I was wondering how to light a standard two person dialogue scene.

The setting will either be my house or my friend's apartment. I will be shooting on a Canon EOS 7D, which i know works well in low light situations.

The question is, for additional lighting, what should I use if i have next to no budget. I do have an option to check out some lighting equipment from my college though,

any ideas?

Are you shooting singe camera? You have zero lights, grip and electric and zero budget? You had better find a location that has some good available light. Not to say that you can't end up with a nice looking scene without lighting it, but it is much more difficult. Soft diffused window light will be your friend.

If had a good budget, I would probably still try to emulate window light, it is the most motivated source in most rooms, especially if you ever will see windows.

Dan

I'm hoping to get my hands on a second 7D, but if I cant, it'll be single camera.

I was thinking of using maybe a simple china lantern above the two actors heads. I'm not sure what else i'll be able to get,

Like i said i'll be able to check out equipment from school, i'm just not sure how much

I sometimes use a single Smith-Victor with 10" reflector and a bright white 100W equivalent CFL bulb and "redirect" it for each actor. If the actors are good I'll have them deliver all their lines, breaking it up a bit for camera repositioning, then switch the light position and direction for the other.

The other approach I use is to reposition light and camera for each actor as their "turn" comes up. That's the way I worked this one:

The Devil's Due on Vimeo

It keeps you busy but it works.

If you are going to shoot two camera, I like your idea of a China Ball. I shot project about 3 weeks ago, four people at a table, six camera shoot like a poker game. My key light was a 30" China Ball with a 650 watt tungsten EGW bulb. You can get the entire setup at FilmTools for around $50.00. It works great except that you have to build a skirt around it so the soft light doesn't go everywhere, making your scene look too flat.

We used Duvetine to make the skirt but we needed a lot of C-stand arms and Mafer clamps, if you have no budget, not sure how you will control the light without grip tools.

Dan