Luny,
Starting out look for kits. Lowel as ‘the Devil v2a’ mentioned makes good kits for under a grand. I would hold off on the Tota’s until you get used to working with lighting. Omni kits are good lights that don’t have open faced halogen bulb holders like the Tota’s do. Those suckers get freakin’ hot and can be dangerous in the hands of the inexperienced.
Look for a good 3-4 light kit with some gels, gel holders, at least one umbrella and some basic scrims. The kit should come with a carrying case hard or soft. Hard gives more protection, but is a female dog trying to carry it with just a suitcase style handle.
Audio wise, your audio kit should have at least 1 shotgun mic, 1 wireless lav kit (w/receiver, transmitter and lav mic.) Later on if you’re still in the game, look at getting a portable 2-4 channel field mixer, a boom pole and extra mics. Don’t forget XLR cables of varying lengths (i.e. 3ft, 6ft, 20ft, 30ft, 50ft.) When you’re not working purely wireless, a long audio cable will save your backside.
“Picking the brains of the local rental house” is a good idea. However, unless you’re getting paid to do a gig don’t rent stuff you can use the same money to buy it. Only rent stuff you couldn’t possibly afford or is impractical to purchase. As a newbie your goal is to build up your kit. Wait until you have more experience using your basic gear and begin to recognize where your equipment shortfalls are. By that time, you hopefully will have paying clients whereby you can justify the cost of equipment rentals and they won’t cut into your bottom line.
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