$5000 for lighting equipment

MindStudios said:

This is an assignment from my digital video production class, I need to research different types of lighting and the costs for those. I'm going to ask you guys for advice on what you would do, and then I will do my own research and compare. You don't have to be as specific or list the prices, just the names of the lighting equipment so I can look it up myself.

Pretend that you start your own digital video production company.
You have no more than $5000 to spend on lighting equipment
You want to shoot in studio and on location
What lighting system(s) would you choose and why?
Be sure to include all costs, description of equipment, links to where you would order the equipment, and justify your decision.

Click to expand...

Hope this will help....all prices are in Canadian Dollars.
http://www.vistek.ca/results/ProVideoLighting/lght%20video-stud%20video-videoltkt/Continuous-Lighting-Kits.aspx

My answer would be:

It depends one the production. I would hire my Gaffer with his truck and I would ask him to bring down extra specific things that I may need for each production.

Are you lighting interviews or are you lighting narrative?

What kind of studio are you lighting? A Green screen? A set? If Green screen, what do you plan to shoot? Are you planning on matching mattes or are you more about having presenters read? If a set, are you going to have different lights for the set and for location? Does the studio have 3-phase power?
Do you need to battle the sun on location? Do you need to buy a genny? Are you shooting more INT or EXT on location?

You can get away with cheaper tungsten fixtures in a studio because you have no daylight to compete with, but on location you're probably going to want HMIs so you don't lose 70% of your tungsten output by whacking CTB gels on everything. But then, you probably can't afford HMI, so do you go higher powered with your tungsten fixtures and buy a generator?
In the studio you likely have 3-phase, so you could use say a 5K tungsten fresnel, or a few 2Ks relatively easily, compared to location where you're probably going to want to have something like the new Arri M18 HMI PAR that you can plug straight into a household circuit (not that you can get an M18 for $5k).

Plus you're going to want to go and buy a whole lot of gels, and a whole lot of silks, flags, c-stands etc.

Or maybe you only ever want soft light and just want to grab some Kino Flos. They're certainly versatile. You'd probably only get two for your budget though.

IMO this question is flawed as I don't believe there is any 'one size fits all' lighting rig that you can get on a low budget. If you're a pro Gaffer and hire yourself out with your truck, then yeah you probably have a collection of equipment that's probably going to fit a lot of situations. But then, you will have spent well over $5,000 on your equipment.