I got a job as a videographer for a party for a bunch of rich old people, what would be the best lens for a nikon slr for video?

Prime, ~50mm. Use footzoom.

Uh.. Depends, I would actually say the 30 if he is on a cropped sensor.

Something with VR and a decent zoom range. Set at f/6.1~ zoom out and everything will be in focus, zoom in and still get decent dof.

Well I've got a 50mm prime, a 18-55mm AF vr and a telephoto lens. But I can always go buy or rent what I need

up

Party sounds like low light so get whatever lens is fastest for the right price

50 1.8 is fine, try to be as generous with your aperture as you can.

usually yes, but this is for a bunch of old mother fuckers lol, they need all the light they can get

manual focus lenses because you wouldnt want to use AF anyways and they got better focus ring, not to mention that you can get few quality lenses(for different focal lengths) for a price of one.