Help a green guy with his green screen-- light suggestions

[Smores]

Greetings wise ones. I have come to mountain to seek advice and wisdom regarding lighting for my project with an extremely tight budget. I read so many posts, my eyes are bleeding.
Because I'm starting my lighting from scratch I knew I would get sage advice. Specifically, I would like advice regarding lights needed for the interior shoots. I figured for larger shoots outside (I could use flags and silks) or rent a grip truck for night shoots.

Most of the filming indoors will be Greenscreen.

Here is the equipment I have:
1. Panasonic HVX-170
2. Manfrotto 351MVB Aluminum Pro Tripod, 503HDV Pro Video Head
3. 10 ft stand for a 20’x10’ green screen
4. Ultra Magic Green Screen software (digital vector mapping and backgrounds which creates an AVI)
5. AVID Media Composer

QUESTIONs:
1. I have fairly limited studio space-- 10'x14'. How far from the greenscreen should the talent ideally be placed? This is also important for setup of lights.
2. I figured I would light the talent with 3-point lighting using a kit such as:
a. Britek 1800W 3 light kit with boom; or
b. 2250 Watt BluLine 3 Light Kit
Both of these kits go for about $500
3. Then, I figured I might be able to light the greenscreen using something like two of these 1200 Watt Oval Twin Head Halogen Worklight on either sides with diffusers (perhaps shower curtains if I can safely place them far enough away).

4. Or, maybe I could use Oriental globe shade(s) with practicals to backlight my talent. Then, get another Fresnel to match the one from one of the aforementioned 3-light kits to evenly light the greenscreen…?

I need to do this on the cheap here. My main concern is a reliable setup for my studio. Though, ideally, I need a setup where I could fly and transport my gear for interviews (with a smaller greenscreen setup, presumably). I need to build this project in phases and hopefully grow with more funding later. So, I want to be able to build with decent stuff. I recognize I could pay an arm and a leg for whopper lighting, but I don’t think it’s necessary for the scale I’ll mostly be shooting. However, I don’t want to go so cheap that bulbs pop and it’s a waste of money. If I could keep my lighting budget around $750-800 for the first phase of the project I’d be happy.

I suspect I’ll also need:
· Work gloves, so I figured I would get these hot mill gloves geared to 400 degrees F.
· And, it sounds like I’ll probably need a gangbox, right? Suggestions?
· Plus, I figured I would get an inexpensive (analog) light meter…to verify the greenscreen is fairly evenly lit. Something like Sekonic Studio Deluxe 2 light meter

Some other odds and ends needed:
· Gaffers tape
· Sandbags
· Stingers
· Edison adapters
Suggestions which kits (or individual lights) to get as well as where I might pick up some stuff in or around Hollywood is greatly apprecaited!

Thanks in advance!!!

 

[RandomHero]

Check this stuff out.
http://www.dvcreators.net/reflecmedia-green-and-blue-screen-chromakey/
Reflecmedia. There's a video on how easy it is to use here,
http://www.dvcreators.net/chroma-key-in-hd/
and it takes all the guess work out of your keying. You have your talent 3 ft off the curtain, your camera 10 ft off the talent, and boom. Throw a couple key lights on your talent, hair light, whatever, and it's done. Amazing key-ability. And it just dropped from $2700 to $1500 for the full kit, lightring and all. If you're going to be doing a lot of green screen work, it's definitely the way to go... there's my two cents

 

[puredrifting]

I use the ChromaFlex on a daily basis. Just beware that any of your talent that wears glasses will have green circular reflections in their glasses with this setup. To do a separate matte layer to key out these reflections and replace with white/gray so that they look like light reflections is a *****. I am doing it right now on two projects, it's a PITA.

Other than that caveat the ChromaFlex rocks.

Dan

 

[Smores]

Thanks RandomHero.
That doesn't address my quest for light suggestions; though it does give me a better feel for depth of talent versus camera (at least for that particular technology). And, it also jacks my budget up a good chunk more since, if I understand it correctly, relies on an addition to the camera.

Anyone else have suggestions for particular light kits within the $800 range?

 

[Smores]

Good to know on the glasses, Dan. Thanks.

 

[RandomHero]

Well, the idea behind that was that it eliminates the need to light your green screen. So although it raises your initial budget a little, you save on lighting, time consumption, energy consumption, the amount of gear you have to haul around if you go on location somewhere, and it's much cooler on your talent than having a bunch of hot lights all around. The addition to your camera is in the form of an LED lightring that comes with the package. So overall, it wouldn't take too long to pay for itself if you use it frequently