Super Budget car interior

dougspice

dougspice

Veteran
I think I JUST NOW noticed there was a separate Lighting section, and not just the Cinematography section. IMO, this is pretty silly. Anyway...

I need to do a super-super-super low-budget car interior dialogue scene. The scene is at night (or at best, evening). It's a dialogue scene between two characters. Any ideas on the cheapest possible way to light this so it's at all believable? Obviously I can't afford something ideal like Litepanels. And the only lights I know of that are ready-made to work from car power are those million candlepower sunguns, which is not exactly the effect I'm seeking. Obviously turning on the dome lights is not acceptable. The entire film is already over budget, so "about $0" is the solution I'm looking for. Any suggestions?
 
0$ is going to be kinda hard to pull off, but for a small investment you can get some DC fluorescent lamps that run off of 12V supplies.
 
I'm exaggerating, of course, but basically whatever it is probably has to come out of my own pocket, so let's keep it sort of Radio Shack, yeah?

Any more details on those flourescents? You're talking basically a DIY Kino 2-bank portable deal?
 
Cheap battery-powered home depot fluorescents. They're designed for things like mounting under cabinets, and they're about $14 or so. Not some sort of homemade kino 2-bank, these are little 12" tubes...
 
I'll probably be wanting to take Megloth's suggestion by the time we get to that shoot date. I already put in 31 hours this past weekend and I don't see it getting any better...

Anyway the car DOES explode shortly after the scene in question, so you may be on to something...

I'll check out the Home Depot angle... didn't know battery powered flourescents were something most people had any use for!
 
I have one of the 6" Batt. Powered Flo's from Home Depot and the light is VERY blue....Close to 5.6K. Not sure if that goes for all of them, just something to be aware of. I believe the bulbs can be changed, just not sure how available 3200 bulbs are in that size.
-Ryan
 
Hey Doug,
My suggestion. Just go rent the Litepanels. So many people have bought the lites, they are available pretty much anywhere in the world today. So instead of trying to buy parts and make something like something that's already available, rent it. It is alot cheaper than buying, and you can find out for yourself the reason these lights are a success. Also, try them with the new DV Battery adapter. Up to 8 hours on your own DV batteries. POW!
 
bigbird, I know they're great, but they're also not cheap to rent. Last time I called around for quotes they were going for about $150-200 per day. That's way out of the range of what I'm willing to pay here... and almost 10x what it would cost me to just buy something quick and dirty that should be able to get it done.

Hybrid, I've got plenty of gels, so the temperature shouldn't be a problem. And so long as they're the primary light source, it doesn't really affect me either way.
 
Depending on how high concept you want to go, you could also put some white card below your actors, and hit the white cards with a couple of Xenon flashlights. That'll put some motion in your lotion, and get you more stop than the baby fluos. The Xenons also have a slightly "headlight" look to the type of light they produce. Dig it.
 
Another idea is to check out your local car parts store and see what they might have. With all the rage of inside car lighting recently I wouldn't be surprised if you could find something that would work. You can also cheaply wire up a bunch of 12v bulbs to a male 12v lighter plug and rig them just out of the shot.
Here is the cheapest of ideas. I've also seen (but don't suggest) where people have taped white foam core in front of the car's headlights and using more tape have created a semi-circle to reflect the light back into the car. You could even cut a hole half the size of your headlights in the center of your headlight beams to allow for safety and still get alot of punch using the high beams. This way some light would still be working as they should and some would be lighting your shot. Don't do this anywhere close to a major road and be sure that it is against the law if you do!
 
Tis the season to stop by Kragen's or Pep Boy's and pick up a couple strings of 12volt Christmas lights. Easy to tape up, string along the dash, plug into the cigarette lighter, soft natural light for night interior of a car.

BTW, I too own the 6" battery fluo lights. $7 at Wal-mart, and you can slip jells inside the plastic cover. They also tape up nicely to the top and bottom of the DVX mattebox for a nice cheap Kino Kameo style eyelight.

-j
 
i watched the special features on teh Collateral DVD and found that they used velcro glow in the dark strips for the taxi. So go to a store that sells those glow stick things and try to get white ones. Get a bunch and breaks them and set them on either side of the person. Obviously you are going to need alot of them but they arent very expensive. If all you can find is green ones then just do some color correction in post and you should be fine.
 
i would use an invertor and get the GE "basic" flourescent lights.

try putting them on the actors laps or perhaps attached to the sun visors depending on the look your going for.

matthew
 
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