HELP! Dont have 3,000$ for expensive lighting... but will this work?

That's not really sufficient for anything other than raising the ambience level of light. Softboxes will spill lights everywhere and you have no control, no way to create shadows and contrast within a scene. Plus those lights have zero resale values for when you want to upgrade, $400 seems a waste. I'd recommend going with bargain brand tungsten like Briteks just so you can learn what it's like to work with lights.

http://rostronics.com/products.asp?cat=27

For around $500-600 you can put together a 3 point light kit that'll get you started. I see that Rostronics just lowered the price on Briteks again so they're dirt cheap now. A lot of people rag on Briteks because the build quality isn't the best, but I've been using them for months and lights are lights, they work just fine as a starting point.

BTW, buy some sand bags to weight down the stands so you don't have an accident on set!
 
Amvona softboxes are good kit for the money...i'd stay away from the light though. You're not digging though, for that type of coin you can do even better than a 3 point.
 
LIGHTING is like learning another language for me, i dont understand it at all.
And unfortunately this a very important thing that i have to handle along with the millions of other things trying to get this movie made.

What is a 3 point light?
 
Huy, you seem to know alot about light. I saw on your reel that you are a Director of Photography. That's cool. How did you learn that?
 
GageFX said:
Huy, you seem to know alot about light. I saw on your reel that you are a Director of Photography. That's cool. How did you learn that?
Click to expand...

Haha, it's easy to claim the title, but I really know nothing compared to a lot of other people here. I've always been interested in cinematography and I take every chance I can to mess around with lights, learning through trial and errors. I've only recently started putting together a kit of my own; before that I borrowed my friend's Britek light kit for all my stuff. They work very well and are dirt cheap compared to most other brands. Of course you do get what you pay for, but they were a valuable learning tool when I was just getting my feet wet; at that stage, just having the chance to mess around with (semi)-professional fixtures helped me gain valuable experience. Arri or Britek, it's all about learning how to use them.

Jay, lights for photography and lights for film can usually be used interchangeably, although what I've learn so far is you really need to be able to control where your lights are falling. That's why features like barndoors and flood controls comes in really handy, and grip gears are gonna be vital investments further down the road. Ideally you would want a mixture of soft light (like flourescent) and hard light source, soft light as a fill or soft key, and hard light as rim light or kicker. If you can swing it, I would really recommend investing in a Cool Lights fixture or two; those flourescent works wonder at being able to eliminate unwanted shadows on the walls, a staple of indie films.

Anyway, yea, that's the kit, although I would just buy from Rostronics instead of ebay; their customer services are pretty good from what I hear and their prices are low. I would start with a 1k w/ softbox, one or two 650w and a 300w, all with stands and sandbags.
 
I have those Amvona lights. I picked them up for $400.00 shipped & taxes included bout 3 years ago. I got ahold of cool lights CL-20032 200W CRI 8U softbox bulb and use those in them instead. This ensures I don't blow any fuses at location as the 1000w bulbs will trip your breakers if you don't rewire your location to handle the power.

They are good lights for lighting up the set. I then use 650 fresnel lights to create depth. Throw a 150 or 300 as a kicker and the shoot goes off very well & looks great.

JayOspina818, you don't necessarily have to spend alot of money to light your shoot right. I use several different types of lights that I have put together piece by piece. I don't use Arris. I would have liked to but I don't & not one person has ever said to me while watching the finshed shots, "hey, you lit that scene with an Altman or a Blueline"!

Experiment with what works for you & you will find that you will be able to create styles unique to yourself and very professional with artistic qualities.

That being said, Huy Vu is correct in stating that they are limited in function (the Amvonas). You really do need to control your spill. You can flag off the Amvonas with simple taped black bristol board & you will find that it makes a hell of a difference. That with an egg crate & you'll have much more control.
(don't use black bristol board with the stock Amvona bulbs they get way to hot).

Experiment,experiment and again, experiment. Then do a little reading, then experiment again. That's how we all learned.

Steve
 
Damn, thanks alot Steve and everyone else for their advice...
You have noo idea how much this is helping. But im so inexperienced with lighting its not my playing field.
i can write and direct. but trying to do everything else as a novice is tough.

One more question....

What is the best way to shoot outdoors, at Night with the dvx?
 
This is why you hire a cinematographer haha. But really, pick up the 5 c's of cinematography. Its older then your grandma but still very informative.
I have gotten good results shooting 24p at 1/24 of a second shutter any sort of quick movement is going to mess things up however.
 
When I shoot at night i'm on 1/48 shutter 24p with iris wide open. I try to choose the best location with it's own ambient light avail. That said, with todays energy concsious society, the street lights are all orange/yellow and require some extensive color correction. You really can't use the dvx at night without some sort of light and get really outstanding results. I've bounced car headlights off of foamcore to light scenes that turned out not to bad.

That said, best way to shoot at night is with fresnel kits. 8-20k lights are what your looking for if you want pro results. Look at the night scenes of most movies and you will notice the background is hit really hard with powerful lights from a way up in the sky. I'd love to light like that but it just aint going to happen with my 650......lol..
 
I have 5 of the Amvona lights, 4 medium and one large softbox. The mediums
are 500w but I have used 1000w in a pinch, the light is rated for it. I just make sure all the vents are open and keep an eye on it. IGNORE AMVONA'S LIST PRICES OR AUCTIONS WITH HIGH STARTING BIDS. The auction you found is fixed price. You need to find the ones you can bid on, such as this one:

http://cgi.ebay.com/PHOTO-DIGITAL-V...oryZ3860QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem




The typical selling price of the medium lights in these auctions is as little as $60 -$75 (!):thumbsup: The sets of two or three often average even less per light.


At that price you can just buy an extra in case one breaks. Mine have held up well. I also bought the Cool Lights 200w bulbs, but no longer need them after shooting a feature. I now use the regular bulbs. Amvona auctions the bulbs starting at a buck or two, so you can afford extras, unllike the name brands.

Obviously a good light kit will need more than soft lights, but these handle the
job nicely and for a song.
 
Jay, there is a ton of information on lighting around these forums, as well as links to other good sites. Just do lots of searches.
I still don't know that much about lighting, but I've learned a lot here. I also decided which lights to buy just by searching for them and reading discussions on them.

I was in a similar situation as you, and i ended up buying a 650 watt Arri fresnel, and it's awesome. I love it. It's not very soft, but you can bounce it off of white foamcore, or put a white sheet in front of it to diffuse it. It's also very well-made.

I've got a bunch of much smaller, cheaper, wal-mart-type lights, but the Arri is my one "big" light.
 
Cool Lights (a site sponsor) has some unique and advanced energy efficient offerings and you don't have to spend thousands to get a good kit. Our CDM 150w fresnel for instance doesn't generate the heat output that many of these other solutions do and still gives you a very hard light when you need it or can be softened up with diffusion if you prefer.

http://www.coollights.biz/clmf0150-cool-lights-fresnel-p-63.html

A fresnel offers so much more control than open-faced lights with its focusing mechanism and lens plus you get daylight inherently without gelling with this product. Hope this helps.
 
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