Kevin,
You're not alone. 1mi away doesn't seem that far, but pull up a Google map of a spot you like to fly in and measure some of the distances. You'll probably find the "walk of shame" distances are in the 100's of feet, not the 1000's. 1mi = 5280', 1/2mi = 2640'. In LoS, the airframes we fly start disappearing at those ranges. Even FPV, that's farther than most pilots will wander.
As for "norm", that depends, but more often than not it's fairly close to LoS ranges -- under 1000'. Sometimes more, more often less. since you're looking more for "chase video", your "bubble" is defined by the LoS plane's airspace. Take a look at maps of your flying spots and your measurements should give you a feel for how much range you need.
For something simple (and easy to mount next to your Gopro) you might want to look into the Eachine TX-03. I recommend this one specifically because you can get started on it's low-power setting now, then when you pick up the license you can start using the higher power settings. All-in-one setup, so providing it power is the only thing you have to sort out, and if you've got a few 1S battery packs around, it's not hard to add it to the payload.
As for your ground station . . . goggles, screen, or beer-cooler-helmet are the popular three options, and which you prefer will depend on your taste. Goggles tend to be higher in price, tend to have smaller on Field of View (FoV), but for the drawbacks (many of which can be reduced for a cost), they're far more convenient and fairly immersive. Screens tend to be cheaper, and more flexible in features, but far less immersive. The Beer-cooler-helmets are a hybrid of the two . . . in some ways capturing the worst, and some ways the best -- they're somewhere in-between in flexibility, far more ungainly than either, but if you can look past the awkwardness, they're the most immersive of the three. Which you choose will depend on your taste . . . so it's hard to steer you to good options without a "test drive".
