We began as a small, ragged platoon: a director with a bruised coffee mug, a sound tech with eardrums of steel, an editor who lived in keyboard shortcuts. For the first hour we mapped the terrain — constraints, assets, the single emotion this piece had to deliver. The room smelled of takeout and determination. We layered intent over logistics: narrative beats, shot lists, master audio stems, color references. Every choice cut toward one metric — resonance.