Lighting question

I wouldn't buy a light kit without 1 large soft light to go with it. And as always with soft lights: as big as possible :) The soft stuff that comes out of a Kinoflo looks like $$$

I consider this Lowel kit to be suitable in most of my situations:

http://www.lowel.com/kits/rifaPro88.html

in addition, I'd buy a Fren-L 650 or Omni for flexibility. This all adds up to around $2400.

I've also found some other recommended sites, but haven't tried anything from them. Though some of those HID lamps looks extremely promising:

http://www.paperlanternstore.com/cordkitsbulbs.html

http://alzovideo.com/alzo_video_hmi_location_kit_studio_i.htm

http://www.skaeser.com/

http://vidled.com/products.html

Hope you find something useful.

Like I said: 1 huge soft light, 1 small flexible backlight and 1 medium flexible fill light should suit most needs.
 
Lowel's Rifa light is the coolest light on the planet! I actually prefer it over Kinos as u gave to either whitebalance or gell kinos to get reall thungsten temp (they are always just a bit off). Plus Rifas are so easy and quick to set up. I light with Kinos quite often but prefer the reality of "burning" light that comes from thungsten units.
 
Alright heck, I'll throw my 0.02 in...

150's are great for accents or tight spaces but buy 'em when you find that you really need them.

IMHO, for a good, general purpose, interior lighting kit you should have the following:

1) Soft light for primary key on talent. Definitely can't go wrong with a 6-lamp daylight balanced fluorescent. Don't need dimming; use distance and/or the bank switches to control output. Also, dimming down below 60% will alter the color temp towards the warm side. Moreover, the lamps last a lot longer than tungstens in a softbox. I personally ordered one of the 6-lamp, non-dimmable portable ones from Coollights.

2) A couple of 650w fresnels (my favorite wattage). A good, all-around hard light that can be knocked down and controlled in a variety of ways if you need to. Use these for general fill, accents, rim/hair lighting, etc. Now I prefer to keep everything daylight balanced which means gelling up tungstens with CTB's, which of course means losing a fair amount of light. You could use daylight balanced HMI's but they're generally quite expensive however, Coollights just released a very reasonably priced 150w CDM/HMI frensel (which I also ordered a couple of) that puts out as much light as a 650w tungsten with far lower heat output and power requirements plus the bulbs last a lot longer.

3) Two or three of Chinese lanterns; very versatile.

4) A variety tungsten and daylight balanced CFL's in various wattages to use in the lanterns or to replace practicals when necessary.

5) Grip. Can't emphasize enough the need to have 'stuff' to control the lighting. Bounce cards, flags, scrims, blackwrap, gels, silks, nets, etc. You could go crazy here but the first few items should definitely be in your bag. Don't forget the other things like clamps, tape, etc.

Other (in order of my own preference):

1) Two or three 150w fresnels to use as accents
2) Another flo; to use as fill or raising general ambient lighting.
3) A couple of open-faced lights; also great for raising ambient lighting
4) 2K fresnel or PAR; when some major interior punch is needed or to simulate exterior lighting coming from outside a window for example

Hope that helps...

Cheers,
 
We had 3 of those kits along with 8 150's at the public access station I worked at. I loved those lights and the case they come with is awesome. Some good gels and a bounce card or two would be good to have as well.

Just my 2 cents
 
OK, here's my .03 cents. You need to think in terms of service life for all the equipment you buy. And you also should think about the types of gigs you get moving up the chain to larger crews, bigger budgets during the course of your gear's service life. You want to use your gear on narative stuff, so you'll be mixing a lot of the time with daylight, and with the exception of daylight balanced fluorescents your package is very tungsten heavy. The smaller tungsten fixtures (1k and down) will seldom be useful on anything but medium shots for daytime interiors where you are fighting a lot of ambient. Once you blue your tungsten's they loose all their punch. If I were plopping down money for a starter narrative kit, I would probably opt for buying a some used Moles, at one 2k openface and one 2k fresnel. I'd also try to get a chimera for the 2k openface, but if that is too much $$$ then a 4' frame with diffusion and some flags accomplishes the same thing in a more flexible way. Those along with a few 300 or 150s (dedos are the best here) for little touches, and a couple of Kinos are a great way to start. The next thing I would look for is a 1.2k HMI Par. Those lights are pricey to be sure, but I guarantee that once you get one, they will be the first light off your truck and the last one on...every day. I'd save the money you spend for the fancy Arri box which comes with your lighting kit, buy some milk-crates, and save for at least one HMI to give you some daylight punch, and allow you to start lighting for wider shots.
 
What you have as a power source has to come into play as well - if you aren't shooting in a studio. In the field, with any thing more than one of the Arri kits, it begins to become a challenge to get the whole scene lit without tripping the circuits. AC running all over the place. I do a lot of model homes and I've become very adpet at finding where the cirduit breaker boxes are located.
Fluorescents are becoming a great option as they improve the technology, I'm definately looking into supplimenting what I have.
 
Hey I just wanted to thank everyone for their advice and suggestions!! I went ahead and purchased the ARRI kit i was looking at and LOVE it! i DO have a one real quick question: I noticed a case that came with the kit that looks like it holds the bulbs, do you suggest taking the bulbs out of the light in-between shoots? Or is it AOK to keep them in the lights at all times? Once again, thank you so much for the advice!
 
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