Eleven people had to deliver a two-minute script like one continuous thought. Then the film had to leave the conference room and show robots doing the work.

That was the Dreamlabs launch. People would introduce Dream-1 as a general robot brain. The lab footage would make the idea physical.

I produced the live-action shoot remotely for Skale in San Francisco. Marcos Rocha was the DP and on-set lead. The production needed two different kinds of days, then a pickup when the story changed.

One setup, eleven voices

The dialogue day used one controlled, two-camera setup in the office’s glass conference room. Each speaker delivered their part straight to camera with a teleprompter.

The setup stayed consistent so the edit could pass one sentence from person to person. Eleven voices could feel connected without pretending they were the same person.

The room fought back. Glass meant reflections. Stands and modifiers had to stay out of frame. Duvetyne and a polarizer helped control what the camera saw.

Marcos led the floor. Jennifer Gonzalez handled B-camera. Dominic Cirigliano ran the teleprompter. Adriano Bravo recorded production sound, and Erika Staud covered BTS. I handled the crew, gear, call sheets and handoff around them.

Give the robots their own time

The robotics and facility coverage got a separate half-day.

That split gave the dialogue day one job. The crew could move through eleven speakers without squeezing a robot demonstration between interview slots.

Then the lab had room to become its own part of the film. Robot arms. Grippers. Operators. The space where the research happens. The people explain the idea. The facility proves there is something real behind it.

Then the story changed

The project needed a return shoot in October. I helped with the pickup script and produced the additional day.

By then, the original dialogue and robotics footage were already part of the record. The pickup couldn’t pretend we were starting over. It needed its own plan, its own crew coordination and a clear place inside the film that was already taking shape.