Case study · Furniture campaign cinematography
Plan to Picture
Five furniture setups, lit and framed in 3D before the shoot. This is how the plan, the previs and the delivered frames line up for James & James Furniture, shot in a real Texas home in May 2024.
The approach
Power Digital hired me to shoot furniture content for James & James Furniture in a real home in Texas, and I also produced the shoot locally, hiring and paying the Texas crew. Five setups were on the schedule: the Olivia dining table, the Farmhouse dining table, the Josephine round table, the Stella bed and the Luna bed.
So I planned each setup in set.a.light 3D in May 2024. For every one I drew a top-down lighting plan and rendered a previs frame from the planned camera position. The crew and I carried those into the house and used them as the starting point for light placement, camera angle and mood.
A note on what these images are. The previs rooms are generic set.a.light rooms, not the real house, and the diagrams are the plan, not a record of what was built. The comparisons below show how the plan carried to location, not identical sets.
Olivia · Dining table
The plan placed the lights and camera around a dining table with a family seated at it. On the day, the delivered frame keeps people at the table, with a couple at the Olivia table waving at a video call.
Drag to compare. The previs room is a generic set.a.light room, not the real house, so look at light placement, camera angle and mood rather than matching sets.
Farmhouse · Dining table
The previs rendered the empty table from a high three-quarter angle with window light across the floor. The delivered frame holds a similar three-quarter view, with a family of four playing a game at the Farmhouse table under the kitchen pendants.
Drag to compare. The previs room is a generic set.a.light room, not the real house, so look at light placement, camera angle and mood rather than matching sets.
Josephine · Round table
The previs put two people at a round table against a dark sideboard, with warm practical light behind them. The real room had dark built-in shelving, and the delivered frame keeps that low, warm mood.
Drag to compare. The previs room is a generic set.a.light room, not the real house, so look at light placement, camera angle and mood rather than matching sets.
Stella · Bed
The previs set the camera low at the foot of the bed with the windows camera left. The delivered frame keeps that window side and adds soft daylight through the shutters as she makes the bed.
Drag to compare. The previs room is a generic set.a.light room, not the real house, so look at light placement, camera angle and mood rather than matching sets.
Luna · Bed
The previs played the Luna bed as a lively family moment with the windows camera left. The delivered frame keeps that side of the room: a woman sits on the bed with a mug, looking toward the window in soft daylight.
Drag to compare. The previs room is a generic set.a.light room, not the real house, so look at light placement, camera angle and mood rather than matching sets.
On set
These come from the shoot itself: the camera's monitor feed, recorded on an Atomos Ninja V, a look at the real room, and stills from a 360 camera on set.
Why it matters
Planning five setups in advance meant the work on location started from a lighting plan and a camera angle, not a blank room. The shoot delivered 160 graded single-shot clips at 5760x3240 across the five setups, which Power Digital builds into campaign assets for James & James Furniture.