+ Both Hands Full

Story arc · Specialist -> Conductor

Kevin Friel.

Twenty-five years VFX. Dune. Detective Pikachu. The conductor's role still matters.

Get it 85% of the way there with AI, then use craft to finish.

Case study

His mum took him to the symphony at six. Hundreds of years into classical music, the conductor still matters: knowing enough about every part to bring out the best of the sum. The orchestration era is here. One agent writes the script, another generates scenes, a third scores the music, a fourth handles continuity. The conductor brings the room.

Kevin is the counterargument to the fantasy that tools erase craft. The conductor is not the person making every sound. The conductor is the person who can hear the whole room and knows what the work needs next.

That is the orchestration era in miniature: enough literacy across the parts to guide them, enough taste to reject almost-right output, and enough humility to keep craft in the loop after the machine gets it close.

Practice the move

Write the Three Documents

Give future collaborators and tools your style guide, worldview, and glossary before you conduct them.

Open exercise →