Looking to create machinima, need advice and mod help

[concusion]

Hi all, hopefully someone can give me some advice on how to proceed. I bought the game recently because I am looking to do some machinima with GTA IV for the PC. I have not upgraded GTA via any patches yet so my questions are as follows. I am looking to basically use first person mode so that I can get footage of GTA without the character in the scene. I also would probably need the mod that allows the user to fly so I could use first person and fly mode to get some sort of flying shots of the city.

I attempted to install a few mods but without success.

1) What version of GTA should I patch up to where most mods work the best (I notice some of the latest patches dont work with some of the older better mods)

2) What mods do I need to install to get first person mode and flying mode

If anyone has any advice it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks