Posted by nobody special on 11/03/06 15:45

100 bucks can rent you a very professional kit over the weekend, that
is more controllable and flexible than anything you're going to cobble
together from Home Depot parts. Try that, get a feel for working with
real pro lights and you'll know what to save up for when you buy your
own eventually.

A lot of what you're asking depends on what kind of look you are going
for. If you want it very natural looking, you're going to concentrate
on motivated practical sources already in the shot, then supplement
those to enhance necessary detail or create a mood to taste. What are
you planning to do with the window, for example? Use it or not? Right
there is a major issue.

You can do a ceiling bounce on a white ceiling using a reflector
worklight just to bring up the overall light level without adding
shadows. Similarly you can bounce off a white wall that's out of shot
to just bring up the average levels inthe scene. Just because the
camera says it can pick up a shot in one foot-candle doesn't mean
that's always a good idea, much less a quality shot. So bring the
overall level up a tad using a bounce, that is cheap to do with the
home depot type light and maybe a gel to add a subtle color cast. You
can work in close to actual working lights in the scene and add bounce
cards or reflectors to add fill on the opposite side of the key.

You can make a big softlight cheaply, using a tapered box (truncated
4-sided pyramid) made from gaffer tape and white foam core and a piece
of toughspun diffusion, all clipped tot he front of one of those
damnable work lights, and this will give you a great look for the close
in shots, but the spill will need to be controlled using flags or an
eggcrate type grill attached tot he front of the unit. It is vital to
leave plenty of air circulation space around the foam core where it is
attached to the light; do this right and the foamcore doesn'y even get
noticably warm after hours of use. Do it wrong, you'll have a more
exciting production than you planned for.

As to how to light the scene: is the action pretty static, or do they
move all around the room? If it's static, you can do a variation of
classic three-light setup: you make the keylights for each actor do
double-duty by also working as the full for the opposite actor. For two
actors that's two crossed keys and whatever backlight you want to add,
combined withthe motivated practicals already in the shot.

If they move a lot, then I'd block the action out and arrange
practicals and fills to create pools they move into and out of.

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