By Joey Arcisz, producer and director

A couple of years after shooting construction clips for licensing on Filmsupply, I looked back at them and saw how much better they could be. I pitched a bigger, fully produced version to Cardboard Spaceship. They funded it, and I planned every setup in set.a.light 3D before a single light went up.

The location was an office floor down to bare concrete. Each setup on the board paired its set.a.light render with its lighting plan, and a note at the top set the night look: the blue light on the talent comes from a welder working nearby, throwing flashes of blue across the room.

The setups board: set.a.light render and lighting plan for each setup
The setups board: set.a.light render and lighting plan for each setup

The board covered more than lighting: a night top-down tracking shot over the blueprints, a chest-mounted 12mm worker POV, portraits, and the elevator exit. One thing set.a.light could not show was haze. I noted on the board that the shots were meant to read as a dusty space, with smoke from a generator nearby and from grinding, welding and sawing, so the renders set the light and the haze was left for the shoot itself.

Setup 1: The elevator exit

The elevator exit was planned with a dim ceiling light in the car, two small LED panels and a Titan tube, with the camera at 17mm and T2.8. The doorway frame, the crew stacked in the car and the cool, low-key light carried over from the render to the delivered shot.

Lighting plan in set.a.light 3D: elevator exit with construction crew
Lighting plan in set.a.light 3D
Render in set.a.light 3D: elevator exit with construction crew
Render in set.a.light 3D
Delivered shot: elevator exit with construction crew
Delivered shot

Setup 2: The rig shot

For the rig shot, the camera rode on the end of a board at 12mm, with a Titan tube lighting the worker and a desk lamp on the plans table across the room. The render set the wide lens, the low line along the lumber and the windowed room behind the worker.

Lighting plan in set.a.light 3D: rig shot of a worker carrying lumber, camera on the end of the board
Lighting plan in set.a.light 3D
Render in set.a.light 3D: rig shot of a worker carrying lumber, camera on the end of the board
Render in set.a.light 3D
Delivered shot: rig shot of a worker carrying lumber, camera on the end of the board
Delivered shot

Setup 3: The overhead

The overhead was planned straight down on the table at 27mm in a 2.4:1 frame, with three Fresnels around the table and the desk lamp on it. The delivered shot keeps the same top-down angle on the plans, with hands working the sheet. On the day, a tablet took the place of the laptop.

Lighting plan in set.a.light 3D: top-down shot of the plans table
Lighting plan in set.a.light 3D
Render in set.a.light 3D: top-down shot of the plans table
Render in set.a.light 3D
Delivered shot: top-down shot of the plans table
Delivered shot

Behind the scenes

On set at the plans table
On set at the plans table
On set at the elevator
On set at the elevator

Read the full case study by Joey Arcisz, producer and director, at joeyarcisz.com.

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This post is also available in: German

Published in General · 27. October 2026