Good lights to compliment my A1
 

I purchased my A1 to learn about video and to be able to offer the shooting side of the business as well as editing and post production. After owning my XHA1 for a couple of months and getting to grips with it it's time for it to start earning it's keep.

I've been offered a project involving shooting in a college and doing a few vox-pop style interviews. The only thing I'm really concerned about at the moment is lighting as I don't own any lights at all.

Could any of you guys recommend a good setup for interviews that will also be useful for things like shooting internal property videos?

I do have a limited budget but am prepared to buy good quality if it really makes the difference.

Thanks for any tips.

Paul.

Some Suggestions
 

Budget really dictates these choices a lot. Some will suggest to go with work lights but I think this is a false economy for three reasons:
1) They take longer to setup
2) They don't look professional (important for clients perception)
3) The light they produce is frankly quite poor

I'd avoid getting light kits as invariably you end up with three of the same sort of light which is not helpful when producing interesting/varied lighting. 3 800 watt red heads don't make for pretty pictures without a bunch more grip equipment (which is handy in any case) and frankly a lot more setup time. I'd get a nice soft box for a key light (see riffa), a pro light or a redhead (650-800 watt) for a fill but also get a 7-1 reflector setup to bounce it off, and something like a dedolight for a back light (simply for the beautiful hard edge light) along with gobo's to put nice patterns on the wall behind your interview subjects.
There are tons of other solutions but these lights will last you for years to come so invest well.

Cheers
Matt

Thanks Matt, some great info there.

I had a quick look around and found the lowel kits look quite good, for example...

http://www.lowel.com/kits/DVcore250.html looks quite handy.

What do you think? I also found an option with the larger 500w riffa for not a lot more.

Paul.

Personally, I would not buy a prefab kit...

It will have a lot of stuff you don't need...

Here is a good starting point/reference point...

http://www.vortexmedia.com/LightingDVD/LIGHTING.html

This DVD on lighting helped me quite a bit...

And I liked the fact that the author is not tied in with any particular manufacturer...

He simply recommends what he uses and teaches us how he uses it...

dave

I would go with the 2 light Kino Flo Diva 400 kit.
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc...iversal_2.html
Get daylight and tungsten bulbs for different lighting conditions.

I would rent it before buying anything from Lowel, IMO.

Looks like you are in the UK...here are some prices
from a london group.
http://www.directlighting.co.uk/continuous_lighting.php
You can have them configure a setup similar to the one above.
(I would consider some beefier stands though)

Hope that helps.

Thanks David, I placed an order - that looks like exactly what I need to get me going in the right direction.

with regard to the kit you're better off buying individual lights. As one poster mentioned you get stuff you dont need, you also usually get sub quality stands and they invariably miss out useful bits and bobs you'd expect.
As for a riffa, get the larger one, you wont regret it for interviews: make for gorgeous soft light, and very fast to set up. Kinos are also a good bet as they stay cool.

Matt