I was wondering how does one transition from the learning phases of practicing lighting scenes with what you can afford ( basic tungstens, DIY Grip gear, consumer bulbs and other stuff) to being able to plan scenes confidently without those limitations.
Do you know that your daylight gymnasium scene will need 12k HMI's to get those shafts of light the way you want because of 1st hand experience? deferring to a gaffer? educated guess? photometric calculations?
The same question would also apply to camera packages. Do you ever recommend to a director a camera package you haven't used before? what was the basis of that decision?