first off, welcome to flyertalk, MDforever-your life as you now know it is over....

as to using a video camera on board, i did use one on a ua (domestic) flight tho it was for a piece on abc's good morning america and the crew (both cabin and flight deck knew about it and said it was fine). i would ask the first flight attendant you see and if she says yes,, then you're good to go. if she says no, you could ask (nicely) and say why you're doing it. i would also clear it with the gate personnel as you don't want someone "panicking due to security reasons". let the g/a know what you want to do and i would have her call down to the plane and let the crew know so that you don't get stopped with a "turn that off" where all you want to do is film you walk from the gate to your seat.

so with all that, again welcome to f/t and all of the above will really depend on the gate personnel and the crew