You light up my life

I've been scoping out various types of filming gear on line. One of the consistently expensive items is lighting. Sadly, one of the things I've learned is that you can't go wrong with decent lighting. My DV camera auto adjusts for darker areas, but the image comes out dull looking. So lights are a good idea if you want your footage to look anywhere near good.

I've had mild success with clip on desk lamps, which work fairly well. The up side is that they fit party bulbs, allowing you to emphasize colors and add contrast to a shot.
I quite like using the black light party bulbs to make whites pop a bit more than is natural.
The down side is that you need an awful lot of them to get a decent amount of light. They're just not that bright, even if you do something silly like putting higher wattage bulbs in than the labeling calls for.

I was recently art directing a photo shoot and chatting with the photographer about his lights. You can spend hundreds and hundreds on photography lights, easily. For a full set you're looking at thousands. EEEK!
After asking about various options he admited that he's shot using everyday work lights before. He does a lot of work for the Red Cross, so I imagine that emergency situations call for all sorts of odd lighting.
The downside is that they're not very adjustable and not necessarily the best quality of light. You can't turn them up just that wee bit or down that wee bit when the situation calls for it.

The upside here is that they're a fraction of the cost of the photo friendly versions. I picked up this little gem at OSH for $20. Replacement bulbs appear to run about $4 a pop. The thing runs very hot so you don't want to use it while filming around lots of gasoline soaked paper, but I'm not sure I was going to be doing a lot of that anyway.
There are also models that come with tripods for a little bit more, which I think are a bit more versatile. I may get a couple of them next weekend.

The way I figure these puppies aren't what the pros are going to use, but I'm not a pro. For my semi-pro status I'm pretty happy with something that lights the area up for one tenth the cost.

My next project for them is to try and make diffusers and gels of some type for them so that I can have a more general light with less shadows. It never ends you know.