% gray land at around 16, 235, and 110-120 in the 8-bit broadcast video safe world of 16-235.  It's very helpful to have an optical signal generator (calibrated black, white, and gray pieces of paper which, when hit by light, generate an optical signal) so that you can verify exposure before you shoot.

If you don't have a waveform monitor on your camera or in your signal chain, you can record data from the optical signal generator, upload it to your favorite NLE (which should have a waveform monitor) and you can verify that your white, black, and gray levels are sane.  Learn whatever it is your meters are telling you when you shoot your black/white/gray value chart with a correct exposure.

If you cannot shoot LOG, then look for LUTs that will accept REC709, shoot properly exposed images, and have fun!