LIGHTING PLAN MAKER
Plan the light
before the truck is loaded.
Diagram every setup, pin the frame you are matching right beside it, and list the fixtures, power, and grip each position needs. Storyflow is paid-only during early access, with plans from $9.99 a month, and a Free plan launches before the end of 2026.
Plans from $9.99/mo
Free plan coming late 2026
Works in your browser
Used by creative professionals at:
Artlist
Pixar
Nike
Red Bull
The North Face
Porsche
Start from a ready-made template
Pick a board to see what you can build, then let AI fill it in. Every template is a real, editable starting point on the same infinite canvas.
Pre-Production
Pull the brief, script, shot list, and moodboard into one pre-production hub so the whole shoot is planned in one place.
What is a lighting plan?
A lighting plan is a per-setup record of where the light comes from, what makes it, and what the result is supposed to look like. It is usually drawn as an overhead diagram with the camera, the subject, and each fixture marked, along with modifiers, distances, and heights. Its purpose is not documentation for its own sake. It is to make a lighting idea transferable, so that what the DP is imagining and what the gaffer rigs are the same thing, and so that a look established on Tuesday can be recreated on Friday.
The reason lighting benefits from planning more than almost anything else on a shoot is that it is the slowest thing to change and the hardest to fix later. Reblocking a scene costs minutes. Relighting it costs an hour, sometimes more once you count moving stands, re-running cable, and re-balancing for the change. That asymmetry means the value of deciding in advance is unusually high here, and the cost of discovering on the day that the look requires a fixture nobody brought is unusually painful.
Storyflow is an AI-native infinite canvas that fits this well because a lighting plan is a drawing plus a list plus a picture, and those three things normally live in three places. Sketch the overhead with the pen tool, pin the reference frame you are chasing directly beside it so the intent is unambiguous, and write the fixture list, power draw, and grip requirements on a card attached to the same setup. Because there is no object cap, a shoot with thirty lighting setups sits on one board.
A lighting plan is worth building in four layers. The intent layer is the reference: the actual frame you are trying to match, which settles arguments that adjectives cannot. The diagram layer is the overhead showing key, fill, backlight, and practicals with their positions, heights, and modifiers. The kit layer is what each setup physically requires in fixtures, stands, modifiers, gels, and cable, which is what turns a plan into a truck load. And the practical layer is the constraints that decide feasibility: available power and where it comes from, how long the setup takes to rig, and whether the room has the ceiling height and the space the diagram assumes.
HOW IT WORKS
From a reference frame to a plan the gaffer can rig.
Draw the diagram, pin the reference, list the kit.
01
Open a canvas
Sign up in seconds, from $9.99 a month. No download. Your infinite planning canvas opens straight in the browser.
02
Pin the look you are chasing
Grab a frame from a YouTube or Vimeo reference or drop in a still, so the intent for each setup is a picture rather than a description. This is the single biggest reduction in misunderstanding.
03
Draw the diagram
Sketch the overhead with the pen tool: camera, subject, key, fill, backlight, and practicals, with heights, distances, and modifiers marked. Draw over the recce photo when you have one.
04
List the kit and share it
Attach the fixtures, modifiers, gels, stands, and power each setup needs, then send a view-only link to your gaffer or export as a PDF for the truck.
The diagram, the reference, and the kit list together.
Everything a gaffer needs to rig a setup, attached to that setup.
The reference frame pinned beside the diagram
Show the look, do not describe it
Grab the exact frame you are matching from a reference video and put it next to the diagram. Moody and soft mean different things to different people; a frame means one thing.
See the film lookbook →
Draw overhead diagrams with the pen tool
Sketch each setup by hand
Draw the camera, subject, key, fill, and backlight with heights and modifiers the way you would on paper. Drop the recce photo underneath so the plan respects the actual ceiling and the actual windows.
See the free infinite canvas →
Fixtures, power, and grip listed per setup
Turn the plan into a truck load
Attach the fixture list, modifiers, gels, stands, and power draw to each setup. Listing kit per setup rather than per production is what catches the one light needed for a single shot.
See the equipment list maker →
Lighting plans beside blocking and the schedule
See what the light costs you in time
Rig time is the most under-estimated number on a schedule. Keeping the lighting plan next to the blocking and the shoot day makes an ambitious setup visible as an hour rather than as a drawing.
See the scene blocking tool →Unlimited boards. No object cap.
Open a canvas, pin your references, and draw the setups. Storyflow is paid-only during early access, with plans from $9.99 a month, and a Free plan launches before the end of 2026.
Unlimited lighting plans on an infinite canvas
Pen tool for sketching diagrams by hand
Basic AI usage to generate boards from prompts
Share view-only links with your gaffer and crew
BUILT FOR LIGHTING
More than a diagram in a notebook.
A diagram alone does not say what look it produces or what kit it needs. All three belong together.
Intent, diagram, kit, and practical constraints
Build the plan in four layers
Intent: the frame you are matching: Every setup should carry the actual reference image. This is the layer most often skipped and the one that prevents the most disagreement, because a picture is not open to interpretation in the way a description is.
Diagram: positions, heights, modifiers: Key, fill, backlight, and practicals marked with distances, heights, and what is on them. Height is the detail most often omitted and the one that most changes the result.
Kit: what this setup physically needs: Fixtures, stands, modifiers, gels, diffusion, and cable listed per setup rather than per production. Per-setup listing is what catches the specialist fixture needed for two shots.
Practical: power, time, and the room: How much power the setup draws and where it comes from, how long it takes to rig, and whether the ceiling height and floor space actually allow it. A beautiful plan the room cannot accommodate is not a plan.
AI that can see the board you have already built
Structure the plan with AI, light it yourself
Lay out a setup per scene: Describe the shoot and the AI builds a board with a section per setup to fill in. It reads the active canvas as context, so it works with the structure you have already made.
It cannot judge light: The AI cannot tell you whether a ratio will look right, how a fixture behaves at a given distance, or what a room will do to bounced light. That knowledge is craft learned in rooms, and the plan is where you record it rather than derive it.
Draft the kit list from your diagram: Once the setups are drawn, ask it to enumerate the fixtures and grip each implies. It is a reasonable first pass on a tedious task, and you check it against what you actually own.
Frames, photos, plans, and documents on one canvas
Everything the setup refers to
Grab frames from reference films: Pull the exact frame from a YouTube or Vimeo reference onto the board. For lighting in particular this is the difference between a shared understanding and four different ones.
Draw over the recce photo: Drop the location photo underneath your diagram so the plan accounts for the real windows, the real ceiling height, and where the power actually is.
Keep the spec sheets attached: Drop fixture spec PDFs and rental links onto the setup card, so power draw and rental substitutions are answerable without leaving the board.
Share with the gaffer, DP, and rental house
One plan from prep to the truck
View-only links: Send a link and your gaffer sees the diagrams, the references, and the kit list in a browser with no account. A gaffer who has seen the reference frame in prep rigs closer to the intent first time.
Plan together: Invite your DP and gaffer onto the board so the plan reflects what the kit can actually do. Live multi-editor presence with cursors is on the Max plan.
Export for the day: Export as a high-quality image or PDF for the truck or the rental order. Printed diagrams survive a set better than a phone screen in daylight.
Explore templates for your project
Every template opens as a real, editable board on the infinite canvas. Pick the closest fit and make it your own.
Pre-Production
Pull the brief, script, shot list, and moodboard into one pre-production hub so the whole shoot is planned in one place.
HOW WE COMPARE
Storyflow vs paper, Set.a.light 3D, and a notes app.
For simulating the actual result, a dedicated 3D tool wins outright. Here is the split.
Storyflow
Recommended
Reference frame pinned beside the diagram
Kit and power listed per setup
Draw over the real recce photo
Simulates the resulting image
Accurate fixture and falloff modelling
Sits beside blocking, shot list, and schedule
Paper
Reference frame pinned beside the diagram
Kit and power listed per setup
Draw over the real recce photo
Simulates the resulting image
Accurate fixture and falloff modelling
Sits beside blocking, shot list, and schedule
Set.a.light 3D
Reference frame pinned beside the diagram
Kit and power listed per setup
Draw over the real recce photo
Simulates the resulting image
Accurate fixture and falloff modelling
Sits beside blocking, shot list, and schedule
Notes app
Reference frame pinned beside the diagram
Kit and power listed per setup
Draw over the real recce photo
Simulates the resulting image
Accurate fixture and falloff modelling
Sits beside blocking, shot list, and schedule
What creators are saying
Join early creators getting structured workspaces and AI that remembers their projects
“Storyflow has sped up my workflow by at least 3x, which means more flow state and more projects I can actually ship. It truly changed the way me and my team create.”
Reilin Joey
Director & YouTuber
“One prompt gets me a structured board. But the tactics are my favorite. I run my YouTube scripts through them and my intros and retention got better. It's amazing.”
Justkay
YouTuber & Freelance Filmmaker
“I used to juggle five apps to plan a project. Now I describe what I am making and get boards, lists, and a schedule. All in one place.”
George
@fernwehchronicles
Lighting plan questions, answered.
How to build one, what to include, and where a simulation tool beats a diagram.
Work in four layers per setup. Start with intent: pin the actual reference frame you are trying to match, because a picture removes the ambiguity that words like moody or soft always carry. Then draw the diagram as an overhead, marking the camera, the subject, and each fixture with its position, height, distance, and modifier. Height is the detail most often left out and the one that most changes the result. Then list the kit that setup needs, meaning fixtures, stands, modifiers, gels, diffusion, and cable, keeping the list per setup rather than per production so specialist items are not lost. Finally record the practical constraints: power draw and where it comes from, expected rig time, and whether the room's ceiling height and floor space actually allow what you have drawn.
Decide the light while changing it is still free.
Open a canvas, pin your reference, and draw the setups. Plans from $9.99/month, no download, and a Free plan is coming before the end of 2026.