This isn't moronic at all. I've been right where you are now (that's why I know you can make a lightstand out of PVC for under $10). If you shoot in b&w, then using a construction floodlight on a stand is no problem at all. The problem with color film is that it is balanced for daylight shooting. You can get film balanced for different lights. If you get tungsten bulbs (~3200K) then you can use tungsten balanced film such as Fuji's 64T or Kodak's Ektachrome 64T & 160T slide films, Kodak's Portra 100T or Fuji NPL 160T print films. Halogen is very close to Tungsten I think so should work. You can also use regular daylight balanced film and use a filter on your lens. I think the 80 series filters are the ones ... brain is saying 80B or 80A. If your lens doesn't have too big of a filter size (mine is 72mm ... sigh) then you can probably get one for under $20. With that, you could get a couple floodlights/stands and the filter for around $50-60. I'd also recommend a rheostat type device. If you are skilled (and please be before screwing around with household AC), you can modify a common dimmer switch to do this. What that allows is the ability to dim the lights individually so you aren't on full brightness all the time. Low budget way is to move the lights closer or farther away. Watch draping anything over the lights. They're not called "hot lights" for nothing. You can also bounce the light off of some type of reflector (cardboard or whatever painted white or silver or gold works well) to diffuse the light a bit and take away some of the harshness. -=>Donald