Best lights under 75 bucks

Mike Krumlauf

Mike Krumlauf

Award Winning Filmmaker
I am shooting my first feature. I am running low...i mean LOW on money. I already invested allot from the HVX200....to the audio system. I was wondering what was the best lights i could get for 75 bucks or under?

Thanks,
Mike
 
china lanterns and worklights. Get creative with your light control mainly. Parchment paper and aluminum foil are both pretty handy. Cut up a large cardboard box and use the pieces as flags.
 
Best lights under $75? Maybe the question should be are there ANY lights under $75?!

But if you really only have a $75 lighting budget for a feature, go find the best deal on 3 double headed 500watt work lights with stands. Pick up some black wrap (or aluminum foil), a few 1/2 ctb (convert-to-blue) gels, and a semi opaque white shower curtain. Take the shower curtain and make some sort of silk out of it, you can use pvc pipe for a frame or just hang it using tape and a stand. You can use the shower curtain with lights behind it (at least a few feet) for soft light and use the other lights with foil wrapped on them for hard light.

Other than that utilize available light by bouncing light from mirrors and reflectors (Windshield reflectors or white boards), you can also light your scenes by using practical lights, move them around to accommodate the scene or even replace the practicals with higher wattage practicals.

You can probably do everything I just said for under $100 if you really shop.

Good luck!
 
Basically what everybody has said.

China balls for ambience and then work lights with frames of diffusion for a more controllable light.
 
thanks for all your advice. I do hear though that the work lights can be dangerous to work with due to them getting really hot? is this true? and can i make softboxes for those?
 
The work lights do get really hot, and it will be uncomfortable around them, but as long as you don't let anyone touch them, you should be fine. I have yet to see anybody come up with a reliable method of using them with any kind of softbox, purchased or DIY. If I were you, I would spend your money on getting a bunch of china balls, then begging and borrowing mafers to hang them everywhere. I'm sure you can go dumpster diving and garage cleaning and find stuff to creatively support them. I think that they'll give you the most bang for your buck. All other needed light can be scoops and practicals. I don't think you'll want to work with worklights, because from experience I can say all you'll want to use them for is background lighting, and even that they suck at. They take way too much work for how much you'll get out of them.
 
China balls
Hardware store clip-lamps up to 200 watts
Home store fluorescent fixtures
500 watt quartz halogen work lights (find a way to mount onto a real stand)
PAR 20, 50, and PAR 38 up to 250 watts
My favorite - PAR64 Par cans

.
 
I have a hotel room, a bagel shop, a party in a backyard at night, a train station at night, the inside of a car at night, and i believe thats it.....the rest i am using the sun....the rest of the shots are outside
 
In my opinion worklights are ok for soft ambience lighting inside - you can bounce them off of walls, ceilings and reflectors. In combination with a good superclamp and a stand, a 500W worklight isn't that much worse than a Lowell tota. However you need the good stand and clamps - and that alone will be more than 75 Bucks. The stands that come with worklights are usually of very limited use.
 
Don't skimp on lighting. If you do it will be apparent in the quality of your project. Borrow some decent lights. Get someone with some experience to help you out.
 
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canadian tire always has worklights on sale, I picked up 3 of them for $60. There 2x250w tho, not the 500w ones.

*Single 500W halogens go for $10 ea. you could buy 4 of those and 4 bulbs to change the light temp.
 
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