Implode the box: the blog has moved (and the industry has changed)

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In this post, I explain what it means to implode the box: being inside the industry and working to transform it, tearing down whatever keeps it from evolving. I also explain why #implodethebox now has a home of its own, at implodethebox.com.br. I go back to the blog's beginnings in 2020, look at what has changed in advertising film production since then, and at what is still the same. I also walk through what's new on the site: a newsletter for every new post, open comments, and room for other voices from the industry to write here. At the end, I leave a reading guide for anyone just arriving.

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Everyone who works in production knows the box. It's "that's how it's always been done," the budget that copies last year's, the crew put together the same way because it worked once, the producer who says "no" before hearing the whole idea, the door that only opens for people who are already inside.

Imploding isn't running away from the box, and it isn't standing outside pointing at everything that's wrong. An implosion happens from the inside. It's being in the industry, working in it every single day, and using that position to transform it: getting rid of what's bad, knocking down the walls that keep us from evolving, and making room for what comes next.

That's the idea #implodethebox was born with, in July 2020. We were all stuck at home, sets were shut down, and suddenly there was time to take a hard look at our own work. The first posts were about how much to charge for a freelance gig, how to find clients, how to put a crew together, how to build a budget that actually holds up. Practical questions that everyone asks and almost nobody answers out loud. Just talking about them openly was already a way of pushing on the walls.

Six years later, the blog has moved. It used to live inside the Gataria Filmes website (the production company I run), and now it has its own address: implodethebox.com.br. This isn't me stepping away. I'm still producing, still on set and still deep in the spreadsheets. It's the blog getting room to belong to more people, because nobody transforms an industry on their own.

What has changed since 2020

When I wrote about production getting back on its feet, the big concern was returning to shoots safely. It feels like another world now, but that period left marks that stuck: remote pre-production meetings became standard, crews got leaner, and clients became much more involved in the process.

Video also stopped being a single piece and turned into a stream. We used to produce "the spot" for a campaign; now we produce the spot, the vertical cutdowns, the 6-second versions, the behind-the-scenes content and whatever else the algorithm is asking for that week. I touched on this in Endless scroll and in 8 trends for 2025.

And then artificial intelligence arrived. It's in the script, the storyboard, post-production and, more and more, in the conversation about budgets. A lot of people are scared, a lot of people are dazzled, and very few are calmly talking about what actually changes in the day-to-day of people who produce. That's a topic you'll see a lot of around here.

What's still the same

Despite all of that, the most-read questions on the blog are still the same ones from 2020. How much to charge for that freelance job? is by far the most visited post, followed by Creative production, what is it?. That tells me that underneath all the new technology, what we still need to figure out is how to value our own time, and how to understand that production isn't just the people paying the bills, it's part of the creative work.

I still believe what I wrote in Producing for creation: swap "it can't be done" for "what if...". Tight budgets, tight deadlines and briefs that change halfway through aren't going anywhere. What changes is how we respond to them.

What's new here

The new site was designed to be more than an archive of posts:

A newsletter for every new post. Subscribers get each post as soon as it goes live, with a short summary and the link. No weekly email stuffed with everything, only when there's something new.

Open comments. These posts were always meant to start a conversation, and now you can keep that conversation going right below each one.

Other voices. The advertising production business is made up of a lot of people: production companies, directors, account managers, creatives, marketing teams, freelancers. I've opened up space for people who live it from the inside to pitch posts for the blog. The only rule is to bring an idea that challenges an old way of doing things.

Other languages. Many of the posts are also available in English and Spanish, for people who work on international productions or want to send something to that partner abroad.

Where to start

If you're just arriving, here's a reading guide:

If you're a freelancer or just starting out: How much to charge for that freelance job? and How to find clients, after all?

If you produce and are always fighting with the spreadsheet: How to make a killer budget, Price x Quality x Deadline and The Production Intelligence Journey.

If you're on the brand side and need to hire video: Video production checklist and Video production companies within organizations.

If you're coming from abroad to shoot here: Everything you need to know to film in Brazil.

And if a post makes you disagree, even better. Leave a comment and tell me what it looks like from where you stand. An implosion isn't a demolition done from the outside: it's a lot of people, on the inside, deciding at the same time that some walls don't need to be there anymore.