@CRCFilms this is the video, at 2'00" (I hate that terrible music)

The following was shot with two crappy 250watt tungsten Fotobestway lights with parabolic reflectors and barn doors. (not fresnels, no scrims or flags) Lights used: http://www.photocontinental.com.au/attachments/Page/137/ministarcon.jpg

Film Noir Series... http://clients.net2000.com.au/~rowmat/slideshows/film_noir/

I am primarily a photographer and this is a series of stills shot on a Pentax K7 @ 800iso with shutter speeds between 1/25th to 1/50th sec and apertures from around F2 to F4. In order to get a similar exposure for video say at a maximum of 400iso @ 1/50th @ F4 I would be looking at lights in the 650watt to 1000watt range. As discussed for 'noir' fresnels are the way to go. Of course meter for correct exposure on the face and let the rest fade to black.

Yes and a smoke machine helps too!

here my cheap noir film.

ITs a cannibal love story, not gore, not trashi no badwords, no nudes, big internal drama. ITs not finished yet. I have an old trailer also.

Great shots guys!! Anyway- on topic- warning about par-38, par-30, etc medium-base screw bulbs: yes you get a lot of output for not much money, but the distribution of the field of light out of these is awkward and uneven. not great for much of anything else than a focused spot. They give themselves away as household spot and flood lights. Also very hard to shape cleanly. Good for a back edge though. You can manage this light field by putting some very light diffusion over them, something like opal frost or Hampshire frost. So a clip lamp + a par bulb + some light diffusion, tape, and black wrap. Will work, but really not so great. The quality of the light won't really look right either.

+1 on why the others said on fresnels for a noir look. For rentals and purchases, the cheapest source is theatrical stuff rather than film/video stuff. Theater rental houses are much cheaper. They generally have 500w, 750w, 1k fresnels. Significantly cheaper.

And don't use much diffusion as often on the lights as you would normally. They didn't have the nice high-tech plastic diffs that we do now.

Be extra careful to control all the spill on the walls! Keep them really dark. If you can't afford c-stands and flags, which are the right tools for the job, at least have black wrap. Black foam core v-flats are a relatively cheap way to cut light with no stands.