I'm sure I'm not the first person to come waltzing into these forums, the aspiring filmmaker who needs advise to get a start, but I would really appreciate some advise for a few things (these aren't quite questions on the FAQ).

To give a slight bit of a backstory, I've had an idea for, more or less the start of a TV series for a long time now. To me, I view TV and Movies the same way; they're both film. And contrary to popular opinion that "TV will never reach the quality of movies"; shows like The Sopranos, The Wire, Mad Men, etc. all reach heights equivalent to movies. I've shared a passion for moviemaking and writing for a long time, but I've never really starting taking it seriously up until a few months ago. Without going too far into detail on what exactly it's about, I wrote a screenplay and I've been developing it for a while now. I recently presented the idea to my friends and they're very enthusiastic about doing it, which is definitely a sign I have to get things moving asap (I say asap only because the cast will involve a large majority of my friends and pretty much all of us will be leaving for college in the coming months; this will be the only opportunity I have to make this happen).

I know this is all starting to sound cliché so let me get to the point. I have very little knowledge of pretty much anything that goes on with the technical aspects of filmmaking beyond knowing how to edit (I'm fairly adept at using Adobe Premiere). I know very little about cameras outside beyond my crappy Sony Handycam which is used for family events, etc. So what I'm asking for is two things:

1) What camera to start with. I've been saving up for quite a few months now and I have $2000 stored away for this. I'd prefer not to go over this amount, even though I may ask my Dad for a loan. For me, the best way to learn how to do something is to toy around with it until you figure out how it operates. Filming just general things, throwing it into an editor, and see how it comes out, is enough to help me figure out how certain things work. Also, please keep in mind, I recently purchased a Macbook Pro for the purpose of having a firewire. I would appreciate any suggestions, I've been researching on the internet, but there doesn't seem to be any distinguishing features from each other, so I'm not sure which one is best (I also plan to go to J&R in the city this weekened to try and get some firsthand advise/info from one of the employees)

2) A good website that can answer general questions on how to film properly (I.E. How to get ambience noise out of changing shots in conversation, proper lighting, matching sound and film, working with a boom mic, etc. ... All of which examples I mentioned are things I need to figure out)

If you made it this far, I appreciate you taking the time to read what I have to say. To make a longer story short, I'm very compelled to make this come to life, and this is something I really feel I should do. This isn't a hobby I plan to throw out the window anytime soon. I discovered this website the other day and I hoe to continue using it frequently. Your help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks very much,
-Matthew Homestar