Is this a good deal?

J

jona816

Well-known member
Hi all,

pretty new to this forum, although I have been browsing around in the HMC150 forum for quite some time but this is my first post. I have a HMC150 on the way and i'm just getting myself prepared (narrative filmmaking) and have been looking into light kits. However, have been making lots and lots of purchases and frankly, money is getting tighter and tighter. i stumbled on this kit on ebay and am wondering if this is any good, is it overkill, do i need a setup such that (will be doing some indoor filming that involves nighttime shots, ie: dark bedroom, etc) In any case, any advice, tips, suggestions would be great. Oh, and let me know what you guys think about this kit.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&item=360093185664
 
You get what you pay for. You are buying a $3,600.00 camera and only a $499.00 lighting kit? What about grip gear? What about audio gear? What about a tripod, extra batteries and cards, a case, a monitor, etc.?

IMHO, if you need a total production package (perhaps you don't or already have all of the support gear?), you are doing what most inexperienced people do, they buy a camera that is too expensive for their budget and they have almost nothing left for support gear, grip, lighting and audio. Just to give you an idea of what I am speaking of, I shoot with an HPX-170, a a $5,200.00 camera. My grip, lighting and audio gear that goes with my camera cost about $110,000.00 total. Thats for a 3 ton G&L package and a pretty complete audio package Not saying you need to spend $110k to get a good package, but IMHO, for a total production package for a small, cheap camera, realistically to shoot narrative, you need about $15 to $20k worth of support gear to do it right. The lighting kit in your link is okay for doing a talking head but what about lighting an entire living room for that scene in your script? Can't do it with any kit, you need racks of C-stands, light stands, bigger lights, sandbags, flags, silks, etc. to do that.

Just my .02 worth,

Dan
 
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puredrifting said:
You get what you pay for. You are buying a $3,600.00 camera and only a $499.00 lighting kit? What about grip gear? What about audio gear? What about a tripod, extra batteries and cards, a case, a monitor, etc.?

IMHO, if you need a total production package (perhaps you don't or already have all of the support gear?), you are doing what most inexperienced people do, they buy a camera that is too expensive for their budget and they have almost nothing left for support gear, grip, lighting and audio. Just to give you an idea of what I am speaking of, I shoot with an HPX-170, a a $5,200.00 camera. My grip, lighting and audio gear that goes with my camera cost about $110,000.00 total. Thats for a 3 ton G&L package and a pretty complete audio package Not saying you need to spend $110k to get a good package, but IMHO, for a total production package for a small, cheap camera, realistically to shoot narrative, you need about $15 to $20k worth of support gear to do it right. The lighting kit in your link is okay for doing a talking head but what about lighting an entire living room for that scene in your script? Can't do it with any kit, you need racks of C-stands, light stands, bigger lights, sandbags, flags, silks, etc. to do that.

Just my .02 worth,

Dan
Click to expand...

Thanks for the knowledge Dan.:)
 
Thanks Dan for your .02. Fairly new at this and have been out of this "industry" for quite some time so i'm basically starting from the ground up. I'm starting really, really slow and just thought of making a few shorts here and there and work my way up. I'm more in the directing realm as opposed to the technicalities so yeah, i dont know what the hell i'm doing, lol. In any case, thanks for that quick swift in the arse, i needed a reality check.
 
I disagree somewhat that you need $15k to shoot, but clearly, you need to rethink your budgeting. An average camera with great lighting and sound is going to look a LOT better than a great camera with poor lighting and weak sound.

That said, buy what you can afford, and shoot what you can afford. Maybe you can't light a gymnasium at night for your film, so shoot in the corner of one. Ya know?
 
Thanks Perrone. I dont plan on going Hollywood here, just want to be able to establish a good image when shooting. Great advice, thanks again.
 
PerroneFord said:
I disagree somewhat that you need $15k to shoot, but clearly, you need to rethink your budgeting. An average camera with great lighting and sound is going to look a LOT better than a great camera with poor lighting and weak sound.
Click to expand...

The number is difficult to pin down but I just wanted to get across that a small lighting kit and grip package is not enough to shoot narrative scene interiors unless your entire film is CUs or exteriors. And even exteriors, you still need to control the light. I know that $15 to $20k sounds like a lot but if you add it up, everything needed to really do it right, you easily surpass that figure almost immediately. I am speaking from a professional place though, if you are doing it on weekends as a hobby, I totally agree, you don't need nearly that much $$$ if you are talking broom handles for boompoles and Home Depot worklights, etc. Not impossible to get some real results with homemmade solutions but almost impossible for a newbie to do it.

Dan
 
Dan, I know where you're going. And as a pro, you're certainly right.

I dropped about $3.5k on lights and stands, built the frames for my silks and reflectors myself from home depot gear, bought a decent (but not great) shotgun mic, a used mic-boom stand etc. I already had an Edirol R-4 and some good headphones so that was just a plus.

For a person running a 1-man show, I think you can get away with less. But once you start to add a crew, and the tools a crew would need, then you are certainly getting into real money. For me, the boompole and requisite accessories were unnecessary since I have no sound guy.

If I need to monitor in the field, I pull my monitor from the editing suite as I can't afford a field monitor. I bought Lowel's (except for the Mole 2k) because they do the job and are dependable enough for me. My silks and reflectors cost about $150 for all 3 of them including material. A set of roadrags would have cost four times that.

Sometimes I think we tend to go overboard in lights and gear. Certainly I have not done any pro level narrative work, but I have done some live event work in big rooms. My normal live event room is nearly 4000sqft. I can light that well enough with what I have to do nearly anything I want in there. I'd need a couple 18ks in there to make it daylight, but with the 2k, a silk, a reflector, and a Tota, I can certainly create a pleasing look. A decent mic off-camera and I have decent sound.

I think a hobbyist is probably going to be looking at a camera:light/grip ration of 2:1 or maybe 1:1. For a pro, this could quite likely be 1:3 - 1:10 depending on what you're doing. For a feature, all bets are off. I'd say that for shooting with my EX1, if I was using a 1:1 ratio, I could be quite nicely set up with $6k in lighting and grip gear, especially if I stayed out of HMIs and Fluos.
 
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