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Video has revolutionized filmmaking, we've all read this. What is it exactly that makes video better than film in so many ways? What is it that video will do to make your film making experience better? More than anything it's what a video allows you to subtract, rather than what is adds.

Tripod

You don't have a heavy camera that is hard to hold at many angle anymore. A video camera is light and can be held by a single person to cover any angle in a reasonably steady way. This saves the time and expense of buying a tripod; one less piece of gear to remember to bring. It will also facilitate guerrilla film making. Tripods not only attract attention, they often are the distinguishing factor as to whether you need permits or not in certain jurisdictions.

Light Meter

Once you needed a little machine that measured the light on a subject and from that knew what exposure settings to use on the camera. Video cameras have an internal light meter and can also adjust the exposure automatically for you (not usually recommended). Light meters would have been another expense and another obvious sign you are making a movie which could get in the way of actually doing so.

Color Temp Meter

Light isn't all the same color. Sunlight is blue-ish, indoor lights are generally yellow-ish and fluorescent are green-ish. When shooting on film it was crucial you know what color the light was so you can compensate if necessary. Film stock is only able to record normal-looking images from a single color of light. You can't change it but you can change the color of light it receives. Video has an internal white balance that can change the color sensitivity of the chip to make things come out looking right, rather than using gels and filters. Instead of a meter to tell you how to compensate, video cameras have a meter that tells the camera itself how to compensate.

Film Loader

Film can't be exposed to light or it will adversely affect the footage. You need to take care when taking film out of the camera as well as when loading to make sure no light leaks in. With video you needn't worry about this. Tape isn't sensitive to light. Only the video camera chip is light-sensitive and records what it sees in electronic form on a tape or memory card.

Clapper/Slate

Film cameras cannot record audio. When you shoot with film you record audio on a separate audio tape or digital recorder. In order to later easily sync the audio and frames of film they record visuals of a clapperboard making a loud noise, so they later put the sound and action together and can be sure the following dialogue will be in time. A video camera has the capacity to record already-synced audio along with video so you won't have to use a clapperboard which screams "I'm making a movie" and might get in the way of your production.

External Sound Recorder, Mic

You may not want to record audio with the camera that is capturing video for whatever reason, but you can still use a backup camcorder to record audio. You should have a backup camcorder anyway, so using it as an audio recorder in the mean time is a reasonable use of it. Also camcorders all have built-in microphones (not the best) but depending on what you are shooting they may well suffice.

These are the obvious advantages of video, but there are lots of others. These include ease of editing, no generation loss when making copies (digital only), and the availability of a video camera and tapes in any electronics store. Video does not easily look better than film, but you need to weigh the pros and cons with your project instead of blindly going with one or the other.