So what is Daily Special, actually?


The first email was about why I’m building Daily Special.

This one is about what it actually is, and what it is designed to do for members.

Not a post house.

Not coworking.

Something else.

Daily Special is a membership-based post-production community and infrastructure platform built for the way media work happens now.

It is designed for editors, assistants, producers, colorists, finishing artists, creators, small teams, and independent companies who need more than a home setup, but do not need the overhead, gatekeeping, or old assumptions of a traditional facility model.

The goal is simple:

Give people open access to serious infrastructure, useful technology, and a real professional community.



What members will get:

Professional access

Members will be able to access the kinds of spaces and systems that support real work:

  • Edit suites
  • Color bays
  • Screening rooms
  • ADR / podcast rooms
  • Shared work areas (Dark/Quiet, and Communal/Dog Friendly)
  • Secure infrastructure
  • Comfortable professional space for work, meetings, and community

Not everything all the time.

Not bloated packages.

Not a facility model built around selling you things you do not need.

Just access to the right tools, spaces, and systems when they are useful.

Connected workflows

The platform is the operating layer.

Members will be able to manage:

  • Membership access
  • Room bookings
  • Scheduling
  • Project setup
  • Security level
  • Workflow needs
  • Billing
  • Access permissions
  • Community profile and discovery

The platform is designed to make the experience simple: know what you have booked, know what you have access to, know what it costs, and know what is ready when you arrive.


Remote infrastructure, not unnecessary overhead

The old model was built around owning everything.

Machine rooms. Render farms. Fixed infrastructure. Big overhead. Add-on services.

That is not how a lot of post-production works now.

Daily Special is being designed around flexible workflows.

That means members and teams can connect to:

  • Their own cloud or remote infrastructure
  • A studio or production company environment
  • Cloud storage, compute, or workflow toolsets provisioned through the platform

No machine room.

No unnecessary fixed infrastructure.

Nothing you don’t need.

Everything you do.


Community + career network

This part matters just as much as the rooms.

Daily Special is being built as a professional community, not just a place to book space.

The platform will include:

  • Member discovery
  • Skill and specialty profiles
  • Hiring visibility
  • Job and opportunity posts
  • Direct connection between members and teams
  • Events, meetups, and programming
  • A stronger network around the people doing the work

Because the industry has become more fragmented, but the work is still collaborative.

People still need each other.

How it works

The basic member flow is intended to be simple:

Join.

Create your profile.

Set up a project.

Book what you need.

Connect your workflow.

Show up.

Work.

Meet people.

Find collaborators.

Hire people.

Get hired.

Repeat.

That is the model.

Professional infrastructure when you need it.

Community around you when you want it.

Technology underneath it so the whole thing works.


Help shape the model

We are still early, which means the most useful thing right now is data (and you know I love data!).

I want to know what would actually be valuable to the people this is being built for.

So I have three quick questions:

Every response helps shape what gets built first.

Every signup helps prove that the community is real.

And every person who raises their hand helps make the case that this industry is ready for a better model.

-Katie

Daily Special

I'm a former studio exec building a new type of business - not a post house, not coworking, but a connected community with open access to serious professional infrastructure.

Read more from Daily Special

Three Little Birds I call three places home. New Zealand, where I was born. New York, where I became the person I am today. Los Angeles, where I live. This past month, I got to spend time in all three of those places, and I'm back with a lot to share. I started in New Zealand, with three weeks of family time. It was a wonderful reminder to slow down sometimes. I got to spend time with my siblings, my five nieces and baby nephew, and my extended family. I got to work with my Mum on her latest...

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...

We do it for the love of it Back on my feet, back to doing the things I love: Solving complex technical problems, and bringing the community together. This summer has been rough. Between the ACL reconstruction, the crutches, the physical therapy, and the slow, unglamorous work of just getting my leg to bend again, it has been a season of sitting still when I wanted to be moving. So many of you have checked in, sent notes, asked how the knee is doing, and cheered me on even when there was not...