How would you light this?

[mainstreetprod]

In Jan and Feb I will be shooting a low budget 45 minute movie at my church using the youth drama team for actors. As in most commercial spaces, most of the lighting is fluorescent. A quick eyeballing of the fixtures tells me mainly "cool white" or maybe
one notch warmer. Relamping them is not an option. Some rooms also have some incandescents, but I plan on turning those off. Little daylight will be involved.
Originally I planned on trying to light with my 3200K soft boxes, but I'm starting to think that would be a losing battle as I would have to turn off all existing lighting.
I think gelling the softboxes would result in too much light loss to make them useful.
This will be a teen comedy of sorts, so the look should be bright, no shadows, sitcomish.
Do you think I can achieve good video quality by just augmenting the existing overhead fluorescents with a couple of 4 bulb homebuilts, with matching bulbs, on stands? If not, how would you do this?

My existing equipment consists of the HVX, a 500/1000 Lowell softlight, a 1K Chimera, a 300W backlight, crane, dolly, etc. I will be shooting mainly in classrooms, hallways and the cafeteria and will have plenty of room for setups. If homemade won't work, my lighting budget is about $1000.

 

[Shawn Philip Nelson]

I would recommend getting some Kino-flo knockoffs, like the ones CoolLights has to offer. You could get a 4-bulb fixture and a 2-bulb fixture and bulbs for under $1000.

Alternately, if the light is 4100k, you can get compact flourescent bulbs that are mogul based and household base in that exact color temp. You could get a Chimera mogul base for $250 that would fit your 1k chimera, then you can buy large 105w mogul bulbs that would go inside it and be 4100k. Then you can buy smaller 4100k bulbs and use them in clamp lights with diffusion.

Before proceeding, I'd get a ladder, climb up and find the model number on those bulbs and do an online search to determine color temp and CRI.

Btw, what's the story? The only movie I've seen to come out of Nashville is Second Chance by Steve Taylor.

I used to live in Franklin Tenn and went to Steven Curtis Chapman's church, it was fun times.

 

[The Evil Mariachi]

If you've got the energy and skill to build your own flo's, go for it, there's plenty of threads on the subject that will steer you in the right direction. Use matching bulbs, white balance, and you should be golden. Before that, if you can, take some test footage at the location to see just how the available lighting will look on camera. This should also give you a good idea of how much you'll need to augment with your own flo's.

 

[mainstreetprod]

I would recommend getting some Kino-flo knockoffs, like the ones CoolLights has to offer. You could get a 4-bulb fixture and a 2-bulb fixture and bulbs for under $1000.

Alternately, if the light is 4100k, you can get compact flourescent bulbs that are mogul based and household base in that exact color temp. You could get a Chimera mogul base for $250 that would fit your 1k chimera, then you can buy large 105w mogul bulbs that would go inside it and be 4100k.

Hmmm- I call it a Chimera but it's a knockoff from Amvona- actually takes Mogul
base bulbs already. I've asked Richard with Cool Lights about this possiblity before.

Then you can buy smaller 4100k bulbs and use them in clamp lights with diffusion.

Is diffusion needed with such soft light?[/I]

Before proceeding, I'd get a ladder, climb up and find the model number on those bulbs and do an online search to determine color temp and CRI.

Btw, what's the story? The only movie I've seen to come out of Nashville is Second Chance by Steve Taylor.

[I]It's a story "Inheritance" (written by my wife) about a teen girl who inherits millions from a next door neighbor lady she befriends. She immediately becomes part of the in crowd at school, but the kids just use her and get her to buy them stuff. In the end she finds out who her friends really are and gets her priorities straight. It's intended for a church audience rather than distribution.


I used to live in Franklin Tenn and went to Steven Curtis Chapman's church, it was fun times.

We actually live in Franklin (Cool Springs), have for about 2 years- a great place to be.