Re: 3 rooms full

Your project is sufficiently ambitious that you are going to need to spend some serious bucks for: set design, lighting design, sound design (what mics, where to place them, how to handle them); and then all the sets and lights and mics and mixers, etc. etc. In other words, unless you have the money for all this, you have a very, very difficult task. Even with the bucks, this is no walk in the park. One little detail alone will be a constant source of trouble: all those windows facing outside, where what you see out them as well as what light enters the room is at the constant mercy of the sun, rain, and fog. Those windows will force you to light for daylight, which is generally more expensive, though Daylight Kino Flos cost no more than Tungsten.

The good news is there is always some way to make such projects work. Spending some dough on bringing pros out to help you will be wisely spent money, provided you find the right guys.

You might begin by making floor plans drawn to scale, showing exactly how everything fits together, where the doors and windows are, the dimensions, etc, and also taking multiple photographs of the space. Then I'd start interviewing DPs, set designers, and sound people by phone to try to find people who have both the expertise and the personality that will mesh with you and your needs.

Most likely whoever comes out to your digs will need to make more than one trip. On a standard (at least in the SF Bay Area) day of 10 hours, you will get 6 hours of on-location consultation. However, your guys can do a lot with your floor plans and photographs before coming out.

Finally, to install the electrical distribution, rig a grid, and install the lights will take someone who really knows both his electrical and mechanical stuff. It is possible you could find some of that expertise locally, at least with some guidelines from your pros.

I presume you have the cameras you need. Otherwise, that's a whole new, and expensive, project.

Rick Wise
director of photography
Oakland, CA
www.RickWiseDP.com
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com