Which lighting?

[ellarose]

Hey,

So I'm looking in to getting some decent lighting for future short films. I plan to use this for mainly indoor stuff.

Would it be better for me to go with some tungsten lights, such as Lowel, or some fluorescent lighting such as Flolight?

I kind of need it to be reasonably cheap and easy to set up. Around $1k maximum is what I'm looking to spend.

Thanks

 

[Metrostar]

These: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Reptile-Vivarium-Clamp-Lamps-Silver/dp/B001U1NAK0/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

 

[knightly]

I prefer the tungsten lights. They're much easier to control on set and have better CRI than the flo's, so color gels do what you expect rather than having odd results to to the green spike from the gases used in the fluorescent bulbs. You tend to get really yellow-y looking scenes from floe's unless you buy stupidly expensive bulbs for them that have filters built in to remove the green spike.

At a 1K budget, look around for kits of 3 x 650w lights on stands with barn doors, then get sandbags for safety, gels (master location pack from http://www.filmtools.com), and dimmers (router speed controllers from http://www.harborfreight.com).

You should be able to find some decent lights and these accessories to fit into that $1k budget.

 

[jax_rox]

I'd probably look at getting 2x 650w Fresnels, and 2x 1k Fresnels (keep in mind you'll need multiple circuits in a house to be able to run more than two 650's or more than one 1k, depending on how many amps you have in your circuits). Hopefully they would include barn doors and scrims.

I'd then get some C-stands, sand bags, gels. Maybe one knife blade frame, with a few different pre-cut lengths of diffusion to skin it with depending on what diffusion you're feeling like.

I mean really, 'decent lighting' can be done a number of ways. 'Decent lighting' usually is less about how many, and what, actual lighting fixtures you need, and more about what you do with what you have available. If I only had two lights available to me, I would use them very carefully and precisely, and do a lot more shaping and tweaking of those lights as well as other prac lamps and the sun.

I'd suggest getting some reflective material (I personally like polystyrene/bead boards), as well as some black material to cut light.

I have two large bead board cuts, each has one white side. For the 'reverse' - one has soft silver gel (Lee 273), and the other is painted black on the reverse, in case I need a quick cutter.