Field Notes

Written from inside the work.

Not commentary on the industry — notes from productions we actually delivered. Real numbers, real failures, and the parts nobody selling AI tools will tell you.

Production economics

What You Say Yes To Someone mentioned Ray Dalio in a client meeting on Monday. By Friday we had rebuilt a delivered film as hand-drawn animation. Seven cuts, one day — and what that does to the ideas you’re willing to try.

Oct 2026
Studio systems

WHEN? Three days, one spec spot, two clients and one idea: every film we make should make the next one better. Plus what Ben Affleck’s $587 million AI company has to do with it.

Oct 2026
Studio systems

Work-Life Balance Isn’t a Schedule. It’s a Handoff. I gave Claude four jobs, closed the laptop, and spent the day going down water slides. By the time I checked my phone it was all done. What actually gets handed off — and what never will.

Sep 2026
Creative intelligence

How I use AI as a creative collaborator on “Crawford” Reference images come back like a cinematographer saying “here’s an idea of how we could shoot this.” What that conversation actually looks like across twenty-four episodes.

Aug 2026
Studio systems

Before you can make the show, you have to build the tools The Crawford proof case: how building an AI crime series meant first building the production tools to make it.

May 2026
Development

The new possible: pitching Crawford to both sides Selling an AI-produced series to an industry that is equal parts desperate for it and afraid of it.

Apr 2026
Production economics

How I built a production tool for Crawford — without writing a single line of code What becomes possible when the person who understands the problem can build the fix themselves.

Mar 2026
Originals

Announcing Crawford: bridging the gap between AI and cinematic storytelling Can AI create broadcast-quality television? The series built to answer that question in public.

Jan 2026