Prelight Strategy Pitfalls: Seeking DIT/Gaffer Advice

Hey everyone,

I'm Terrence, a DIT mostly working on indie features and commercials. Lately, I've been pushing to implement a more robust 'Lighting Prelight Strategy' on my projects. We're talking more than just pulling stills, actually attempting to map out light placement, power, and color ahead of time, often with some basic LED panels like amaran 150c and a Pocket Cinema Camera 6K G2 or an ALEXA Mini to simulate. The goal is to streamline our shoot days, especially for complex setups.

My current project involves a lot of moody, controlled lighting, and I'm really trying to get this prelight workflow dialed in. However, I know there's a steep learning curve. For those of you who have successfully (or unsuccessfully!) implemented prelighting: what are some of the most common pitfalls or rookie mistakes you've seen (or made yourself) when trying to plan and execute a prelight? And critically, what's one piece of advice you'd give to avoid these errors?