Creative Assistant For Indie Cinematic Universe

Creative Assistant / First Viewer for My Indie Cinematic Universe TLDR: Part-time passion project — perfect for a student, aspiring creative, retiree, film/TV obsessive, or someone with time to fall down a very weird rabbit hole. ⸻ THE JOB: I’m looking for someone to basically binge-watch an indie cinematic universe I’ve been building, take detailed notes, and become the first creative assistant I’ve ever had on the project. You don’t need an impressive film résumé. You don’t even necessarily need professional creative experience. I’m looking for someone curious, observant, honest, and with enough free time to really get into this thing. This is a paid part-time project, but it’s also a very personal passion project that has followed me for most of my life. ⸻ THE STORY: When I was in middle school, my friends and I made a ridiculous student film. It was basically our attempt at making James Bond meets Spy Kids on a middle-school campus. We created spies, villains, gadgets, missions, ridiculous action scenes, and our own little cinematic universe. My character was 00SWAIN. Then middle school ended. And the project died. We grew up. Everyone moved on. Except somehow, 00SWAIN never completely went away. For years afterward, friends and even former teachers still knew me as “00SWAIN.” It became one of those childhood nicknames and inside jokes that inexplicably survives long after the thing that created it is gone. I went to college. I tried different business ideas. A lot of them failed. Eventually I entered the normal 9-to-5 working world. But somewhere in the background, I never completely let go of the idea. At one point after college, I actually sat down and wrote out an idea for what a modern reboot of that childhood cinematic universe could look like. Instead of 00SWAIN just being the kid from the old spy movie, I imagined him becoming the “Iron Man”-type connective character and leader of a much larger universe—the character whose story could bring together different heroes, villains, worlds, genres and eventually an entire mythology. For a long time, that was basically all it was: an idea. Then AI vibe directing happened. Suddenly, one person without a studio, production crew or Hollywood budget could start attempting things that would have been completely unrealistic for me to make a few years earlier. So I started making it. And it has gotten somewhat out of control. ⸻ CURRENT STATE OF THE PROJECT What started as a middle-school spy movie has evolved into a strange indie cinematic universe involving 00SWAIN, alternate realities, sci-fi, comedy, espionage, conspiracy satire, found footage, video games, metaverse worlds, music, fantasy, live action and occasional animation. The current material includes roughly 3 feature films, three 12-episode seasons, and two limited series. Most of the modern project is AI-generated live action. This is not primarily an animated series, although certain worlds, sequences and scenes use animation intentionally. And the original middle-school movie isn’t being ignored. It’s actually become part of the mythology. The original movie was fake in our universe. But what if somewhere else it wasn’t? The modern story introduces another universe where the ridiculous events my friends and I were pretending to experience as kids actually happened. Characters from that original movie become the visual basis for characters in this alternate reality. Events are re-created and reinterpreted through modern AI-generated live action. So the old student film eventually becomes something much stranger within the story: a movie in our reality—and a record of events that were real in another. And 00SWAIN sits at the center of that collision. ⸻ WHERE YOU COME IN: I’ve reached the point where I desperately need someone who isn’t me to watch this. I’ve spent so much time inside the story that I’m increasingly incapable of experiencing it like a normal person. I know what every character means. I know what every weird reference means. I know which mysteries eventually get explained. I know what every scene was supposed to communicate. A first-time viewer doesn’t. So I’m looking for someone who can gradually become my first outside creative assistant and second set of eyes. Initially, your job is pretty simple: Watch it. And tell me what happens in your brain while you’re watching. ⸻ 1ST ASSIGNMENT: You’ll start by watching the original middle-school 00SWAIN student film. I want you to understand where this whole thing came from before you watch what it eventually became. I’m not expecting you to critique a middle-school student movie like it’s a professional production. The point is to understand the characters, jokes, relationships and original mythology so you can recognize what the modern universe is doing with them. But there’s a very important rule: Your friends should NOT watch the original movie. Later in the project, I’d like you to occasionally show material to people in your own network and collect their reactions. Those people need to experience the modern alternate-universe “re-enactment” completely blind. Don’t tell them that they’re watching characters from a student film. Don’t explain 00SWAIN. Don’t explain the multiverse. Don’t help them understand confusing scenes while they’re watching. I want to discover what someone who knows absolutely nothing thinks is happening. Eventually, I’d particularly like feedback from a Gen Z man, Gen Z woman, Millennial man and Millennial woman from your network. They don’t need to be film people. Normal viewers are arguably better. ⸻ EACH EPISODE ASSIGNMENT: I’ll give you a simple feedback template, including a Hero’s Journey framework. Mostly, I need specific, timestamped reactions. Tell me when: * A scene starts dragging. * You get bored. * Something moves too quickly. * A joke makes you laugh. * You understand a joke but it doesn’t land. * You don’t understand a reference at all. * A character does something that doesn’t make sense. * You forget who somebody is. * You’re confused about where the characters are. * Something contradicts an earlier episode. * A reveal works really well. * You predict a twist way too early. * Something is confusing but makes you desperately want to know the answer. * Something is confusing and just makes you want to stop watching. And because this is AI filmmaking, I need you to catch the weird production mistakes too. Faces change. Clothes change. Props disappear. Characters occasionally look like different people. Backgrounds morph. Hands get weird. Voices can change. Lip-sync can fail. Dialogue can be mispronounced. Music can overpower dialogue. Sometimes 00SWAIN looking different is an AI mistake. Sometimes he’s literally supposed to be a different version of 00SWAIN from another reality. If you can’t tell which one you’re looking at, that’s something I absolutely need to know. ⸻ WHO YOU ARE: You could be a film student, college student, aspiring writer, gamer, retiree, someone between jobs, movie obsessive, sci-fi nerd, or simply someone with some time on their hands who thinks this sounds fun. If you’ve ever binged a show and then spent two hours reading its wiki, you might actually be more qualified for what I need than someone with a film degree. Experience with editing, writing, filmmaking, QA testing, AI video, focus groups or audience research is great—but not required. I’m primarily looking for someone who is: Observant. Curious. Organized. Reliable. Candid. And willing to get weirdly invested in a fictional universe they had never heard of before seeing this job posting. ⸻ HONESTY IS THE BEST POLICIY: This is important. I don’t need a cheerleader. This project means a lot to me, but that makes honest criticism more valuable, not less valuable. Don’t send me: “Loved it! Super creative. 9/10.” Tell me: 00:18:22 — I’ve heard them explain this three times now. 00:31:04 — This joke didn’t land for me at all. 00:42:11 — Wait, how does he know that? 00:48:36 — 00SWAIN looks like a completely different person in this shot. 00:55:17 — I have no idea what’s happening, but this is the first time the confusion actually made me more interested. 01:04:02 — This is my favorite scene so far. Don’t cut this. That’s useful to me. ⸻ THE FUTURE: I’m initially hiring someone to watch and review the universe. But I’m hoping to find someone who sticks around. If you’re good at this and enjoy the project, I’d like the role to gradually become more like my first creative assistant for 00SWAIN and the larger universe. As you learn the mythology, you could help me track continuity, characters and timelines; review scripts and rough cuts; compare regenerated scenes; organize lore; test different edits; flag production problems; run small audience tests; and eventually be the person I can send something to and ask: “I’ve been staring at this for six hours. Does this actually make any sense?” There’s something I like about the idea that this doesn’t necessarily go to an experienced Hollywood person first. 00SWAIN started with a bunch of kids making a spy movie because we thought it would be fun. Years later, I’m finally getting the chance to make the absurdly ambitious version of that universe I imagined after growing up. So I’m looking for someone who thinks helping one person build a bizarre indie cinematic universe from the remnants of his middle-school spy movie sounds like a fun way to spend part of their week. ⸻ PAYMENT TERMS I’m flexible on how we structure payment going forward. We can do hourly, per episode, per film, or per assignment depending on what makes the most sense for both of us. To start, I want to keep it simple: First paid assignment: $50 For the first assignment, you’ll watch: * The original 00SWAIN student film * Episodes 1 and 2 of the new TV series That’s approximately 1 hour and 15 minutes of content total. This is intentional. You’ll first see where 00SWAIN actually started—the ridiculous middle-school spy movie—and then immediately see how those characters, ideas, and history begin getting reinterpreted in the modern cinematic universe. I’ll provide a simple feedback template for your notes. I’m not expecting a professional film-critic essay. I want your genuine reactions, timestamps, things you liked, things that confused you, jokes that did or didn’t land, pacing issues, continuity problems, AI mistakes, audio/lip-sync issues, and anything else you naturally notice. The first assignment is also a chance for both of us to see whether this is a good fit. I want to know whether your feedback is useful, but just as importantly, I want to know whether you actually enjoy the project and want to keep watching. If we both want to continue after the first assignment, we’ll figure out a fair ongoing rate and structure together. There’s a lot more material after those first two episodes, and ultimately I’m hoping to find one person who gets invested enough to stick around, learn the lore, and gradually become my first creative assistant rather than hiring a different reviewer every time. So think of the first $50 as: Watch the movie that started 00SWAIN, watch the first two episodes of what it eventually became, give me your completely candid reaction—and decide whether you want to keep going down the rabbit hole. ⸻ HOW TO APPLY: Message me and we can hop on a call. If you want, in your message, answer any of the following questions (or all) as an icebreaker: 1. What fictional universe have you gotten the most obsessed with? 2. What kind of comedy makes you laugh? 3. Are you someone who notices continuity mistakes? 4. What’s a movie/show that lost your attention, and exactly why? 5. Are you comfortable telling me directly when something I’ve made isn’t working? 6. Are you comfortable timestamping AI mistakes, lip-sync issues, strange audio, mispronunciations, pacing problems and confusing story moments? 7. Are you Gen Z, Millennial, Gen X, Boomer, or another generation? Exact age isn’t necessary. 8. Do you have friends from different age groups/genders who might occasionally participate in blind viewing tests? 9. How many hours per week could you realistically spend watching/reviewing material? 10. Most importantly: does binge-watching a homemade cinematic universe and slowly becoming the second person who actually understands all of its ridiculous lore sound fun to you?