Case study · Construction footage library
Construction Previs
Before the Cardboard Spaceship construction shoot, I blocked the key setups in set.a.light 3D: the crew stepping out of an elevator, a camera fixed to a 2x4 a worker carries through the room, and an overhead on the plans table. The delivered edit landed close to the renders.
The plan
A footage library has to cover a working job site from many angles, and every setup is a deliverable. I built the rooms in set.a.light 3D and placed the crew, the camera and the light in each one before the shoot, so the frames were decided before call time.
Elevator · Crew exit
Drag to compare. The doorway frame, the crew stacked in the car and the cool, low-key light carry over from the render to the delivered shot.
Camera on a 2x4
The camera rides on the board itself. The render set the wide lens, the low line along the lumber and the windowed room behind the worker.
Overhead · Plans table
Same top-down angle on the plans, with hands working the sheet. On the day, a tablet took the place of the laptop.
What changed on the day
A real crew in hard hats and safety vests replaced the 3D stand-ins, and a tablet replaced the laptop on the plans table. The production frames are stills from the delivered edit. The previs renders are tone matched to the delivered grade so the comparison reads at a glance; the footage itself is untouched.
Why it matters
Previs settles each frame before anyone arrives on site. On a library shoot with a long list of setups, that time goes to coverage instead of discussion.
The rest of the library
The library covers the whole job site, from layout and cutting to plan reviews. More frames are on the project page.
