I'm still quite the lighting newbie, and for general interviewing purposes have an on-camera NRG dimmer light encased in a Photflex Actiondome. So far, so good in providing a diffused light. Now, rather than get way into severe debt with a kit (so easy to do), what would be a rather low budget way of providing an inexpensive sidelight/reflector and backlight? And--get this--I'm ignorant enough to ask if those other lights could be battery powered or always require outlets somewhere. I'd rather risk sounding stupid than being ignorant in the long run. Thanks!

Inexpensive? Go to the Home Depot, and buy some halogen work lights. Now these won't be any good used directly, so you have to either bounce them or build a softbox...

About using batteries, I know you won't be able to do that with these halogen ones, for sure, not only because they are 120V AC, but they also use a lot of power. You could always buy a generator. :D

Check out this article:

http://dv.com/features/features_item.jhtml?category=Archive&LookupId=/xml/feature/2001/bjohnson0401

Okay, thanks; that sounds interesting....

Good article pointer, Alex. Kudos.