How to shoot video outside of video mode on Canon DSLRs?

I have a filmmaker who uses DSLRs for filmmaking because of it's variety of lens to use. I'm a dedicated Nikon and Sony user, so my understanding of Canon's controls confuses me a bit. In stills, I can use a Canon perfectly fine, since it's very similar to Nikon's layout, but in video, I understand that there's a dedicated video button, one that must be used if I want to shoot video. I invest my money in manual glass a lot, so when I shoot with Nikon and Sony, I can easily switch my setting to Manual, and film directly from there. Though with Canon's video mode, I can't really do that, since it won't detect the manual lens, nor would it allow me much video control, which is important to me because I rather not have the camera do all the work for me. Long story short, my friend is going to shoot video on his Canon T3i, great camera, but his kit lens has limits. That's why I was going to buy him a Nikon to Canon adapter, and let him use my old Nikon manual glass, which does amazingly well in video mode from what I've tested. However, is there a way in the settings that I can use these glass in manual mode, and film in manual mode? Manual mode is the only mode that allow the shutter to be open without newer lens or lens without adapter attached. Also, shooting fully manual is very important as I stated before.

I have a filmmaker who uses DSLRs for filmmaking because of it's variety of lens to use. I'm a dedicated Nikon and Sony user, so my understanding of Canon's controls confuses me a bit. In stills, I can use a Canon perfectly fine, since it's very similar to Nikon's layout, but in video, I understand that there's a dedicated video button, one that must be used if I want to shoot video. I invest my money in manual glass a lot, so when I shoot with Nikon and Sony, I can easily switch my setting to Manual, and film directly from there. Though with Canon's video mode, I can't really do that, since it won't detect the manual lens, nor would it allow me much video control, which is important to me because I rather not have the camera do all the work for me. Long story short, my friend is going to shoot video on his Canon T3i, great camera, but his kit lens has limits. That's why I was going to buy him a Nikon to Canon adapter, and let him use my old Nikon manual glass, which does amazingly well in video mode from what I've tested. However, is there a way in the settings that I can use these glass in manual mode, and film in manual mode? Manual mode is the only mode that allow the shutter to be open without newer lens or lens without adapter attached. Also, shooting fully manual is very important as I stated before. While there's an adapter so that Nikkor lenses to Canon EOS cameras, all the controls are manual. What this means is ONLY Nikkor lenses which have an aperture ring on them will work for what you want to do.

What this means is ONLY the older Nikkor AF lenses can be used via an adapter.

I suggest you rent one of your Nikon cameras to him for his project Read the manual, but I suspect you can't. You seem to be looking for something more complex than it really is. If you want to manually focus with a Canon lens in either still or movie modes you simply shift the switch on the lens from "AF" to "MF".
To set the exposure manually on my 70D (may be different for a T3i) you simply set the mode dial to "M".

Read the manual, but I suspect you can't.

You seem to be looking for something more complex than it really is. If you want to manually focus with a Canon lens in either still or movie modes you simply shift the switch on the lens from "AF" to "MF".
To set the exposure manually on my 70D (may be different for a T3i) you simply set the mode dial to "M".