Feature Production Memo - August 2026

Our feature is flying into its final stretch this month and we can’t wait to share many exciting updates about storyboards, design, production, music, and editing!

Story Team
After many weeks of creativity, collaboration, and countless iterations, our story team has officially wrapped! The journey began with our story artists pitching rough storyboard sequences, exploring the film’s pacing, emotion, and comedy. Following the Rough Pitch, they refined those ideas and began to clean up their storyboards: sharpening the acting, staging, and cinematography while incorporating feedback from each weekly review. 

Once the sequences were locked, our incredible revisionists jumped in to help polish every frame for final delivery, ensuring the animatic was in its strongest state. It truly took the dedication and talent of the entire team to bring this animatic to life. A huge congratulations and thank you to our unstoppable team of story artists – Ashley Hua, Serena Lee, Bianca Nassar, Katie Wang, Jenny Yi, Jenny Wu, and, of course, Head of Story, Al Teng  – and revisionists – Schantelle Alonzo, Stella Kim, Sophie Ludes, Chloe Pineda, and Emily Chao – for their hard work, craftsmanship, and commitment throughout every stage of the process.

Art by Andy Xiaoxia Jiang

Design

While the Story team brought the film to life through the animatic, our Design team has been hard at work shaping the visual identity of the project. From developing the beautiful backgrounds featured throughout the animatic to creating expressive character poses that capture each character’s dynamic personality, every piece of art they’ve created has helped define the world of the film. 

The team is also hard at work creating key art work for our pitch deck, including posters and other marketing materials that communicate the heart and tone of the story. Their creativity, attention to detail, and ability to balance stunning details with thoughtful storytelling and worldbuilding is truly unmatched. A huge thank you to our incredible design team, led by Jade Mahal Lew, Isa Kim, and Juris Anton Tungpalan: Shruti Ada, Kelly Xin Chen, Ten Cho, Fernando Gutierrez-Garcia, Ylan Ha, Eri Iguchi, Sara Kubo, Andy Xiaoxia Jiang, An Mai, and Jady Zhao.

Art by Isa Kim

Art by Kelly Xin Chen

Production

Behind every successful production is an extraordinary production team keeping everything running smoothly, and ours has been nothing short of exceptional. We’ll be honest in saying we all would have lost our minds by now if it wasn’t for production keeping us feeling calm, prepared, and motivated to take on any challenge or deadline. Our fearless team of Production Assistants – Darcy Bergstein, Ollie Otou-Branckaert, Sally Pan, Alicia Paz, Brynn Straley, and Amiya Tuhina – have been the backbone of our day-to-day operation. They do everything, from taking detailed notes, coordinating meetings, managing everyone’s ever-changing schedules, tracking countless moving pieces at all times, and stepping in to solve problems before most of us even know they exist. Their organization, adaptability, positive attitude, and tireless support have made an immeasurable difference throughout production. 

This month also marked an exciting milestone as our Executive Assistant Amber Liu stepped into her shiny new role as Production Coordinator for the Design and Music teams. She has embraced this promotion with professionalism, thoughtfulness, and incredible attention to detail, keeping multiple departments aligned while supporting everyone on the team every step of the way. In addition, Alexis Wong, our Story Production Coordinator, continues to do a phenomenal job shepherding the storyboard process, coordinating pitches, communicating across departments, and ensuring the story team has everything they need to stay focused on their beautiful work!

Our production supervisors, Pla Pichetpongsa and Jennifer Vu have expertly guided the production through every major milestone, balancing the big picture with the countless small details that make this production possible. Their leadership, quick problem-solving, and enthusiasm has kept every department more confident than ever moving forward.

Last, but certainly not least: leading it all is our Producer Saira Umar and Production Manager Andrew Velazco! Their ability to oversee the entire production, anticipate challenges, and keep every team aligned is nothing short of magic. Saira is a wealth of knowledge who is endlessly reliable and always happily willing to help, and Andrew is our cool, calm, and competent leader who leads every meeting with positivity, enthusiasm, and humor. These two create an environment where everyone can do their best work.

We are incredibly grateful to the entire Production team for everything they have done to bring our film to life!

Background by Andy Xiaoxia Jiang

Music

Our Music Team, made up of composers Sean-Paul Gouw and Carina Lim, and lyricist Victoria Cho, have begun one of the most exciting stages of the production process, laying the emotional foundation for the entire film through their beautiful, beautiful music! Alongside Writer-Director Peri Segel and Writer-Producer Allen Wu, the team has started spotting cues across the animatic, identifying where music can deepen emotion and bring each moment to life. From there, the team has begun delivering early demos for review. At the same time, our talented lyricist, Victoria, has been working on a special song for our project, beautifully capturing the themes and heart of our film. We can’t wait to hear more!

Art by Juris Tungpalan