What would be a good starting light kit for someone who doesn't know to much about lights?
For a nice "doityourself" light kit I recommend:
A couple of work lights with stands from any home improvement store.
I have an ARRI 300, it's a soft light, I was wondering what type of lights i should get to compliment the light that I have now.
You can get Britek lighting kits from several places, including www.skaeser.com (where I bought a couple of kits)
Since you're in CA, they'll add sales tax - but they also knock a bunch off their (expensive) flat shipping rates to offset that.
Britek is a better solution than raiding the Home Depot, but definitely not in the same league as Lowell & Arri.
The stands that come with the Britek kits are extremely light-weight (and become very top-heavy, when the soft-boxes are added), so you'd always have them weighted down to prevent accidents.
The regular tungsten lighting kits will heat up a small/mid-sized room fairly fast. Haven't tried the later flourescent bulb kits, but I would not expect that. (Though colour balance should be very different).
Just tossin' out a few other options.![]()
A kit that has all the lights I need for basic shooting
directorik, nice kit, but I cant afford it ><
But as you point out, when a filmmaker starts getting to more complicated
situations sunce as wide shots at night and greenscreen, renting more
lighting is needed. But the basic's are there in any of the three kits mentioned.
While not my best work, the movie posted below is an example of
using very limited lighting (the four light Lowell kit and a china
ball) to get what was needed. All the night scenes were shot in
about five hours with a tiny crew of me.
A couple of people helped move lights when I yelled at them, but
this was essentially a one person lighting and camera operating
job.
Check out "THE EYES"