Quicksand Fans

So after retiring from a long and prosperous career in engineering, I have decided to explore a lifelong dream of attending film school at the age of 60.

Looking for any insights here from experienced people on best affordable hardware in terms of video cameras, laptops, etc.

The school loans much of this equipment, but if I can get my own affordably, it will make the logistics so much easier.

No, I do not intend to produce in this space, but I do have some other more mainstream ideas dating back to my obsession with the science fiction and fantasy space of my childhood, though I hope to focus mainly on the writing track of this particular program to make the aging process easier.

All the best pursuing your artistic endeavour! It's never too late to create art.

Chimerix actually teaches this for a living, so you may end up learning a lot from him.

Just off-hand though, the school gear may very well be at 'another level' cost-wise, compared to what is typically affordable (and yet still very valid for project purposes). So trying to learn the intricacies of both levels of gear would be a hinderance. Your best creative results will come with comfortable familiarity with the gear. Of course, for the folks who are all about the gear, forget about creativity.

In any case, I hope you enjoy the experience. Having some native ideas will be a big help.

I will agree with Dave, especially about avoiding people who only talk about equipment. I got into photography when I was 14 (62 years ago) and got caught up in equipment. I took hundreds of pictures with my Nikkormat and hundredss more using a 2.5 by 3.5 sheet film camera, but never did anything really creative because I was too bogged down with equipment. Looking back, I think I wanted o use pictures to tell stories but doing that using stills was too much. It was only when I started ding video was I able to do what I wanted.
You migh want to consider doing something really simple at first. My very first video story had nothing to do with quicksand. [Well there was some sand and gravel involved.] It was about a hiker of sorts who was baffled as he kept having empty the sand ot of his boots. In the last clip, we see him emptying one boot while another hiker behind him is putting sand, and some stones, back in. The whole thng was maybe two minutes long. For my second video I played the role of a scientist offloading data and changing batteries in data logger insode a cave.

Good luck.