Heavily considering these lights.

[Steven Davis]

Bladelight - Barndoor Photo and Video Lighting by FloLight

1. You can add, combine and even stack them.

2. They cover a lot of focus/light bending needs.

3. You can control them with your iPad....

Considering three of the 18 inch ones for an interview kit. I have a lowel round light that I'm going to use for my hair light.

Any opinions?

[Darren Levine]

it's funny, i have a 52" led lightbar for a car, and it's bright as holy hell, and i keep thinking of trying it out for video use. I like the concept of light bars, unless of course i need more control over the sharpness/focus of the light

[Charles Papert]

Strip lights have an interesting effect on faces. They are soft lights in one axis (width) but relatively hard in the other (height). So you will get wrap around a face and a relatively soft nose shadow to the side, but harder shadows under the chin. This may be preferable if you want to minimize the appearance of a crinkly neck for instance. Overall though, you'll find the effect not particularly soft. Stacking a few together with diffusion overall will turn them more effectively into a soft source.

These would actually be good for hairlights, because their low profile heigh-wise makes them good for working around low ceilings, and for wrapping across the head and shoulders making them look less source-y. I prefer to use some variation of long fixture for backlights because I prefer the look.

[Darren Levine]

That thought about low ceilings actually might be quite important if i close on this house, which has an unfinished basement which i measured a hair over 7' floor to joist. Dreams of a permanent shooting space(for review/blog/etc...) are always on the brain

[Steven Davis]

Originally Posted by Charles Papert

Strip lights have an interesting effect on faces. They are soft lights in one axis (width) but relatively hard in the other (height). So you will get wrap around a face and a relatively soft nose shadow to the side, but harder shadows under the chin. This may be preferable if you want to minimize the appearance of a crinkly neck for instance. Overall though, you'll find the effect not particularly soft. Stacking a few together with diffusion overall will turn them more effectively into a soft source.

These would actually be good for hairlights, because their low profile heigh-wise makes them good for working around low ceilings, and for wrapping across the head and shoulders making them look less source-y. I prefer to use some variation of long fixture for backlights because I prefer the look.

Those are good points, maybe I'll look at two of the blades and a traditionally shaped led.

[Charles Papert]

7" is crazy low for shooting unless people will always be seated (interviews etc). I shot a series last year in an abandoned school and was brutalized by the teacher's lounge set which was closer to 8' high and quite a large room. I used 4x2 Kino's in a ring hung from the ceiling around the central (hero) table because they were low profile although I sometimes had to pull them on wide shots from the perimeter. They were OK as back lights but in retrospect I should have switched out to larger units from the floor on the key side because of that vertical hardness I mentioned above. Also, I meant to mention this earlier--another drawback to keying with a strip-light type source is that the reflection in the eyes is a little rough, it appears as a white slash which is a bit unnatural. You can see this phenomenon in various of the closeups in this clip:

Teachers' Lounge | Ms. Snap's Walk of Shame | Teachers on TV Land - YouTube

[Darren Levine]

Nice squeeze. If i do get this particular house i'll likely leave a portion of the basement unfinished to perhaps make some use of that extra 8" inside the joists. But again, this would just be for personal blog/review type work, i don't plan on luring a client into the dungeon :)

[Charles Papert]

That would be good, because the joists would give you plenty of mounting points to hang units, right?

[Steven Davis]

Ended up purchasing these, http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1098905-REG/dracast_dr_intk_dg_daylight_3_light_interview_kit.html
All in all, the blade lights looked nice, but I'm on a purchasing deadline and the freshness of the blade lights made me a little leary such as not all the brackets and accessories are known at the time of my inquiry.
The Dracast stuff has good reviews, so I'm looking forward to using them.