new lighting kit

PaPa

PaPa

Major Contributor
You guys were absolutely right about britek. Everything had gone smooth sailing up untill this moment, but today i had a fuse blow on me and a light, very spontaneous without reason ( i fixed the fuse by wrapping it in aluminum foil )

so im scraping together 3 grand, and want to get a kit that will do me well for a long tiem to come.

i would like to stick religously with Arri ( not sure why, ive used them before and love them ) and i see them everywhere which is just a hype thing

so, for the last little bit ive been using the britek 600/1200 lights with barned doors and softboxes, which has proven to be very very adiquate for everything ive done up untill now.

but

i want something that will last the rest of my life ( being slightly sarcastic )
so i want to know what you guys think i should do.

Arri lights
would like ot have some fresnels and open faced flood lights with doors and softboxes.

does anyone have any reocmmendations?

i see the arrilite 650's are top sellers, do you guys recommend those?

which manufacturer makes good softboxes for them?

preferably, i would like to get a 150W, 300W, 650W, 1k and 2K lights.

Which of these would you get as fresnels, and which as floods? IS there a reason to chose one over the other?

- I understand that having a higher concentration beam ( spot ) with the fresnel produces more footcandles of light from a farther distance, but how about after poppin on a softbox?
 
As always, difficult to recommend anything without knowing what it is going to be used for... My light Kit consist of a Arri Fresnel-150W , 300W, 650W and a chimera (all have stands, barm doors, etc... 2 650w flood light. Such a kit will do for interview type, or shooting in small places. I am about to add a 1k 7" Fresnel and a 2k soft light. I also have c-stands, gels etc...

I like the Fresnel the best as well as the soft lights (which I ususally rent).
 
sorry, i do narrative work. fictional stuff. So far i have had a great tiem with the two 600/1200 watts with doors and boxes, but i want something more controllable and expansive.

When to go fresnel and when to go flood?
 
bump

also, are the 650 floods going to cut it for flood light? I.e. do you recommend swapping bulbs to lighter wattages when i need less light, or do you recommend just scrimming them? or do you recommend having each wattage as its proper light?
 
If you do want a 2k fresnel, you might want to check used Mole on eBay (look for Mole Richardson #412). They regularly go for ~$150.00 and bulbs can be had for as little as $15.00.
 
that looks like a very nice buy vidled, might take a jump at it

but other than that, in terms of a do it all kit ( again im oversimplifying the term ) would this do? Are there items in there you may think are not necessary?

and again, when to use fresnel, when to use open face? i dont necessarily mean which one is better cause i understand that a fresnel is a more direct spot light beam, i.e. more footcandles of light in longer distances, but it also means a harsher light, therefor i dont know does one use them mostly with softboxes or filter infront?

All this to say, what are the practical applications of fresnels?
 
When it comes down to it, each light has a different purpose, but they can also mimic other lights with some tricks (gels, frosts, soft-boxes, snoots, barndoors, etc.)
In the end, lighting is so bloody important, people make a career out of just that, and they become experts in that field. It is quite a complicated area of filmmaking, and one that is often overlooked. Having written that though, with a bit of practice, and maybe reading some interesting books on lighting, one can become quite proficient to achive what one sets out to do.
Here's a recent post from Matt indicating what they use as their kit:
http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showpost.php?p=869712&postcount=15

After a while you will have your own favourites, and I'd bet they won't end up being all the same brand, and not all the same type. What ends up happening most often is that you end up with a slew of different equipment. Maybe a flo bank, some fresnels (some with soft-boxes), some open-faced lights, some may be tungsten, some HID or HMI, etc, etc.
 
well, according to him im not too far off of a decent set.

and yeah, you definately become accustome to certain types of lights. I mean, i have created some pretty nice stuff with only open faced lights with doors and boxes. So i am just trying to get a sense of the practical sense of a fresnel instead of a open faced light.

i mean, from what i can picture, i would use a fresnel for a back/rim light, maybe to light the bg, or put diffusion infront of it as a key light. Which is almost the same said for the open faced..

lol

care to share some insight on that?
 
Yes, exactly, that's what I mean with changing a light. A softbox in front of a fresnel will make that a completely different beast. A fresnel without a softbox and undiffused is a harsh light, and throws hard shadows (like you mentioned), and can give a completely different feel to the scene that's being lit.
 
so that would be very film noirish without any diffusion.

sick, almost there :)

in terms of softboxes, i know there is no " one softbox to rule them all :"

but in the general rule of thumb, what type of softbox would someone use with some arri 650's ( do these also fitt the 1 and 2 k lights? )

i assume for the fresnels you need a different type of softbox?
 
There's TONS of different softbox manufacturers, Chimera are pretty good.
Check B&H to see what they recommend for each light, and go from there. Once you get into higher wattage lights, you will need to take into account that you basically have a HEATER (the light) inside a TENT (the softbox). It for this reason that softboxes are rated for max. wattage lamps, and some have flaps that can be opened for ventilation.
 
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