Beginners lighting kit, take a look

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DanHD

Well-known member
Hey guys, you all know me: i ask a crapload of questions, always learning.


Anyways, I am looking into buying a beginner/intermediate lighting kit for under 2,000k (i know I should have budgeted more for lights)

I have an upcoming feature that I'm doing with some colleagues of mine, one of whom's Dad directs CSI, he'll be watching my work, so of course I'd like to do my best.


Anyways, the feature takes place completely and solely in a hotel room, with some minor outdoor exteriors, whithin which i'll use the usual reflectors, ect

For the indoor hotel room stuff, will this lighting kit suffice?
http://www.filmandvideolighting.com/lodpco98liki.html

It of course needs to be versetile enough to use in a variety of shooting situations, including daylight balanced stuff


are the lights included with this kit versetile? they are very powerful lights, being 1000watts. and 750watt

is that just too powerful for indoor stuff, where the talent is right in front of you?
 
Hi Dan:

A few thoughts...

1. 1ks and 750s are not very powerful, they are the average power kit lights. Generally anything above a 4k is considered very powerful.

2. The kit you have selected is decent, you have a soft source, a hard source open and a broad source open. To be honest, you would find trying to light a whole room with three lights to a challenge.

3. You need to consider lighting control. What about flags, silks, scrims, Cinefoil, C-stands, etc.? You need lights but you also need means to control the light that they put out.

Not saying you should buy the kit I am going to link to and I don't know if you could build it for $2k but it would be a heck of lot more versatile. Most kits are a huge compromise and will include a bunch of stuff that you will never use and will be missing bunch of stuff that you need.

Read this and think about it. My personal style is to obtain Chiaroscuro (Google it) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiaroscuro style lighting using a lot of small fixtures. It gives the room a much moodier, cooler look to my eye and with the kit here, I can easily do that whereas it would be impossible with the Lowel kit above.
http://www.dv.com/features/features_item.php?category=Archive&LookupId=/xml/feature/2004/graff0404

Dan
 
I am going to disagree with Dan here. Look at the lighting in an average hotel room. You have an open window source as primary light during the day. Perhaps a table lamp, and maybe a ceiling fixture. In real life, that's maybe a 1K through the curtains, a 75 practical on the desk, and a 100w practical on the ceiling. Movie world, as long as the soft source can be brought close to the subject, sunlight can be emulated. And the other lights can easily stand in for practicals, or augment real practical lights.

Again, it really depends on what you're after. I tend to like to light realistically but that's my work. I don't do much narrative, and don't often have to dictate moods. But I think some people tend to overlight scenes. Just because you have a dozen lights, doesn't mean you need to use them all in every scene...
 
funny to see the Lowell omni lights there


I was loaned a lighting kit for a short that included three lowell omni 650s, open faced


They were daylight balanced so I used CTB gels...

Are those good lights?
 
PerroneFord said:
But I think some people tend to overlight scenes. Just because you have a dozen lights, doesn't mean you need to use them all in every scene...
Click to expand...

Well, there is lighting a room and then there is sculpting and controlling the light. One of my favorite shows I ever worked on was NYPD Blue. It was lit almost exclusively with HUGE HMIs outside the windows of the police station, very few lights actually on the set. That is one style of lighting and it can work well, if you have a custom designed set and 20 grips and electricians with a few ten tons of grip gear to mold and control that light streaming in through the windows.

Since Dan has an upcoming feature, I would tend to think that he wants to light his scenes appropriately for a feature, which is usually a very different visual style than a doc or event. As I said, using lots of small aources, that is my style of lighting, doesn't mean its the right style for everyone. But I do know that you are not going to be able to zone light or light multiple planes of light and dark with three lights. It all depends on the visual language he wants to use. But I don't see doing more than singles with that lighting kit, too few sources. Hows he going to get a killer looking master establishing shot of the whole room with just those three lights and give it much style?

Lighting for exposure is different than lighting to evoke mood.

Dan
 
DanHD said:
funny to see the Lowell omni lights there


I was loaned a lighting kit for a short that included three lowell omni 650s, open faced


They were daylight balanced so I used CTB gels...

Are those good lights?
Click to expand...

Omnis are a good cheap light. They are cruder and less versatile than a nice fresnel but they are useful, tough and cheap.

I don't own any, for my porta-kit, I have an Arri 650, 300, 150, Lowel V-Light, Lowel Pro Light, some Kinos, etc. But the kind of lights you have is not really that big of a factor, it's the grip and lighting control that matters. You could give me a kit with just Lowels and I could make it work just as well, it's just that I have to work harder to get the result I like with all open faced lights. They don't have a soft, focusable spread like a fresnel, but they cost a lot less too. For a softbox, open face is better. For throwing patterns and lighting BGs, I like fresnels better.

D
 
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