Today I am opening the notebook wider. The project, code-named Exotica, has existed in melody files, costume references, character journals, arguments with myself, and lines written at unreasonable hours because one of the women suddenly knew what she needed to say. Showing only the polished result would hide the choices—and the people—responsible for making it.
“The notebook becomes public so the project can be accountable while it is still becoming.”
Transparency is not the same as publishing every private conversation or turning development into constant content. Artists need protected rooms in which to fail. But the project can still explain its principles, credit its collaborators, identify its research, name what remains uncertain, and acknowledge when a better idea changes the route.
I want this blog to record when the ship changes shape, when an artist complicates a role, when research closes a lazy door, and when a song finally tells us what the story is about. The notebook becomes public so that Hidden Tide can be accountable to its stated values while it is still becoming.