Film production taught me context management

I worked at Lightiron, which got acquired by Panavision. Started as a machine room operator for a few years, then became a DI producer working with clients.

Honestly? I loved chilling in the machine room more than being a producer.

The producer role was about managing information and creative teams. Watching other creative people get to be more creative than me. That dynamic stuck with me. How you organize information, deal with personalities, keep projects moving. All of that showed up later in how I ran e-commerce.

The machine room was quieter. Less client management, more focused work. But the producer experience taught me the core insight. Business management is fundamentally the management of expanding context. You’re not just delivering files. You’re managing expectations, timelines, creative vision, technical constraints. All the context around the actual work.

That lesson carried into Awake Happy, where managing context meant tracking cash flow, margins, distribution. It carried into Ads Lab, where client context is offers, audiences, goals. And it’s the foundation of Commune. Managing personal context at scale.

Film production was where I learned that the system around the work matters as much as the work itself. I spent years watching creative professionals fight their tools instead of creating.

The machine room was peaceful. But the producer role taught me what I needed to build Commune.