devon’s newsletter

issue 250–12.13.22

Hello! Well, this is it. The final issue. I just want to say thank you. This has been a wild five-year run. You’ve played…

issue 249–11.29.22

Hello! This is my second to last issue in this form. I’ll be going dormant for a while. I’ll return with sporadic announcements and semi-regular essays/op-eds that can serve more purpose and act as standalone pieces. No more link lists, sorry.

issue 248–11.22.22

Hello! The world has cracked open before me. A new light shines through. It is profound. I am moved. My perspective shifts; it is totally re-aligned.

I’m going to be a dad. To a daughter. And I couldn’t be happier.

issue 247–11.10.22

Hello! I’m an automaton, played on loop. Pitch, eat, sleep. Repeat. Routines as rote processes.

We’re stuck in eternal elevator, all acting. Robots. Our mouths open. A squawk box. It crackles to life, in humble salutation.

issue 246–10.31.22

Hello! Impressions were once meant to last. Creative signals. Now they’ve been assembled in bulk to be sold to advertiser. Actual attention, a fleeting commodity. It’s a volume game, much like Costco — where my ashes will be spread. Pallets stacked sky high. To heaven.

issue 245–10.24.22

Hello! People need to put their tastes, their inputs, on display. Recommendations are a representation of self. Let’s start easy: flex your friends — they win, you win. The old expression says you’re the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with. Guess that just makes me a reflection…

issue 244–10.13.22

Hello! I’ve been thinking about lifecycles, beginnings and ends, and the ever-expanding middle ground. The day, from dawn ’til dusk, brings night. Fresh starts and cold turkeys. Ramp ups and downs. Seeds and harvests. Growth. Decay. You get it…

issue 243–10.6.22

Hello! The content creation & consumption value chains will start mapping onto each other, bleeding together. Progressively. Simultaneously. The train will be built (and the track laid) as it leaves the station. Allow room for improvements, modularity.

issue 242–9.27.22

Hello! Picking things up where we left off… the now is a once in a generation opportunity. And that’s coming from someone who despises hyperbole. The window to strike shortens with each passing day. It’s time to build toward a future you believe in, do it for yourself, and your next of kin.

issue 241–9.19.22

Hello! The concept of being a “multi-platform” value’s driven production company is omnipresent, yet alludes. Stand for something. For those who don’t, nothingness begets pollution. Or worse, oxygen thievery. Satisfactory prevails in the content age, for both consumers and creators.

issue 238 | 8.22.22

Hello! Hollywood was a 20th century business. It had a good run. The industry is a hallucination, where everyone shares the same fever dream; a delusion. A game of taste, reputation, and relationship. It’s the land of the lucky, where the town flips Maslow’s hierarchy on its head, and its…

issue 237 | 8.15.22

Hello! When everyone is entertainer, there is no encore. All the world’s a stage, but nothing lands. A gesture-less, invisible audience. Please clap; deafening silence. Static radio feedback. This is the now, the dehumanization of “social media,” the numb commodification of likes and follows.

issue 236 | 8.9.22

Hello! I’m back. Welcome to Season 2. That was my first real hiatus after nearly five years of doing this thing, each and every week. I apologize for giving zero notice and falling off the face of the earth — landing back in New Zealand exactly two months ago.

issue 235–6.1.22

Hello! I am incredibly backlogged, please forgive me. I’ll do my best to claw my way out of this mountain of news and get us back up to date in a week or so.

I don’t want to share anything prematurely… but I’ve been in a war room the last two weeks in SF working around the…

issue 234–5.2.22

Hello! A few fleeting fortune cookie thoughts about the industry that touch on taste and validation.

Arbiters, as beacons of quality…

Relationship banked. In defense of intermediary, our world is a bundle of curated markets. Promotion is power…

issue 233–4.25.22

Hello! Our timeline is a ledger, which generally reflects our comfort zone, and for most, that’s routine. A simple life, subtle moments in our history. Groundhog’s Day.

Sacred quotidian… from today to tomorrow, do what you like with who you like.

issue 232–4.19.22

Hello! Stories are solar systems — identify the sun, which the core story orbits around, and build outward in layers. Evolve into franchise, stacked in circular design. Rings.

Adaptive mediums, many projects dream of one day becoming a film or series (now the same), but…

issue 231–4.11.22

Hello! Group-based ‘storytelling’ is on the rise, it’s still very niche, but no longer relegated to the kids in musty, candle-lit basements spellbound over a tabletop RPG with double dice.

We have the internet, the ultimate game. It’s global, accessible, and becoming…

issue 230–3.28.22

Hello! Let’s free the IP… this idea is unfathomable for most everyone in the film/tv industry. By all accounts, even thinking it would trigger alarm bells and tongue lashings. The concept is functionally the polar opposite of the business, which contractually seeks to control the narrative and…

issue 229–3.22.22

Hello! My relationship with online media is rapidly undergoing a systemic change, due mostly in part to internet money (i.e. crypto). I believe this is the onset of a (very) new virtuous ecosystem, and in many instances, it’s already here… bubbling under the current.

issue 228–3.16.22

Hello! If my friends were being generous, they’d call me price sensitive. I’ll be the first to admit I’m pretty cheap. My frugality was born out of necessity thanks to working in indie film, but being budget-minded is a feature not a bug (I repeat to myself… and my wife).

issue 227–3.7.22

Hello! The weekend getaway is my preferred form of entertainment… it’s an immersive escape. Resort to recreation. Hit reset.

Experience the environment.

The script as blueprint. Add vision. At a fundamental level, there are similarities between…