An independent study of how technology is reshaping the film industry — its economics, its labour, and its craft.
§ 01
the question
When a problem in this industry is being settled only through legal agreements, is there also something worth building? That is the question this study sits with — narrow, and stubborn.
§ 02
why now
In 2023, the Writers Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA went on strike. Two of the issues on the table had been sharpened by technology — how streaming rewrote the economics of residuals, and what generative AI might mean for writing, performance, and a performer's own likeness. The strikes ended in agreements. The questions underneath them did not.
I spoke with members of the unions in Los Angeles. The pressure they described was concrete and largely economic. That is where this study begins — not with the technology, but with the people it presses on.
§ 03
the approach
The method is plain: make things in order to understand the problem. A recording tool. Short films. Small experiments. Not products — probes. Each one is a way to feel where a technology genuinely serves the work, and where it quietly removes the person doing it.
§ 04
showcase
The reels below are early output — short films and small experiments, shared in the spirit of working in the open. They are rough, and deliberately so: the point is to learn in public, then narrow toward something that serves the mission rather than the tooling.
- Reel 01YouTube
- Reel 02YouTube
- Reel 03YouTube
- Reel 04YouTube
- Reel 05YouTube
- Reel 06YouTube
§ 05
collaborate
Problems like these are not solved alone. If any of this resonates — whether you make films, build software, or simply live these questions — I would like to hear from you.