Lighting An Office

[anakin_e]

hey all,
I've just been contracted to do a short corporate video, basically they're going to have the president address the company in a 10 min spiel for "employee appreciation day". I'm shooting miniDV on the SONY TRV18, it's only one shot set up and im looking into lighting. The office has a bit of natural light and otherwise it's fluorescant. I'm looking at getting one of these from Canadian Tire:

Halogen Worklight With Stand 2X250-Watt
Price $39.99
   * Two 250W floodlights feature heat-resistant tempered glass with chromed wire-mesh guards
   * Lamps rotate 360° and tilt up to 180° forward and back with adjustment knobs
   * Extends to 48" height
   * Tripod with twist ring for easy height adjustment
   * Adjustable legs and handy wire cord storage bracket
   * Two 250W halogen bulbs included

I can then light from two sides and hopefully I can cover all shadows, what do you guys think? Should i be buying different lights? Any recommendations for light set-up? I don't shoot this for a week so I got lots of time.

Cheers,
ACE

[Ghostboy]

I don't know, those things are going to be awfully bright. They're useful lights, but they're hard to control. If you can get some scrimmage, they might be more workable. You might want to just get a few clip lights with some 100 watt bulbs. If you had some cash, you could rent a simple Arri softbank kit which would be perfect for that kinda thing. But you can make do with anything, just make sure it's not too hot with those worklights.

You may not have need for this, but one of the things I love about shooting in offices is that most modern office buildings have those cheap tile ceilings that you can push aside and use the supporting framework to hang lights. It's so nice.

[ReelHotGames]

I agree with Ghostboy, your talking ALOT of light and it will be hard and WHITE.

Either prepare with white board to do some serious bouncing, or soften these lightsa if you go with them. Diffuse with scrim or gel or anything. But this will be harsh.

I used a similiar rig, a home depot purchase to shoot outdoor night scenes in a parking lot and one rig made it look like the place was flooded in white light.

Be careful and do tests before you shoot, you don't want to show up on set with these and not be able to shoot it, or spend hours trying to figure out how.

[mutinyco]

Yeah, way too much light. Though if you're using the fluorescents and you then add tungsten, be careful of the color temp differences. You might wind up with upleasant mixed light. Honestly, you might even be fine with the lighting that's already in the room. Do a test.

[Raikus]

Lighting an office, hm? Did you consider ?

Actually, I've had success using simple clip lamps you can get at Wal-Mart. Plug in your own bulb and use diffuser. I'm talking from a photography standpoint here, but it may apply here as well.

[anakin_e]

Thanks everyone, i've decided against the aforementioned lights and I've rigged up some other stuff that looks great. The project should go well.