It's great when we're together*

Daily Special was in the neighborhood this week

Starting the conversation (L-R): Joel, Megan, Bill, Me, Wilbur, Wendy.
*Photo: Cynthia Chen*

I said this starts with the community.

This week, I watched it happen. On the hottest day of the year so far, no less.

Earlier that same day, in the basement of that same building, we ran the second round of DSX testing - the managed workstation system that's going to power how people actually book and access rooms through Daily Special. We've been stress-testing it within real facility environments to make sure it works within complex network environments, and to make sure it's really secure.

DSX testing.
In the back rooms of post facilities with engineers is my happy place.

It's quiet, technical, unglamorous work. Nobody at the event that night knew that had happened hours earlier, in the same walls they were standing in. But that's kind of the point: the platform and the community are being built side by side, in the same spaces, by people who believe in supporting the industry.

On September 9th, Daily Special hosted its first-ever community event: Post, Interrupted, part of the One Hour: Process series, at Fancy Film Silverlake.

RSVPs filled up faster than we expected, and we ended up with a long waitlist. We opened it up. The room was mostly freelancers, which was exactly the point, along with facility owners, community organizers, and a handful of studio execs who wanted to listen more than talk.

Bill Macomber (Fancy Film) moderated a conversation with Megan Marquis (Light Iron), Wilbur DiTullio (BCPC), Wendy Aylsworth (TV Academy / HPA), Joel Ides (colorist), and me. We were there to get the conversation started. What actually happened was a room full of editors, colorists, post producers, and facility owners talking to each other, openly, about what's missing and what's already working that nobody knows about.

One thread ran through the whole night: facility owners in that room are, on paper, supposed to be competitors. But the industry has changed enough that smaller shops are starting to work together instead - sharing referrals, covering each other's overflow, building trust instead of guarding territory.

And it wasn't just the facility owners. Colorists, editors, and other freelancers in the room said the same thing about their own world: building real networks around trust, passing along work to each other even when work is scarce, and showing up for one another through the good weeks and the bad ones.

At one point, Bill asked how many people in the room lead a community organization, group, or resource of their own.

ABOUT TEN HANDS WENT UP.

Ten. In a room of freelancers and facility owners, ten people are already out there building the exact kind of support system we spent the night talking about needing more of.

By the end, the conversation kept circling back to the same idea: none of this works without a strong community behind it. More than one person told me afterward that the mix of people in the room: freelancers, facility owners, studio execs, all just hanging out because we care about our community - was the best part.

That's the whole point behind Daily Special, said out loud, by the people it's for.

I also want to say thank you to Fancy Film for hosting us. Opening your space for an evening like this isn't free. They helped me plan and host the event, which was such a privilege because Fancy hosts incredible events, all the time. Fancy is the kind of company that puts community first, not just in the way they talk about it, but in what they're actually willing to give. We're lucky to have them as part of the creative community of Los Angeles.