what type of lights?

[locomonker]

I'm going to be directing and producing a very low budget small scale music video. What type of lights would anyone suggest I rent? I go to film school and there I've had experience with mole kits and a couple other kinds of lights but a lot of places that I've looked at don't rent out mole kits. What type of lights or packages are like those? Also, any ideas on how to make a very cheap lighting kit from home depot or a lighting store? Thanks a lot.

Joel

 

[Lazlo]

Work lights are great as far as a decent amount of output, but are difficult to control, and are not color corrected in my experience. They're a good resource though. It's difficult to say what kind of lights you should get, since you don't mention anything about the project. It's really quite endless, and dependent on what you're going for... I break light in 4 different basic sources:
-Tungsten
-HMI
-Flourescent
-The Sun

Now, HMI's are balanced to sunlight, but in my personal method it just makes it easier for me. You have to understand what your budget will allow for... The quality of any of these can be controlled from soft to hard through silks, or diffusion ect... (though flourescent tends to wrap much more cleanly around faces). If you understand what all of these sources can be used for in application, and how they can be controlled, then you should be able to select the quantity you need, as well as which types.

Maybe you could elaborate... Am I way off here?

 

[locomonker]

Thanks for the response, I'll try and elaborate a little more. It's a music video that we'll be shooting part of in a small studio with some green screen as well as on locations like bedrooms and in houses. I don't know much on the technical side of lighting so I'm having trouble making an improvised lighting kit. I'm planning on getting some china lanterns but my problem is I have no idea where to start in terms of what type of bulbs to get. The same goes for work lights. Do they sell tungsten balanced work lights that aren't too expensive? What type of work light would be best? HMI's are definitely too expensive. In terms of light output and color, what would the difference between getting a tungsten light and a fluorescent light be? I don't know if these questions are too broad, but thanks for the help.
Joel

 

[Lazlo]

Well, worklights are basically tungsten, but they're slightly warmer generally. This can usually be corrected for in the image control of say, the DVX100 or any of panasonics prosumer cameras. You'll be hard to come by a cheap flourescent kit that is adequate. In terms of output, no source inherently has more output than any other (although HMI's are far more energy efficient than Tungsten sources). Output/intensity is measured in Watts. Generally more is better. The problem is that more usually comes at the expense of control. If I were on an ultra-tight budget for a music video, I'd get about 2000 watts worth of work lights, some CTB gel (in case you have to go to daylight for some reason), with stands for those work lights. No need to change out the bulbs. And then I'd want to rent something like a lowel DP light or Pro light or two to have a highly controllable source, and/or maybe a soft source like a Rifa Light. If the budget doesn't allow for anyhting to be rented, then I'd get some white boards to bounce light, and I'd spend 5 dollars to get a sheet of White-Frost gel from bhvideo to soften my sources up, as well as any other colors I'd need (since a 24x20 sheet is only $5). Flourescent sources are much cooler than tungsten sources, which are quite orange (around 3200-3400K). These are broad questions... This probably isn't helpful for this project, but I'd pick up a copy of Blaine Brown's book called Cinematography. Incredibly helpful resource that answers any question you could possibly have almost. I hope this is helpful, I feel a little like I'm shooting in the dark.

 

[locomonker]

It's definitely helpful. I think you answered all my questions for now, but I'll probably have more in the near future. Thanks a lot.
Joel

 

[Ira]

Hi, Loco. (Coral Springs here!)

Since you said you don't have much experience with the technical side of lighting, I'm going to assume you mean lighting in general. I have a background in still film work, but the principles are the same. Perhaps these little "rules/tips" will help you. And if anyone sees any innaccuracies or wants to add to anything, please do.

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1) You typically need a lot of light--especially for film just to EXPOSE the stuff correctly. But just throwing watts at a something is pretty ugly--real harsh.

2) Because of the above, lights are often aimed at a thin white fabric to diffuse the light and make it softer, which is more flattering for the subject. Any cheap fabric will do the trick, but doing this reduces the light's output drastically. Hence, you want a lot of watts at your fingertips, even if you don't need and use them all.

3) Light is also BOUNCED off white fabric--the lamp is pointed in the exact OPPOSITE direction of the subject. This can result in even more wattage loss, but the results can be even softer than the diffusion method above.

If the walls and ceiling are white, they can be used as the bounce surfaces. However, although the paint may look white, color pigments may still be present, so there's a chance that you'll reflect an unwanted color cast. It's a SMALL chance and that cast may be insignificant, but be aware of it.

4) Any time light is reflected at something, a shadow is cast, so you need light aimed at those shadows to neutralize them. With diffusion and bounce lighting, the shadows are minimized, but if you see them, you want to kill them, unless it's for effect.

5) Black surfaces absorb light, giving subjects a hard edge. So as an example, let's see you have your lights set up and you shoot a subject medium close-up simply sitting in a chair. Now, have someone stand off-camera to the right, or the left, or right AND left of that subject, holding up two large pieces of black cardboard.

Now compare the difference. You'll see a much more striking edge along the outline of the subject, as well as more exaggerated texture to the skin, deeper eye sockets, etc.

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Lighting is so cool to work with because there are so many different things you can do with it.