Freelance videographer

I have spent some time on set with a local production company as a production assitant. I ended up spending a tonne of time with the camera man and just talked film and gear. droolz

I had a "I want to do what this guy is doing moment."

he was an older guy in the buiz so his advice was go to school.. but i'm wondering if busting my ass at home depot to go to school is worth it when I could bust my ass buy gear and teach myself with the aid of the interwebz and its abundance of knowlegde (paying for courses just not getting a "degree" .. I would like to do small commercial preferably non-wedding videography (but i do realize that a man has to eat)

I have started to lean towards the first as i built a mid-budget editing rig along the lines of the honey-badger (thanks for the tutorial) and now am looking at cameras or school. 

also deciding weather on not I want to get a 5dmii used or save for a bmcc.. 2.5k seems nice.. but I feel like it's a one trick pony and maybe I should get a 5d or even a t3i to start and in the future have it as a B camera as the toll of what I have made in this is industry is 500-600$ *as an assitant* and maybe I should wait untill my buisness kicks off.. or doesn't.

 also as I mentioned I work at the depot, and live on my own.. so its a (buy a computer eat kd for a month kindof living)

-Doug

If you are just starting out everyone seems to recommend the t3i.  If you look around you can get it a little cheaper by typing in "kiss x5".  It is the same camera just renamed for a different audience.  Also you can hack a GH1 or GH2 and those are supposed to be amaizing video DSLRs.  If you can swing it I recommend the 60D or the Sony NEX VG 30 or even NEX 5n