cinematography Indoor with LOTS of windows

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wheatgrinder

Hi all,
My location has windows everywhere I look or point the camera.
My gut says that I should just use outdoor temperature lights for all my indoor shots.

My Kit consists of:
Home Depot Halogen work light
Three of hood style clamp-ons.
Cymbal stands for everything. (Modified the work light to fit on the heavy duty cymbal stand)
Bounce Card (white foam board)
Silver Bounce thing (my silvery round spring loaded fold out window shade)
Extension cords
Some small towels (so the clamps can grip on the stands better)

Thats it!

My main questions:
Are the hallogens good for this? Or are they just the wrong temp?
I want to use CFL bulbs in the hoods (nice low temp and power draw) what bulbs do I buy? What temperature etc..

Cheap additions to my kit suggestions would be helpful.

Thanks
 
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Also, Im not sure gelling the windows is right out. A couple of my rooms have only two or three windows. Seems just a few sheets of gel would cover each.. whats the right gel to get for correcting outdoor light to match tungsten?
 
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wheatgrinder said:
Also, Im not sure gelling the windows is right out. A couple of my rooms have only two or three windows. Seems just a few sheets of gel would cover each.. whats the right gel to get for correcting outdoor light to match tungsten?
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A combination 85/Neutral Density. I would go heavy on the neutral density. Use an 85/ND9.

- Guy Holt, Gaffer, Boston
 
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That is, of course, if the window is actually in the shot. If it isn't, and you just want to color correct the light spilling through onto the scene, buy a few sheets of full CTO (or a roll, if you can afford it) and forget the ND. This will have the added benefit of allowing you to use your quartz fixture without the CTB gel (just use your diffusion), which will boost its light output substantially.

If the window is in the shot and you don't have any ND, you can also use inexpensive sheer black open weave fabric stretched over the window to cut the glare (similar to Guy's earlier post). I've done that before. Only thing you have to worry about - particularly in our climate - is, if the fabric is hung outside the window any stiff breeze will cause movement which will register in camera. Same with the gels.
 
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BTW, another low-budget trick I did on my last film:

Was shooting at a location with a couple of windows in the shot. Big space, but it was a bar so it needed to be darkish. I wanted to use the practical sources (track lights over the bar, etc.) so I needed to correct to 3200K, but didn't have huge sheets of CTO to cover the windows. I didn't care about seeing what was outside the windows, so I hung up white bed sheets over the outside of them and placed quartz fixtures outside, aimed at the sheets. When the sun went down I kicked on the lights, set the outside fixture's output (using diffusion) so that it top-ended the exposure without clipping and, voila, 3200K sunlight! The windows look blown (even though they aren't really), which was fine with me.

Plus, it had the bonus benefit of less traffic outside interfering with the soundtrack. :)

(p.s. - in post, I added a filter which softened highlights, making the windows glow)

(p.p.s. - you don't have to use diffusion on the lights, you can just back them off until the exposure is correct, but mine would have ended up in the street; I also didn't use dimmers because that would lower their color temp)
 
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