For the extreme low budget lighting solution... question and some ideas....

[Minu Park]

A super low budget indie film making...

It's on the pre-production processing, and I have been gathering this and that all kind of resources, and finally... I am trying to make some DIY lighting kits for the production

As we are trying to achieve "Natural look", we realized that we need least of 2-3 m18s, and bunch of Kinos and grips. Of course... It wouldn't be a big crazy set up, every single penny that I spend will be affected on the amount of film festivals that I will invest...

At the end, in terms of lighting and grip rental, I found that it will be cost us around 15000$ during the project.

At first, I was a bit surprised, than I realized, that I could save that money into make something useful.

Here is my plan, and I was wondering, whether Redusers could help me a bit in terms of plan.

1. 3 M18 could be replaced into Stadium 1000w Flood LED lights (2pcs) (http://www.dhgate.com/product/stadi...ts-led/248163226.html#s1-3-1a;searl|619236794) and Mole Richardson's senior LED 900W.

3x M18 will cost me around $9000... And during the shoot, there are some risks of breaking the bulbs constantly...

2. Kino Flo (4pcs) will cost me around $2000 During the shooting, and I thought this also could be replaced by other options for getting a new lighting systems like Linco Flora, and some of knock off Diva + Kino bubls.

- Linco Flora (http://www.ebay.com/itm/Linco-Flora...hash=item3cb6292446:m:mQOsUVQf5C7uX4XZMKoezww)
- Knock off Diva (http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produ...AWD_Fluorescent_Video_Light.html/prm/alsVwDtl)

3. Grips. Honestly... I still haven't figured out grip equipment yet - There aren't simply a cheaper option, I know, I must go good quality... so I might need to rent the whole van...

These are the options that I've been constantly thinking about.

How do you think about these options for a bit moody natural light look?

 

[Dominik Muench]

I'd be surprised if these Linco Flora lights really equate a 4000w output like announced on ebay, not with that amount of low energy daylight bulbs ?
as for those knock off Divas....my students use them at Uni and to be honest, they are horrible lights...I find the quality of the light very unpleasant and those diffusion fabrics are a pain in the neck to put on and make them stay on, however...you can get proper Kino bulbs that fit these Diva knock off frames.
But in my opinion there is hardly a (cheap) substitute for a decent Kino light when it comes to fluorescent lighting systems...so if you can spare the $2000,- and substitute everything else, I'd stick with the original kinos and keep them in my kit.

 

[BRANDON JAMESON]

The Sun and shiny boards.

 

[sander kamp]

A lot of LED lights are sold with the power stated as the power of tungsten lighting you're replacing. I have never seen a real 1000W LED light and I can't imagine it would only be 10 kg and the power supply they show is only 150w. And even then the CRI is probably horrible so combining with daylight will give you lots of headaches on set and in post. Besides that you can't model the light as you can with a fresnel light.

I think the problem here is how to define 'natural look'. Do you mean balancing sunlight with daylight lights in order to keep the contrast under control? In that case I am not sure if m18's would even be enough. You probably need a couple of 4k's and higher.

I think the key is to work smart. Order only a couple of big lights when you really need it and work with cheap lights when you can. Experiment with cheap LED lights, home-made kinos and embrace different color temperatures. Do lots of testing and you'll find a setup that you like. I find it not necessary for all lights to be the same quality and it actually adds depth to your image if you have some differences. But don't expect a cheap light to replace a Arri HMI, there's simply no way.

 

[Mohammed Almedfa]

Is power an issue? As you could probably rent Arri 2.5K Compact Fresnel HMI's for a lot less than M18's, at least the rates we find in Dubai on 2.5K Compact Fresnels are dramatically better than the rates on M18's. About 2.5x cheaper per day.

 

[Minu Park]

The reason why we need Arri 12, or m18 HMI instead of 2.5k fresnel, because of the we are mostly shooting on a house where most of the amperage is below 15amp....