Using an SLR to shoot video directly to Mac hard drive in iMovie?

I have a project in which I need to shoot training videos which will essentially just be head shots of myself.
Because I need to be my own cameraman I would like to record the video directly to my Mac's hard drive via iMovie '09 (or iMovie '11 if I upgrade) and frame the shot in my Mac's monitor rather than on a tiny, flipped camera viewfinder.
Since I want to get the best video quality possible, rather than use my MacBook Pro's internal iSight camera, I plan to purchase an external camera that shoots HD video.
According to the Apple article at the following link, an external camera can be used in VTR mode as a pass-through for just this purpose — to shoot video directly to the computer's hard drive in iMovie:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=iMovie/9.0/en/mov39f84285.html
Now here's where things get a little complicated. I would like my new camera to be an SLR if possible, since beyond shooting these training videos, my next use for the camera would be high-quality still photography.
Can an SLR be used in this manner to record directly to disk in VTR mode in either iMovie or Quicktime? If so, what where can I find a list of iMovie-compatible SLRs? (I would also welcome specific camera recommendations from any SLR owners who have used them to shoot video directly to disk.)
Finally, if it is not possible to shoot directly to disk with an SLR, is there an iMovie-compatible HD camcorder that also shoots great photos?
(MacBook Pro June '10, OS 10.6.8, iMovie 9)
Message was edited by: Cumbaw2

Thanks. That makes sense. It is not practical for me to use an external monitor for this, so I will look into getting a firewire video camera.
Forgive my ignorance, but are firewire video cameras still manufactured at the prosumer level? I want the video to look very good, but it does not have to be absolute broadcast quality. My budget tops out around $1500 for this. I need to hook up an external mic for good audio.
Any recommendations from this list of compatible cameras? The list does not specify which are firewire cameras.:
http://help.apple.com/imovie/cameras/en/index.html?lang=en_US

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