The Master Guide / 08 Cinematography · Camera and lens
Exact paths
When a camera path must be exact, drive it with a grey previsualisation (previz) video, or write it as a chain of stages.
When a camera path must be exact, drive it with a grey previsualisation (previz) video, or write it as a chain of stages.
For a one-take, a product hyper-motion or a car: a greybox previz video (a rough animation of the set as plain grey shapes), attached as a video reference. Its role line (the prompt line that says what a reference is for; see Video with Seedance → Attaching references) says it gives only the camera's path, where the cuts fall and where people stand; nothing else is taken from it [best available, not yet validated].
The method: Higgsfield's 3D Jutsu scene tools.
Block the set as plain grey shapes at real scale, from the geometry and counts of the master plate (the approved still of the location; see Photoreal anchors (Nano Banana Pro) → Location plates).
Place the camera path and its timing.
Render a greybox MP4 video at the shot's length.
The first time you use this method, check the greybox render and the take it drives on that shot before the plan relies on previz for other shots. Until it has worked once, keep a strongly written CAMERA block and a staging map ready as that shot's fallback (see Still prompts, storyboard frames and diagrams → Staging maps, position images, scale sketches). Don't attach that grey video as an image reference, or use it as a start frame: the model copies the grey plastic.
Where it fits: a single subject that needs an exact camera speed. It is weak when several subjects cross in shared space; use a staging map there, or split the shot.
Colour-coded proxy blocks. Option: use it when the plan names it for this film [single strong source]. Each block in the previz maps to one reference and is named in that reference's role line.
The stage chain. Option: use it when the shot is a one-take [single strong source]. Write its camera path as one chain of stages, then one paragraph per stage. "From the kettle on the stove → across the kitchen table → out through the open window → down to the courtyard below."
Choosing previz for a shot is a plan decision (see Planning, budgets and takes → Choosing each generation's method).