Some help

DBoz699

DBoz699

Veteran
I need some help finding some lights I can use to light my movies. I dont know of any good companies and types of lights to look for. Im new to lighting. Can any of you point me in the right direction for lights? Nothing like super exspensive.
The most I'm willing to spend on a kit or something is like $500. Do you think I can find anything good or decent for that money?

thanks
 
You coulda been more polite about it.

Be like...no you cant buy a lighting kit for that much. But are some company names to check out. bla bla *insert name or website*

Instead of just a NO!
 
Problem is that even if you buy a kit for 500, you lack all the other stuff to make it work from a filmmaking sense, like stands, flags, gels, diffusion, stingers, grip clamps, black wrap etc etc.

Your better off buying all the stuff I mention above and a bunch of 250 flood lights from Home Depot that cost 10 bucks a piece. At that way you'll be able to control your light to some degree.

But none of that really matters because if you don't anything about lights, then you also don't know anything about lighting, and that's a science that takes a good bit of time to get good at.

My advice is work for free on a bunch of other people's films as a grip or PA and pay very close attention to what the DP and Gaffer are doing. Then you'll at least have some sense of how thing are done and it'll help you make your shoot look ten times better. And by that time you might have hooked with a bud that has light or a friend with lights who'll help you out.
 
I checked out rostronics and thier kits, and I still don't see near enough lights to shoot a feature film. The most you can get for 500 is a three light kit, I think that the largest was a 650w fixture. I never been on a set where the largest light used was only a 650, and I have worked some small budget films. All open face, so your going to have to have some sort of diffusion or you'll have uneven lighting, which can play hell with your continuity. the only lighting control were barn doors, so you'd better have a very large crew to holloywood all the psuedo flags you'll use, heaven help you if you need to cut light, don't know what you'll do there.

I'm not trying to discourage, but there is a point of reality. The best thing to do, if you have a great script... Go out and raise the money to do it right, rather then take your great script and turn in into a porr peice of film work.
 
Good lighting is essential and it's more than just the money spent on the units. You need to take the time to understand the basics of lighting, temperatures and their effects on the type of medium you're using. Check out Mole Richardson. They have some great begining packages that include boxes, diffusers and the like but also some great literature on the basics of lighting.
 
What are you shooting on? I did lighting on a feature (XL2) where we did all of the lighting with 2 Britek 650s (with softboxes), 2 Altman 650 fresnels, 1 home depot workight, some cliplights, reveal bulbs, and gels, barn doors, foamcore and Blackwrap. Sure we could have had an easier time with some more stuff but we did allright. Check out the trailer at www.geekinmovie.com.
 
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