Cheap tricks to light up your videos

"I do theatrical work in addition to my video interests. I have had great success at adding interesting light using halogen clip lights.

If you want to get really fancy with them you can remove the glass, open them up a little bit and clamp real light gels on them using office binder clips to change the color of the light. Light gels are the plastic film put over lights for professional lighting. They come in all kinds of colors and are inexpensive from a theatrical supply. A "half CT blue" gell will change typical halogen or incandescent light to white. Other colors will change the tone. Simple hardware store dimmer switches can be used to adjust the levels of lights.

You can also use colored light to add some pizzazz to a scene. I've noticed that for some interview scenes it is common to splash a little colored light on the wall behind the interview subject to dress things up a little.

It's not about how much you pay for the equipment. It's how you use it."

--cwalden9726, in a message titled "Cheap lighting" in the Digital Video Workshop: Shoot & Edit Great Videos class discussion