Technically Creative Newsletter
July 2025
Welcome to the first edition of the Technically Creative newsletter.
We're glad you're here. Here's a note from KoobrikLabs Founder & CEO, Orlando Wood.
WeTransfer nearly claimed rights to your client files. Seriously.
A quiet terms update gave them license to reproduce, modify, distribute - and possibly train AI models on your uploads. After public backlash, they rewrote the clause. But the trust gap is real.
KoobrikLabs CDO Nathaniel Chadwick breaks down what really happened, what it signals for creatives, and why “free and easy” tools often come at a hidden cost.
What happens when a Chief Data Officer thinks like an agent?
For the Technically Creative Season 2 premiere, Orlando sits down with André Vargas, Chief Data Officer at CAA, to talk about building data tools that actually serve artists. Not dashboards for the sake of dashboards. Not “AI-powered” hype. Just tech that helps agents do what they do best - spot talent, close deals, and represent clients with conviction.
They get into how CAA Intell came to life, what it means to co-design with agents, and why generative AI is “guilty until proven innocent.” It’s a conversation about trust, ethics, and what it really takes to put people - not platforms - first.
Your DAM is your studio’s vault. Is it secure enough?
In theory, your Digital Asset Management system keeps everything safe - unreleased cuts, scripts, trailers, treatments.
In reality? It’s often the most overlooked threat surface in a creative pipeline.
KoobrikLabs Chief Data Officer Nathaniel Chadwick has spent years locking down high-value content for studios like NBCUniversal and AV Squad. In this guide, he shares exactly what a secure DAM needs to look like today.
You'll get insights on:
- Securing DAMs in high-pressure production environments
- Risks of handling unreleased media and scripts
- Lessons from breaches at Sony and HBO
- Applying Zero Trust, encryption, and access control
- Using AI, blockchain, and watermarking to protect IP
Why MIT’s brain scan study wasn’t what it seemed
Before you panic about brain scans, let's talk about what the paper actually did, and why most people completely missed it.
When MIT Media Lab released its new study on ChatGPT and cognitive function, most people seemed to take away a single headline: ChatGPT makes you dumber. The results were splashed everywhere- users of ChatGPT showed lower brain engagement, their writing got lazier with each essay, their ideas were even labeled "soulless." Guess that means case closed, right?
Except the people who wrote this paper are smarter than that; and they were counting on you to take the shortcut. This study wasn't just measuring cognitive offloading, it was demonstrating it, knowing exactly how we'd behave. These researchers had spent months designing a rigorous study: EEGs, brainwave analysis across 32 regions, tests for attention, memory load, and semantic processing.
Then, in a section titled “How to Read This Paper,” they laid a trap. KoobrikLabs Creative Strategist, Audrey Henson, breaks it down for us.
What does filmmaking look like without a studio - or a crew?
In this episode of Technically Creative, Orlando talks to Tom Paton, filmmaker and founder of AiMation, who just released the world’s first fully AI-built feature film Where the Robots Grow: no studio, no traditional pipeline, no gatekeepers.
TL;DR:
- Built by 9 people in under 90 days
- Entirely powered by generative tools
- Distribution model: post-first, not pre-prod
- No sets, no shoots; just story and instinct
- GVOD is here, and it's not waiting for permission
Tom explains why legacy Hollywood won’t survive what’s coming, and why the next wave of creators won’t look anything like the last.
“We need to invest in AI.” Cool. What’s the plan?
That’s where most projects stall.
Great ideas. Strong instinct. Zero structure.
This guide is for anyone who's ever been told to "put it in a business case" and had no idea where to start - or worse, built one that went nowhere.
Inside:
- What decision-makers actually need to see
- How to frame value without overpromising
- Ways to flag risks before someone else does
- A checklist to keep things grounded, not fluffy
Not every AI tool wants to make your art. Some just help you get the work done.
There’s a growing class of AI agents that don’t touch the creative product, and that’s the point. They’re not here to generate content or compete with your ideas. They’re here to handle the stuff that slows you down: script breakdowns, rights checks, file organization, trend research, campaign analysis.
In this piece, we explore 10 practical agents built for publishing, entertainment, marketing, and production; the kinds of tools that slot quietly into the background and give teams more time to actually create. No shortcuts. No AI voiceovers. Just invisible support where it makes sense.
Inside the creative engine of a $1B UGC platform
In this episode of Technically Creative, Orlando talks to Sue Anderson, VP of Creative at Roblox and former agency veteran, about building a brand inside a world entirely made by its users.
TL;DR:
- 98 million daily users, 40 million+ user-made experiences
- No media buying - because Roblox is the media
- Creativity that’s shaped by players, creators, and parents
- Why Gen Z sees straight through traditional marketing
- What legacy brands still misunderstand about UGC
Your most underrated creative team? IT.
The line between creative and technical has disappeared - and some of the most forward-thinking agencies and studios are already acting like it. They’re beyond outsourcing ideas; they’re building pitch apps, training custom AI, and spinning up prototypes with the same team that used to just handle infrastructure.
In this post, we unpack how IT departments are becoming in-house production engines - and why the future of storytelling, brand innovation, and speed to market might already be sitting on your payroll.
China is doing what??? | AI x Entertainment news breakdown
From AI-powered video games to Bruce Lee film remakes, here’s your download of the top 5 stories shaping the future of Hollywood and tech.
- Court ruling shifts the rules on training data
- Runway steps into AI gaming
- Midjourney drops its first video model
- Chronicle backs the next wave of YouTube animators
- China plans 100 AI-generated kung fu film remakes
KoobrikLabs just hit 100K subscribers.
KoobrikLabs just crossed 100K subscribers on YouTube. That’s 100,000 people tuning in for real conversations about creativity, AI, and the weird, messy future we’re all building toward.
If you care about where creativity and AI are headed - from the edit suite to the data lab - you’ll want to be here.
Subscribe for weekly conversations that don’t follow the script.
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