The vision
Will guide us
I went to see Oppenheimer on Friday. I'm a big fan of Christopher Nolan (even though I didn't like Tenet) and consider him one of the most influential directors of the modern era.
So, I was curious how his massive 3 hours long biopic turned out.
Spoiler alert - it's an extraordinary movie, and I recommend everyone to watch it.
Why do we call people like Nolan a visionary director, a visionary producer, a visionary, whatever?
The film got me thinking about these types of creative projects in general. A movie like Oppenheimer requires massive cooperation and coordination between hundreds of people in many different departments.
Back when I still worked on movies, I was always amazed at how close to the deadlines all these big projects were being delivered.
Because you would think - a massive movie with millions of dollar budget will be organised and delivered on time.
Wrong.
It's controlled chaos and a massive gamble because no one knows how it will turn out in the end—no one except the director with their vision.
Once the vision is articulated, then everyone understands what they are doing and why they are doing it.
The vision is more important than any individual participating in the project, even the director.
An unclear vision, with different people trying to import their agendas and ideas, will almost always ruin a good thing.
Think of Game of Thrones' last seasons or what Netflix is doing with The Witcher.
It's easy to forget it because everyone has different motivations, and many things can go wrong. Still, if the final goal, the aim, and the vision are in everyone's mind as they are grinding, success is pretty much guaranteed.
PODCAST PRODUCER LATEST
Our latest Casefile Presents podcast is out! It’s called Dragonfly, and I helped to finalise the mixes before the release. Check it out!
I have been working on another two Casefile Presents shows, which will be released soon. But, as I mentioned before, we are on a break from a regular Casefile release.
This allows me to look at my templates, adjust settings, and add test ideas.
This time I have revamped my music, mixing and dialogue templates. The dialogue template had the most subtle changes, making the narration sound tighter on the low end.
The significant changes were in my music and mixing templates. I have purchased new plugins from Soundtoys and incorporated them into the music mixing workflow. I have also remixed the themes I created for the two new Casefile Presents shows.
As we produce more episodes and shows, I become more confident in my skillset and slowly start to understand the sound I want. The final mix I am chasing.
It’s not something that will ever end, any skill we want to master is a lifelong journey, but I’m starting to hear things I never heard before. And it’s both scary and exciting.
YOUTUBE
We’ve released a few cool shorts on the channel and are working on fun videos tied to the premiers of recent films and TV shows.
BOOKS
Daylight Robbery by Dominic Frisby. It’s a book about taxes. Why we are taxed, how and the history of taxation. Why most important historical events were linked to people being upset with hefty taxes, and why do governments usually spend our cash on wars? It’s a fun read, considering the topic.
FUN
I already said we went to see Oppenheimer - amazing film.
We also went to see an art installation called Beyond Submergence in Bristol. It was a light and sound show. It was nice, but imho relatively short and not sure worth a 20-quid ticket.
That's it for now. Thanks for reading, and I'll see you (hopefully!) next week!
Mike
https://mikemigas.com/
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