Tony and Taylor are making similar video essays for some of the Criterion releases.

I think you should buy a GH4. It's really cheap right now and it produces some great 4K images. I know you don't care much about 4K but recording 8 bit 420 4K gives you way better color resolution than shooting 1080. You can rent an atomos shogun for ProRes recording but I think you could be satisfied with the internal codec of the GH4. I think instead of renting a recorder for ProRes you should spend that money on lights, especially since the GH4 doesn't have the best low light. If any thing is going to make your film look more cinematic, it's going to be proper good lighting. As far lenses are concerned you can buy a K mount to M43 adapter for your camera or buy a M43 lens like the Panasonic 25mm f1.7, Sigma 19mm f2.8 or whatever.

Here's an awesome short doc my friend shot with a GH4 using the internal codec.
https://vimeo.com/192307919

I hope this was somewhat useful.
Good luck with your film!

I can't wait for some theater VR. It's like I'm sitting in a movie theater but I'm at home. Splendid.

"And you're telling me you don't miss the blazing fast, intuitive editing interface? :) The extremely-powerful audio capabilities? The compositing features? Sure you do. Get out of here :)))"

Again, all NLEs can do this. I don't get what's the point you're still trying to make. If Vegas can output a feature 4KPR4444 in less than a hour then MAYBE I would believe that these speeds are blazing.
I don't know what's so difficult figuring out Premiere, Avid, FCP and Resolve? WHat's not intuitive about it? If you truly are stumped then there are a million resources on the internet to figure out a solution quickly because so many people use these programs.

I'm just having a hard time understanding why you exhaust so much energy on this site trying to make it seem like Vegas is the alpha program. If it truly was more people would be using it in a professional setting but people aren't.

At my job there is a freelancer that we avoid hiring because he refuses to use another NLE than Vegas. It screws up our workflow and makes everything difficult. Why would we hire that guy when we have editors that have the ability to edit on various NLEs and cater to our workflows.
Do you have issues when clients/companies have to online your projects that aren't local?

You should look into getting a Canon C100 mark i.

That should suit everything you need. It's going to be a little bit more expensive but you can get a solid deal on one on ebay.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Canon-C100-Camcorder-and-Canon-24-105mm-f-4-IS-L...

Well the video itself is poorly made. Looks like an awful corporate video.

They also don't go in depth to explain what actually sets it apart. They kind of just described a generic NLE. I mean it talked about the QSV rendering but that really doesn't set it apart. All NLEs are pretty fast. I use Adobe, FCP, and Resolve on a daily basis and speed is rarely a problem. Even if I am pumping out a 4K PR4444 HDR, it still has never been a bother.

There's just no good excuse here for me to drop industry standard software and try to convince my whole office that Vegas is where it's at.

I even started on Vegas but now it just isn't a good fit for me.