Please explain your lighting set-up. How many tungsten lights ? Refectors ? I assume you're using tungsten film, or a correction filter, right ?
That 8:1 ratio is pretty contrasty for slide film. In order to have more manageable contrast for slide film, try a 3:1 ratio. To do that, you will need two tungsten lights of equal intensity. Place the fill light at 1.8X the distance of the main light-to-the-subject. That will yield the desired ratio (as to why, google "inverse square law").
As far as metering, with an incident meter, point the cupola back at the lens from where the subject's face will be. Use that reading. Bracket +/- 1/3 f/ from that, too.
Exposure and lighting are subjects too vast to cover here. You need to pick up some good books on the subject. _Learning to Light_ by Roger Hicks is a good place to start, or _The Photographer's Guide to Using Light_, by Schwartz and Stoppee.
--- Luis
Ps. Test this out on your own before the shoot, of course.
