Every creative career is basically The Odyssey.
Hi Friends! ☀️
There are some weeks that truly disappear into the ether.
How on earth is it Friday again? Seriously. Who is responsible for this?
The upside, of course, is that Mercury Retrograde has officially come to an end. 🎉 Happy direct motion to all who observe. May your texts send, your flights depart on time, your hard drives cooperate, and whatever lesson the universe was trying to beat into your beautiful brain finally land.
Speaking of ancient messengers...
OMG, The Odyssey.
I have seen it, but not yet in IMAX, which means I have become the meme.
Running a creative business often feels remarkably Homer-esque.
You set off believing you’re headed somewhere relatively straightforward, only to spend the next decade battling monsters, dodging sirens, outsmarting cyclopes, resisting the urge to quit, and discovering that the biggest obstacle was, in fact, your own ego all along.
Every creative project has moments when you are convinced you’ve cracked it, followed almost immediately by evidence that you absolutely have not. Every funding conversation feels like a test from the gods. Every production introduces at least one entirely avoidable catastrophe. Somewhere in the distance, a disappointed Zendaya is grimacing at your life choices. One of the things I love most about building Culture House is that none of us is making the journey alone. The work asks an enormous amount of us, but it also gives us extraordinary traveling companions. Every film, every immersive experience, every podcast, every impossible idea somehow gets carried across the finish line because a group of wildly talented people decide it’s worth rowing in the same direction.
Honestly, that’s the whole trick. Not avoiding the monsters, just finding a crew worth sailing with. 🤎
The Work You Never See ✨
One thing we’ve been thinking about a lot lately is how much of the creative process happens completely out of public view. Everyone celebrates the premiere. The launch. The standing ovation. The headline.
Almost nobody celebrates the whiteboards. The rewrites. The workshop where Act Two falls apart. 🤬 The spreadsheet with seventeen versions of the budget. The meeting that finally unlocks the idea everyone knew was there but couldn’t quite reach. Over at Culture House Immersive, we’re heading into one of our busiest development seasons yet, with writers’ rooms and workshop productions happening this fall in Boulder, Miami, and New Jersey.
It’s ambitious work, and so much of it is being shepherded by the incomparable Kierna Conner, Brie Moten, and Jenny Harrell. 🤎 The work behind the scenes rarely gets its flowers because, by definition, most people never see it. We’re giving those flowers today. 🌸
IN THE CULTURE
🎮 If You’re Headed to Comic-Con...
Our brilliant friends (and clients!) at Supercell are launching Clash for the Stache during San Diego Comic-Con, and if you’re in town, go check it out. They know how to make delightfully ridiculous immersive experiences, and this one looks like an absolute blast. Tickets Here.
☀️ Los Angeles Friends...
Rae and I (and maybe Nicole - come on Nicole!) will be in LA on August 5, marking a rare time where the core four might all be together in person — and we’d love to see you. Shoot us a DM or send Esme a note at Esme@Culture.House if you’re around.
Have a great weekend everybody!!
xo
Carri, Nicole, Rae & Mikhael