$10k + what lights/grip equipment?

Kevin Vega

Kevin Vega

Carbonite Member
So I've got $10k budgeted for grip and lights; either purchases or rentals.


What would the essentials be?

We're shooting mostly inside of a house... with a few scenes in cars, and some outside (day and night). The exterior scenes may, or may not, have snow on the ground.


Camera: Hacked GH2 and T4i for any shot where we're backed into corner and absolutely need a wider angle, and can't get it with the GH2.
 
Between lights, flags, silks, stands, generators, dolly, and jib, I don't think $10k is really all that much regardless of the camera.

I mean I am also considering the BM Cinema Camera to replace the GH2, but it's an extra few thousand dollars. Do you think shooting with that and then chopping off $2k from the grip/lighting budget would be any good?
 
10k and gh2/t4i is interesting indeed ^^ well. . . i would go 5k with that setup gives you a good "rounded" set (basic) i guess (far from expert, very far but done some research and will be getting a basic set as well)

i would get fresnels, led arnt there yet (dont ask manufacturers of LED lights or . . . well i better stop here before I accedently insult someone :/ ) if you want good led light (quality) you have to lower the watt/lum and end up pretty close to the old tech which isnt worth the extra money. . . (though aside from watt/lum the "less heat" might be of intrest when it comes to LED but thats pretty much it. . . maybe size? "MAYBE" . . .)

and flos? TOO "specific" would rather rent cuz a nice fresnel aimed at ceiling/wall or some nice white foamcore gives you beatiful soft light (if ya got the money get chimeras and most fresnels can be used open faced and voila super smooth ;) )
so out of a 1k fresnel, you can get diffused light through butterlys or the stuff metnioned above and some nice hard light ((i LUV hard light *and noirs)

basic set would be, i guess 1x 150/300watt 1x 300/650watt and 1x 650/1000 (ONE in each category, i went 300,1000 and will probably get me a 150 as well)

you can go all ARRI with your budget, nice to rent out people love arri ^^ (deservingly, I guess) and if you are smart and got the time, you can get it 50% off? HOW?! Well send me an email. . . . just kidding ^^ all you gotta do is get the "last year" version
should be the "arri plus" instead of the true blues of this year. Pretty much the same only minor updates and light are ALMOST like sound equipment, you buy once (smart) and keep long. if you dont rape your equipment (or let others rape it) than all ya do is change the bulb :)

the lights can be had for under/around 1k US $ wanna spend more? Buy 2 of each :) seriously, you can do SOOOO much with them (key, fill, reflect, foreground, background etc)

next are stands which i havent had enough research done on so hope I'll learn more in this thread basically good sturdy stands that need a sandbag or two and voila no falling to "da ground" (unless you tackle'm) though in studio and no "kiddys" runnin around should be able to use without sandbags, i guess.

to the lamps, i didnt include barndors, scrims etc cuz dunno ^^ i would buy doors, kinda must but scrims i guess if ya wanna cheap out on them nobodys gonna seriously be like "WHERE AR TEH SCRIMS, YO?!"
cables, dont buy super cheap but not super expensive either ^^
diffusion? i can only talk DIY and with your budget that seems like too much hussle. Get ursel some nice butterflys (black and white) i would suggest one medium and one large 4x4 8x8
a chimera for the 650 or 1000 if ya need easy, fast diffu and space is an issue (cuz butterflys are awesome though need their own stands and sopace etc)

oh a set of filters ctb cto 1/2 1/4 etc or course. . .

clamps, no much info on these (as in "whats inside a basic lighting-bag", cuz basic info i got, but what one needs when starting out might be interesting to me as well :) )

a generator should be rented if ya really only doing "some outside day/night and car rest inside a house"


but wow, really 10k for light grip and shootin on gh2? most people shoot there whole feature with as much ^^ so please explain :)
cuz depending on the money, you could buy it all and rent out for the production if the ppl who are giving you the money dont care ^^
 
10k really won't get you anywhere honestly, it sounds like a lot, but if you consider a good american grip combo stand goes for around 400, and having about 4 of those is good.... Eek!

For lighting I'd start with maybe 2 kino 4x4s and have some small fresnels (Mole!) For what you are doing this might be a good kit:

2x Mini Moles (250s (or jump into the Betweenies if you have some more left over)
2x Tweenies (650s)
2x Babies (1000w)

For the grip gear, you can look at this: http://www.cinemagadgets.com/productdetail/3257
 
I found this:
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/752202-REG/Arri_571991P_Softbank_III_Plus_5.html

That should pretty much cover 90% of what we need indoors, maybe add a few silks and flags; but what about outside? I was leaning towards HMIs, but not really sure. I'm definitely looking at large silks/butterflys to knock down the sun, but should we be using HMIs during the day to fill-in any shadows or anything? What about at night?

I found a place to rent HMIs but a package of Arrisun Pars (1- 1200w, 1- 575w, 1- 200w) would go for about $3500 for a month.
 
Kevin Vega said:
I found this:
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/752202-REG/Arri_571991P_Softbank_III_Plus_5.html

That should pretty much cover 90% of what we need indoors, maybe add a few silks and flags; but what about outside? I was leaning towards HMIs, but not really sure. I'm definitely looking at large silks/butterflys to knock down the sun, but should we be using HMIs during the day to fill-in any shadows or anything? What about at night?

I found a place to rent HMIs but a package of Arrisun Pars (1- 1200w, 1- 575w, 1- 200w) would go for about $3500 for a month.
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I don't have a problem with Arris (in most cases), but Mole lights can take more of a beating. The Arri softbank kits aren't that great anyway, the stands are cheap and its annoying to deal with.
For that same price you can get some good used mole lights AND have spare to get some good aluminum baby 3-riser stands (heck if you're lucky even beefy baby stands)
 
For 10k you can get a million times the gear though a 3 ton or similar truck. I would do that over buying any day of the week and twice on Sundays. Especially if you have outdoor scenes where you need lighting controls for a large area. Remember that flags, silks, cutters, and the grip to rig them are just as important as lights. You didn't say how long your shoot is....

10k light/grip isn't weird for DSLR shoots. It makes them work well.
 
Shoot would be 24 days, 6 day weeks.

I could certainly rent everything:

http://locationlighting.com/site/tungsten_lighting.htm#packages - The small package here would go for about $2750 for a month.

The HMI package goes for $3500 a month. Add their 3-ton grip truck which should come out to about $4000 a month, but then I have to add their staff grip (which I don't have budgeted) at $425 a day (almost more than my highest paid actor).

So that's $10k for grip and lights, excluding their staff grip, a generator and a dolly or jib.
 
I've moved this from Cinematography to Lighting. However, I've left the links as expiring re-directs for three days. I hope you get some great responses!
 
Just a thought.

If you spend 10k on rental you have $0 at the end, so you should be able to have $20k in lights, sell them at the end for $10k, and you have $0

Id probably get flos and tungsten for $5-6k and use the rest on renting a couple of HMI when needed

S
 
Really all of these suggestions are pushing me out of my budget. Everything here goes right to the $10k limit, and I still need a dolly and a jib.
 
I think that is because there is lack of clarity (esp with move to lighting section) about your 'grip' requirement ie some understand grip to mean light stands/flags others understand that to mean camera support, others understand it to mean both..

Maybe the question is I have $10g for all filmmaking gear, excluding post and a camera

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grip_(job) somewhat clarifies the lack of clarity on what grip is !

As for sorting both I think you have three options

-buy minimal but pro level gear, shoot within the limits
-rent pro gear
-go down a grey route of cheapo off brand bits and bobs that may or may not last the duration of the shoot, and may or may not have value at the end of it

I would not suggest the third..

S
 
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morgan_moore said:
I think that is because there is lack of clarity (esp with move to lighting section) about your 'grip' requirement ie some understand grip to mean light stands/flags others understand that to mean camera support, others understand it to mean both..

Maybe the question is I have $10g for all filmmaking gear, excluding post and a camera

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grip_(job) somewhat clarifies the lack of clarity on what grip is !

As for sorting both I think you have three options

-buy minimal but pro level gear, shoot within the limits
-rent pro gear
-go down a grey route of cheapo off brand bits and bobs that may or may not last the duration of the shoot, and may or may not have value at the end of it

I would not suggest the third..

S
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Grip in the sense of what I'm talking about is, stands, silks, flags, generators, sand bags, dollies and jibs. Camera, steadicam, tripods, lenses belong to the camera department. Lights to the electric/gaffer departement. And of course all things audio (except sound blankets) are the audio department.

So I'm looking for everything minus audio, camera, steadicam, tripods and lenses in a $10k budget.
 
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Kevin Vega said:
Grip in the sense of what I'm talking about is, stands, silks, flags, generators, sand bags, dollies and jibs. Camera, steadicam, tripods, lenses belong to the camera department. Lights to the electric/gaffer departement. And of course all things audio (except sound blankets) are the audio department.

So I'm looking for everything minus audio, camera, steadicam, tripods and lenses in a $10k budget.
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Don't think you'd find many good generators to fit in the budget. You might find some cheaper dollies and jibs, but would be better off renting those depending on how heavy your camera system is (and from the looks of it, a 200$ jib won't do the trick)
 
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