Hi folks!

I, along with several others, am preparing to shoot my first film. I feel like we have a good grasp on things in most areas from sound to editing. But the area where I feel we are still most lacking is in lighting.

We have done some experiements thus far using photoflood bulbs, and we have achieved some decent results, but I still feel we are not where we should be. We are shooting on digital video, BTW, using a Canon XL-1s camera.

I would like some information and tips from any of you who are willing to share on lighting scenes in the following three scenarios:
- Indoor, in a controlled environment
- Outdoor, during daylight
- Outdoor, shooting night-for-night

Any information would be most appreciated, including what types of lights you would recommend using for someone on an extremely low to non-existent budget. Are photofloods the way to go? Or something else? What about positioning of the lights? Can you light an outdoor scene just with natural sunlight, or do you need more? What's the best way to light a night-for-night shot, either close-ups or wide shots?

Any advice and information you can give would be most appreciated!

Thanks!

=Tom=