It seems to me that you already have the equipment and you're looking for ways to work with what you have. I've done a lot of Church functions where I set up a light tree with parcans and it worked out fine. Precision isn't usually much of an issue, but if it is, barn doors are a good investment. Also, might I suggest buying different types of
par lamps. If you're using wide floods, you might also invest in some medium floods and narrow spots. This way you can change the lamps to meet the requirements of the space. Picking up a couple of 500
watt as opposed to 1,000
watt might be a consideration too if you're dealing with places where
power is limited. IF you want to go the
ellipsoidal route eventually (which is what I'm doing)
Altman's
line of
360Q 6" ellpisoidals are pretty cost effective to buy. They've improved over the years and seem to be industry standard in the class of mid-range ellpisoidals. They also have the 3.5Q which is even smaller yet still pretty bright. Check eBay, rental houses sell them left and right (probably in efforts to convert to
Source Four's) and they go for pretty cheap.