comments / suggestions on these light kits

There's lots of threads about Lowell lights, some like em, some don't. Personally I don't like them. Mole Richardson are the best followed by Arri and Altman. LTM makes a good light as well. Moles are going to last forever, we have a 1950's vintage 1k that we still use at school. They last!
 
hmm, there aren't really any places around me that rent the lighting, but i figured we would need the lighting for pretty much any indoor stuff we will do. Its hard to find something in the $1000-$2000 range...
 
Lowels are good tools if you baby them, but they are flimsy and break much easier than a Mole or Arri type of light.

Many newbies buy Lowel kits, thinking that they are buying everything that they will need without realizing that they really need to allocate about 40 to 50% of thier total lighting budget to grip equipment. You need sandbags, C-stands, gels, diffusion, C-47s, grip clips, stingers, flags, cinefoil, Duvetine and a whole lot more to use those Lowels or any lights effectively.

I use some Lowels in my kit, they are not bad but the Lowel kits are overpriced for what they are. I think Barry Green, in a post quite a while ago said that Lowel lights, per ounce, are the most expensive lights you can buy. I like the Arris and Moles better but $1,000.00 to $2,000.00 is not really enough for a decent Arri or Mole kit for most situations where you want to light up an entire scene, unless it's an interview or a small, intimate two shot.

Also, the lighting you buy should be suited to the scenes you need to shoot. If you are doing a three camera sitcom, no lighting "kit" (pre-packaged) is enough. OTOH, if you are shooting a single talking head, I often light those with just two lights and they can look killer.

Read, rent and ask opinions before breaking out the Visa card. There are dozens of approaches to professional lighting and only a few of them involve self-contained lighting kits.

Best,

Dan
 
Thanks so much for that information! :) I'm not close to pulling the visa yet anyways, but I'm trying to get as much information as possible. I don't really know what you even said that I would need. :(

I need a lighting kit that will be very versitile as we have shoots for both music videos and movies coming up in the future. I will continue to do my research, and see where it takes me.

I would like to get a HVX with an M2 or Brevis, and go to town.
 
Mole lights of course are great, we own all Arri lights, and I like Arri quite a bit too.

I don't agree with the rental mentality that absolutely pervades the industry. Somehow, it makes sense for some people, but how it makes sense for them I really have no clue. I'm just glad it does, because we're opening a small rental company ourselves soon (camera equipment and support for camera equipment only; laptops, reference monitors, tripods, follow focus, etc.). But to rent basic lighting every time is insanely stupid. If you're a hobbyist, great, go for it. But if you really think it's a good idea to rent lights you use on every shoot and you're shooting often, I wonder what kind of financial sense you have, because rental rates are very unreasonable in Hollywood, at least. Maybe if you live somewhere else you get better rates?

We own all of the basic lighting we need, and it makes good sense to us to rent more expensive, powerful, "big gun" lights, because we don't need them on every shoot, so of course then renting makes perfect sense for now. We own three Arri kits, a total of three 650W lights, four 1K lights, two 300W lights, two 150W lights, and an Arri 2K light. If we need another 2K we rent it, if we need HMIs, rent. We're also going to be adding a 4x4 kino bank, though, because that's pretty useful and I'd rather not rent it every time.

Definitely pick up at least a basic lighting kit or two that you can use, though, it makes good financial sense and saves you a lot of money in the long run. Just look at what the one dude said, a 1950s Mole light that still works. What does that tell you? Own, don't rent. You rent things that depreciate in value rapidly. Lights do not.
 
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