In twelve weeks you will take one brand from a blank page to a published campaign with a finished brand film at its centre, and defend every decision in front of a room. You will learn to think like a strategist, direct like a filmmaker and finish like a post house, with AI doing the heavy lifting and your taste making the calls.
12 weeks11 building + Demo Day
33 sessionsTeach, Studio, Crit every week
1 brandOne Brand Book, 12 chapters
20 maxFour pods of five
01Who it is for
Designers, art directors, content creators, filmmakers, editors, copywriters and marketers who want to own the thinking and the making. Mixed cohorts on purpose: strategists learn to make, makers learn to think.
Before you start, check you have
Comfortable on a computer, with a reasonably modern laptop and a reliable connection
Time for three live sessions a week plus making time between them
A brand to work on, or happy to take one of ours
Willing to show unfinished work every week
02What you will be able to do
Six outcomes. Every week builds at least one, and Demo Day tests all six.
O1
Find the insight
Diagnose a brand's situation, find a true human insight and write a brief a team could act on tomorrow.
O2
Build the brand
Position a brand, write its platform and voice, and protect its distinctive assets when AI can make a thousand variations a day.
O3
Art-direct images
Direct AI imagery with precision and control, and finish posters and flat creative to a professional standard.
O4
Direct the film
Take a brand film from treatment and storyboard to consistent, controlled shots, people and motion.
O5
Finish like a pro
Design sound, score and voice, then edit, grade, mix and deliver every format to spec.
O6
Ship and defend
Launch a campaign, read the results honestly and present the thinking, the work and the outcome.
03The arc
Three phases, six milestones, one brand carried the whole way.
ThinkWeeks 1–3Creative, brand and campaign strategy. Ends with Brief Lock.
MakeWeeks 4–10Image, posters, story, film, motion, sound and post. Mentor Day in Week 6, Braintrust in Week 8.
ShipWeeks 11–12Launch, measure, rehearse, then Demo Day.
WEEK 3
Brief Lock
Your brief is signed off after Brief in a Day. Everything after answers to it.
WEEK 6
Mentor Day
Back-to-back sessions with guest practitioners at the halfway mark, then a reset plan.
WEEK 8
Braintrust
Your rough cut under candid panel review. You leave with a kill list.
WEEK 10
Picture lock and master
The film is locked, graded, mixed and delivered with its provenance dossier.
WEEK 11
Rehearsal Day
Peers-only run-throughs. The first draft gets cut hard, on purpose.
WEEK 12
Demo Day
The whole campaign, presented and judged.
04How a week works
Three sessions, three jobs. Most of the time is spent making, and every week ends in critique.
SESSION A
Teach
Short input, then a live worked example where the trainer narrates every decision. Then everyone tries it on a small task.
SESSION B
Studio
Making time on your own brand, in your pod, with the trainers going desk to desk.
SESSION C
Crit
Dailies and critique. Unfinished work on screen, a structured feedback protocol, and a guest practitioner at the milestones.
Every session has the same shape
Minutes
Why
Recall
10
A quick drill on an earlier skill, so nothing is taught once and forgotten.
Frame
5
Today's outcome and where it lands in your Brand Book.
Worked example
25
Watch an expert do it, decision by decision.
Guided try
15
Everyone attempts it on a small task.
Make
45–60
On your own brand, in your pod.
Crit
30
A named protocol, rotated week to week.
Reflect
10
One line: what I learned, what I will change, what I ship next.
The Brand Book
Your one cumulative document. Each week writes one chapter, from diagnosis and insight in Week 1 to launch and results in Week 11. By Demo Day it is the case study, the portfolio piece and the proof.
05The habits
Small things done every day and every week. They are what turn a course into a practice.
Swipe file
One reference a day, with one line on why it works. By Demo Day you have sixty-plus, and a sharper eye.
Dailies
Every week you show unfinished work. Rough is required. Problems found early cost nothing.
Pods of five
Four fixed pods meet between sessions. Every piece you ship gets written notes from your pod, and you give notes on theirs.
Culture read
Each crit session opens with one learner presenting a cultural moment and what it means for our briefs.
Build in public
One process post a week. Demo Day is easier when people have watched you build.
Reflect
Every session ends with a written line on what changed in your thinking.
06House standards
The rules every piece of work is held to, from the first brief to the final master.
The brief template
Every brief uses the same shape: backstory, the challenge, who we are talking to, the one thing to say, things to think about, things to avoid, deliverables. If it cannot be said in one sentence, it is not ready.
Strategy line → idea line
Every piece in your portfolio is shown as a pair: the strategic truth in one sentence, then the idea in one sentence.
The control ladder
Text prompt → image reference → start and end frames → motion or performance transfer → manual composite. Climb only as high as the shot needs. It works whatever the model of the month is.
The slop audit
Before anything is shown: skin, hands, eyes and eyelines, physics, continuity of wardrobe and props, text artefacts, brand marks. Anything that fails is fixed or cut.
Two speeds
Every campaign carries a brand-building element and an activation element, with the split written down and argued for.
Delivery spec
A spec sheet for every brief: ratios (16:9, 9:16, 1:1, 4:5), captions, safe areas, file names. Social masters at −14 LUFS integrated, −1 dBTP true peak.
Provenance dossier
Every final ships with its paper trail: tools and models used, licence status of music and voices, consent for any real face or voice.
07Week by week
Each week: the question it answers, the outcomes it builds, what to do before it, three sessions with a capstone each, and the Brand Book chapter it writes.
Week 1Think
Creative Strategy: What Makes Work Worth Making
★ Milestone: Kickoff and brand choice
Before any tool, the thinking. You learn how strategy works, from diagnosing the situation to finding a true insight and turning it into an idea worth making. AI comes in as your researcher and sparring partner, never your author. You also choose the one brand you carry for twelve weeks, start your swipe file and meet your pod.
Why does some work move people while the rest gets scrolled past?
Builds
O1 · Find the insight
Brand Book chapter 1
Diagnosis and insight
Before the week
Read Strategy Is Your Words — Mark Pollard
Do Start your swipe file: one reference a day, one line on why it works
Session A Teach
What Creative Strategy Actually Is
Diagnosis, strategy, then tactics, in that order
Diagnosis before strategy before tactics, and why most work skips the first two
The three circles: brand, audience and culture, and the insight where they overlap
Insight, idea, execution: teardowns of campaigns that worked
How attention changed: feeds, short form, and timelines flooded with AI content
CapstoneA teardown of three campaigns in your category, each traced from insight to idea to execution.
Session B Studio
Finding the Insight
Research and listening, with AI doing the heavy lifting
AI-assisted research: reviews, comments, forums, search data and competitor content
Observation, fact or insight: telling them apart
Tension: what your audience feels that nobody in the category is saying
Using AI to stress-test your thinking, and catching it when it just agrees with you
CapstoneThree insight statements for your brand, each with an evidence log.
Session C Crit
From Insight to Idea
Past the first, average answer
Why the model's first answer is the average answer, and how generative models work, just enough to direct them
Judging an idea: is it true, is it different, can it travel
First crit using I like / I wish / What if, in pods
CapstoneYour strongest insight and three idea territories, critiqued by your pod.
Week 2Think
Brand Strategy: What a Brand Stands For, and How It Changes
A brand is what people remember and feel when they meet you. Week 2 builds that on purpose: who the brand is for, where it sits, what it promises, how it sounds and the assets that make it recognisable in a second. Then the hard part: how brands evolve without losing themselves, and how to stay consistent when AI can make a thousand variations a day.
What should people remember about this brand, and why would they care?
Builds
O2 · Build the brand
Brand Book chapter 2
Brand platform
Before the week
Read How Brands Grow, on mental and physical availability — Byron Sharp
Read Building Distinctive Brand Assets, selected chapters — Jenni Romaniuk
Session A Teach
Brand Foundations
Segmentation, targeting and positioning
Segmentation, targeting and positioning: choosing who the brand is really for
Positioning: frame of reference, point of difference, reasons to believe
Mental and physical availability: why brands grow by being easy to think of and easy to buy
Mapping the category with AI: who owns which idea, colour, tone and promise
CapstoneA positioning statement and a category map showing where your brand can win.
Session B Studio
Brand Platform, Voice & Distinctive Assets
Turning position into something people recognise
The brand platform: purpose, values, personality and promise
A tone-of-voice guide written so both people and AI tools can follow it
Distinctive brand assets: colours, shapes, characters and sounds, scored for fame and uniqueness
Brand building versus selling: what each needs from the work
CapstoneA brand platform, a voice guide and a distinctive-asset audit.
Session C Crit
How Brands Change
Refresh, rebrand, reposition, and keeping your shape
Refresh, rebrand or reposition: what each one means and when each is right
Evolutions that worked and ones that failed, and what separated them
Guardrails for AI scale: brand-safe prompt kits and what the model never decides
Culture read #1, then a Critical Response Process crit on your platform
CapstoneA brand evolution memo: what stays, what changes, and what AI is never allowed to touch.
Week 3Think
Campaign Strategy & the Brief
★ Milestone: Brief Lock
Week 3 turns brand into action. You design the campaign: the objective, the two-speed plan, the big idea and the role every channel plays. Then you write the brief everything else in the programme answers to. The week ends with Brief in a Day, a real brief cracked and pitched in a single session, and Brief Lock.
What is the one idea that can run everywhere, and can you say it in a sentence?
Builds
O1 · Find the insightO6 · Ship and defend
Brand Book chapter 3
Campaign strategy and the brief
Before the week
Read The Long and the Short of It — Les Binet and Peter Field
Read YouTube ABCDs of effective creative — Google
Study Three award-winning student briefs and their answers — D&AD New Blood
Session A Teach
Campaign Strategy
One big idea, built to run across every channel
Objectives: awareness, consideration or conversion, and how each changes the work
Two speeds: brand building plus activation, and arguing the split
The big idea and the campaign platform: one thought that flexes into any format
The comms ecosystem: a clear role for every channel, and how you will measure it
Get / To / By: who we want to reach, what we want them to do, and how we will get them there
The house brief template, section by section
The one-sentence test: if it cannot be said in a sentence, it is not ready
Strategy line → idea line: the pair every portfolio piece will carry
CapstoneYour campaign brief, written on the house template.
Session C Crit
Brief in a Day + Brief Lock
A real brief, cracked and pitched in one session
A real brand brief set at the start of the session
Pods crack it, make a rough and pitch it before the end
Then every learner's own brief is reviewed by the trainers
Brief Lock: your brief is signed off, and the making starts
CapstoneA Brief in a Day pitch from your pod, and your own brief, locked.
Week 4Make
Visual Language & Image Craft
★ Milestone: Visual bible lock
The making starts with still images, because every poster, post and film frame grows from them. You define your campaign's visual language, learn to see and direct like a photographer, and climb the control ladder from a text prompt to image-to-image. The week ends by locking your visual bible: the references every later image and shot must cite.
Can you make an image that looks shot, not generated, and make it again on purpose?
Builds
O3 · Art-direct images
Brand Book chapter 4
Visual bible
Before the week
Read The Visual Story, on contrast and affinity — Bruce Block
Do Add twenty visual references for your brand to your swipe file
Session A Teach
Visual Language & Art Direction
Where strategy becomes something people can see
Colour, type, composition, light, texture and motion as brand decisions
Mood boards and references, and reading what a reference actually communicates
Photographic language: lens, depth of field, angle and light as emotion
Cultural codes: visuals that read right for your market
CapstoneA visual language board for your campaign.
Session B Studio
The Control Ladder & Image-to-Image
From a prompt to a real product in a new world
The control ladder: text, image reference, edit and inpaint, manual composite
Choosing the model by the control you need: Midjourney, GPT Image, Gemini, Firefly
Image-to-image: a real product or person placed into new scenes without losing them
Relighting, background swaps, matching shadows and perspective
CapstoneSix campaign scenes made from one real product photograph.
Session C Crit
Visual Bible Lock
The references every later asset must cite
Character sheets: the same face and outfit from every angle
Location plates and product references in one shared folder
The slop audit, introduced and applied to your own images
Dailies #1 and a blind crit
CapstoneYour visual bible, locked: characters, locations, products and style references.
Week 5Make
Posters, Key Visuals & Flat Creative
Graphic design with AI as the image engine and you as the designer. You design the key visual the whole campaign grows from, finish a poster series to print standard, and adapt it into flat creative for every platform. AI makes the image. You set the type, the hierarchy and the standard. The week closes with a silent gallery walk.
Can one image carry the whole campaign at a glance?
Builds
O3 · Art-direct images
Brand Book chapter 5
Key visual and flat set
Before the week
Read Thinking with Type, the chapter on hierarchy — Ellen Lupton
Study Ten award-winning posters, and why each reads in three seconds
Session A Teach
Posters & Key Visuals
The image that carries the campaign
Hierarchy, a single focal point, contrast and the three-second read
Designing the key visual every other asset, including the film, grows from
Poster series: variation with a system, not by accident
Print, outdoor and screen: what changes and what must stay
CapstoneYour key visual and a series of three posters.
Session B Studio
Typography & Finishing
The details that make it professional
Typography over AI imagery: why the model should not set your type
Compositing, generative fill and retouching in Photoshop or Affinity
Upscaling and print preparation: resolution, colour, bleed
The finishing checklist that separates a pro poster from an AI one
CapstoneYour poster series finished to print standard.
Session C Crit
Flat Creative + Gallery Walk
One visual, every size, judged in silence
Static ads, carousels and social posts: the rules of each format
Every ratio without breaking the composition, and copy that works at thumbnail size
Deliberate test variants, not random ones
Silent gallery walk: work on the wall, notes on cards, no talking
CapstoneA full flat-creative set in every size, revised after the gallery walk.
Week 6Make
Story, Script & Emotion
★ Milestone: Mid-point Mentor Day
Before a single frame of film, the words. People share feelings, not information, so you choose the emotion, build the story, write the copy and script the film you will direct for the next four weeks. The week ends with a table read and Mentor Day: back-to-back sessions with guest practitioners at the halfway mark.
What should people feel, and what story gets them there?
Builds
O1 · Find the insightO4 · Direct the film
Brand Book chapter 6
Story and script
Before the week
Read Story, selected chapters on structure — Robert McKee
Watch Five brand films in your category, timed beat by beat
Session A Teach
The Emotional Brief
Choosing the feeling before the format
Why emotion beats information for attention, memory and action
Emotional territory: the one feeling your campaign will own
Story in seconds: tension, turn and release
Hooks: the first line, the first frame, the first second
CapstoneAn emotional brief and a beat sheet for your hero film.
Session B Studio
Copy & Script
Words written to be read, seen and heard
A copy deck in your brand voice: headlines, lines, captions
The clichés AI loves, and editing them out
Script formats: 15, 30, 60 and 90 seconds
Writing for the eye (action lines that become shots) and the ear (voiceover that sounds spoken)
CapstoneA copy deck and a shooting script for your hero film.
Session C Crit
Table Read + Mentor Day
The halfway check, with outside eyes
Every script read aloud, then a Critical Response Process crit
Back-to-back twenty-minute sessions with guest practitioners
A written reset plan for the second half
End-of-phase reflection, in pods
CapstoneA revised script and your reset plan.
Week 7Make
Film I: Pre-Production & Directing
Four weeks of film start here. Great AI films are directed, not prompted, so this is pre-production. You write the treatment, stage a shared scene to learn coverage, board every beat as an approved still before any video is generated, and write camera direction a model will follow. The week ends with an animatic screening.
What is each shot for, and how will you get the model to make it?
Builds
O4 · Direct the film
Brand Book chapter 7
Treatment, boards and animatic
Before the week
Read Ultimate prompting guide for Veo 3.1 — Google Cloud
Read Cinematography: Theory and Practice, on shot size and movement — Blain Brown
Session A Teach
Thinking Like a Director
The treatment, and a shared scene
Formats: brand film, product film, social short, music-led piece
Visual storytelling: framing, pace and light carrying emotion without words
The director's treatment: tone, look, references and story
The blocking exercise: the whole cohort stages the same one-page, two-person scene
CapstoneA director's treatment for your film, and your version of the shared scene.
Session B Studio
Coverage & Keyframes
Every beat approved as a still before any video
Coverage: wide, medium, close-up, reverse and insert for every scene
Keyframe-first: generate and approve a still for every beat, from your visual bible
The storyboard, built from those keyframes
The animatic: boards timed to a scratch voiceover
CapstoneA full storyboard and a timed animatic.
Session C Crit
Camera Language for Models
Directing a machine like a camera crew
Shot size, lens, movement and light, written so video models follow them
The shot prompt: cinematography, subject, action, context, style and sound
Start and end frames, multi-shot prompting and shot length
Animatic screening and crit
CapstoneA shot-prompt bible: one tested prompt and keyframe for every shot.
Week 8Make
Film II: Generation, Motion & Performance
★ Milestone: Braintrust
Production week. You generate your film shot by shot with proper coverage, keep every character and product consistent, animate the brand itself and handle people on screen. Every learner logs the iterations on one hard shot, and puts at least one real phone shot into the film. The week ends with the Braintrust: a panel reviews your rough assembly.
Does it still feel like one film, and one brand, once it moves?
Builds
O4 · Direct the film
Brand Book chapter 8
Rough cut and motion pack
Before the week
Read Creativity, Inc., the chapter on the Braintrust — Ed Catmull
Do Shoot two minutes of phone footage for your hybrid shot
Session A Studio
Shot Generation with Control
Consistency, coverage and the iteration log
Reference-driven generation from your visual bible and keyframes
Start and end frames, camera moves and options for every shot
The iteration log: ten or more attempts at one hard shot, and what each change did
Choosing the model by the shot: Veo, Kling, Runway, Higgsfield, Seedance
CapstoneAll the footage for your film, with coverage, plus one iteration log.
Session B Studio
Motion, People & Hybrid Shots
Animation, performance and real footage
Animation starts with exaggeration and performance
Logo sting, kinetic type, loops and end cards
Dialogue, lip sync and performance transfer
The hybrid shot: real phone footage with AI extension or VFX
CapstoneA motion pack and one finished hybrid shot.
Session C Crit
The Braintrust
Your rough cut, under candid review
Your rough assembly screened to a panel
Notes on what is wrong, missing, unclear or does not make sense
The panel has no authority: you decide what changes
Your kill list: the shots and moments that go
CapstoneA rough cut, Braintrust notes and your kill list.
Week 9Make
Sound Design, Music & Voice
Sound is half of every film and the half most AI work gets wrong. You build the soundtrack in layers the way post houses do: dialogue, backgrounds, effects and Foley, then music. You score to picture through a temp track and a spotting session, create a sonic logo, cast and direct voices, and licence-check everything.
What does your brand sound like?
Builds
O5 · Finish like a pro
Brand Book chapter 9
Sound pack and stems
Before the week
Read Audio-Vision, on added value — Michel Chion
Do Watch your rough cut with the sound off, then with your eyes closed, and take notes
Session A Teach
Sound Design in Layers
Building the world people hear
The layer order: dialogue, backgrounds, effects and Foley, then music
Generating and layering sound effects with AI
Designing for sound-off feeds and sound-on screens at once
Silence, rhythm and the hit points that make an edit land
CapstoneA full sound-design pass on your film.
Session B Studio
Music, Scoring & Sonic Branding
Temp score to spotting session to original score
Cut to a temp track, then hold a spotting session with a cue sheet
Original music with Suno, matched to your emotional brief
A sonic logo people recognise in two seconds
Stems, edits and the licence check every track must pass
CapstoneAn original score, a cue sheet and a sonic logo.
Session C Crit
Voice + Listening Crit
Casting, directing and hearing it fresh
Voiceover with ElevenLabs: casting a voice that fits the brand
Directing delivery: pace, emphasis, emotion and breath
A version in a second language, and voice consent
Blind listening crit: sound only, no picture
CapstoneThe finished voiceover, a second-language version and music and effects stems.
Week 10Make
Post-Production: Edit, Colour, Mix & Delivery
★ Milestone: Picture lock and final master
Where generated clips become a finished film. You cut what the Braintrust told you to cut, lock picture, match and grade shots from different models into one look, fix artefacts, mix to platform loudness and deliver every format the campaign needs, with its provenance dossier. This is the week that makes AI work look professional.
Would anyone guess this was made with AI, and does it matter if they did?
Builds
O5 · Finish like a pro
Brand Book chapter 10
Master film and deliverables
Before the week
Read In the Blink of an Eye — Walter Murch
Read DaVinci Resolve Colorist Guide, the chapters on matching and node structure — Blackmagic Design
Session A Studio
The Edit + Kill Your Darlings
Rhythm, the first two seconds, picture lock
Assembling in DaVinci Resolve or CapCut
Working the kill list from the Braintrust: cut what does not serve the idea
Cutting for attention: hooks, pace, and cutting to music and voice
Upscaling and frame interpolation with Topaz, titles and graphics
CapstoneYour film graded, cleaned up and finished.
Session C Crit
Mix, Deliver + Final Screening
Every format, every platform, to spec
Mixing voice, music and effects to −14 LUFS integrated, −1 dBTP for social
Captions and subtitles, burned in and as files
Every ratio, cut-downs and the delivery spec sheet
The provenance dossier, then a final screening crit with frame-accurate notes
CapstoneThe master film, three cut-downs, every delivery file and the provenance dossier.
Week 11Ship
Launch, Measure & Rehearse
★ Milestone: Launch and Rehearsal Day
The campaign goes out. You build the launch plan around your two-speed strategy, check every video against the ABCDs, publish to real channels and read the early results honestly. Then you turn twelve weeks of work into a case study and run it at Rehearsal Day, where the first draft is expected to get cut hard.
What happened when it met real people, and what would you change?
Builds
O6 · Ship and defend
Brand Book chapter 11
Launch and results
Before the week
Read How to Present to Investors (the rules hold for creative work) — Paul Graham
Read Show Your Work! — Austin Kleon
Session A Teach
The Launch Plan
Turning one film into a month of work
The asset matrix: every piece, format and channel, mapped to the big idea
A content calendar that reflects the two-speed plan
A content series that keeps the campaign alive past launch
The ABCD check on every video before it ships
CapstoneA launch plan with a four-week calendar and a complete asset matrix.
Session B Studio
Publish & Measure
Getting it in front of people, and reading what happened
Publishing and scheduling to each channel's specs and rhythm
Captions, alt text and community replies in your brand voice
A/B testing the variants you made
Reading results honestly: reach, watch time, engagement, what really moved
CapstoneYour campaign live, or fully launch-ready, with a first results read-out.
Session C Crit
Rehearsal Day
Peers only, full run-throughs, cut hard
The case study: insight, idea, execution, result
Getting to the film fast, and one line people remember
Full peer run-throughs against the Demo Day rubric
Rewrite, rehearse again
CapstoneYour Demo Day presentation, rehearsed and rewritten.
Week 12Ship
Demo Day
★ Milestone: Demo Day
Twelve weeks, one room. Each creative presents their brand from first insight to finished film to live campaign, the way a creative director presents to a client. The brand film plays early and on the big screen. The room includes the trainers, your cohort and invited guests.
Can you take a brand from a blank page to a finished film and a campaign people saw?
W12 · Format
Demo Day
Your campaign, presented to the room
A gallery wall of key visuals and posters, with QR codes to the live campaigns
Eight-minute slots: a five-minute case study with the film shown early, then three minutes of questions
One speaker, one operator: a trainer runs your screen so you can present
Awards: Jury Prize, Best Film, Best Insight, People's Choice
In the roomLive feedback from the panel, your cohort and invited guests.
W12 · What you show
The Brand Book
Twelve chapters, one story
Diagnosis, insight, brand platform, campaign strategy and the brief
Visual bible, key visual, posters and the flat set
The film: treatment, boards, master, sound pack and provenance dossier
Launch plan, live campaign and results
You leave withA portfolio-ready case study and showreel you can send the next morning.
W12 · How it is judged
The Jury Rubric
The same standard you worked to all along
Strategic insight 20 · Big idea 20 · Craft 25
Brand consistency 10 · Results and learning 15
Presentation 10
No surprises: it is the programme rubric, weighted
CertificateYour Cocoon AI for Creatives certificate, awarded on the day.
08Assessment and feedback
One rubric, used from Week 1 to Demo Day, so you always know what good looks like. It describes the standard; the blank columns are for notes on where you are and where you went beyond it.
Criterion
What proficient looks like
Not there yet
Beyond it
Insight
The work rests on a true, specific human insight, and you can show the evidence for it.
Idea
One single-minded idea that is clearly on brief and can travel across every format.
Brand
It could only be this brand: voice, look, sound and distinctive assets are consistent and recognisable.
Craft
Finished to a professional standard. It passes the slop audit and the delivery spec.
Effect
It earns attention in the first seconds, makes people feel something and tells them what to do next.
Crit protocols, rotated
I like / I wish / What if. Fast written peer notes. Used in pods all programme.
Critical Response Process. Meaning first, then the maker's questions, then neutral questions, then opinions only with permission. For big reviews.
Silent gallery walk. Work on the wall, notes on cards, no talking. Lowers the social risk and raises the honesty.
Blind crit. Names off. The work is judged as an audience would meet it.
Braintrust. A panel says what is wrong, missing or unclear. They have no authority: the maker decides what to change.
Every assignment is written the same way
Purpose. The skill it builds and why it matters to your brand.
Task. The steps, in order.
Criteria. What success looks like, on the rubric.
Ship it, give written notes on your pod's work, then write one paragraph on how your thinking changed.
Demo Day jury rubric
Weight
What full marks look like
Strategic insight
20%
A true, sharp insight that runs through every asset.
Big idea
20%
Single-minded, on brief, and it travels across formats.
Craft
25%
Image, film, sound and finish at a professional standard.
Brand consistency
10%
Every piece, still and moving, is unmistakably one brand.
Results and learning
15%
What happened when it met people, with real numbers, and what you would change.
Presentation
10%
Clear, on time, film shown early, one line people remember.
09Tools
Models change every month; the control ladder and the craft do not. We teach the current leaders, show free routes first and tell you which paid plans are worth it before the making weeks start.
The canon behind the programme. Set pre-work is marked week by week; the rest is for a lifetime.
Strategy
How Brands GrowByron Sharp
Building Distinctive Brand AssetsJenni Romaniuk
The Long and the Short of ItLes Binet and Peter Field
Strategy Is Your WordsMark Pollard
Hey, Whipple, Squeeze ThisLuke Sullivan
YouTube ABCDs of effective creativeGoogle
Image and design
The Visual StoryBruce Block
Interaction of ColorJosef Albers
Thinking with TypeEllen Lupton
Story and film
StoryRobert McKee
Cinematography: Theory and PracticeBlain Brown
Ultimate prompting guide for Veo 3.1Google Cloud
Creativity, Inc.Ed Catmull
Sound and post
Audio-VisionMichel Chion
Sound DesignDavid Sonnenschein
In the Blink of an EyeWalter Murch
DaVinci Resolve Editor's and Colorist GuidesBlackmagic Design
Presenting and practice
How to Present to InvestorsPaul Graham
Show Your Work!Austin Kleon
11Policies, and why
Attendance and recordings
Every session is recorded. Miss one and you watch it, then bring your work to the next crit. Crits themselves are where the learning compounds, so protect them.
Deadlines
Soft within the week, hard at the milestones: Brief Lock (Week 3), Braintrust (Week 8), picture lock (Week 10) and Demo Day.
Real brands
Use your own brand, a client's or your employer's with permission, or a brief we give you. Brands under NDA can present a launch-ready campaign in place of live results.
AI ethics and IP
No real person's face or voice without written consent. Every music and voice asset is licence-checked. Disclose AI use wherever a platform or client requires it. You own your work; each tool's commercial terms still apply.
Holidays
Poya days and public holidays are respected; the calendar is set around them.
Access
Tell us early about anything that makes participating harder, and we will adapt the format.
A living document
This syllabus changes as each cohort teaches us. Feedback is collected at the end of every phase.