Miles Away 🛣️
Darendarendaren joins our 25C lineup
blog.twenty-nine // I’ve been off the rotting carcass of Twitter for several months now, and I gotta be honest, it’s been quite nice not being plugged into everything going on all the time.*
Ignorance is bliss, I guess. Because on the bus ride back from the studio on Friday, I made the mistake of opening Reuters to this headline:
“Exclusive: Musk aides lock government workers out of computer systems at US agency, sources say”
Here’s a line from that article: “The systems include a vast database…which contains dates of birth, Social Security numbers, appraisals, home addresses, pay grades and length of service of government workers.” Apparently, Musk’s aides even installed sofas into the secured fifth floor as they sneaked around the facilities around-the-clock.
Tl;Dr — your SSN might currently be in the hands of one of Elon’s cronies (who don’t actually work for the government, mind you).**
An internal struggle of mine is determining just how much to follow the news cycle. On the one hand, I find if I read too much, I get lost in a state of overwhelming dread. On the other hand, I believe that the bad guys win when we become apathetic.
Paying for news and original journalism hasn’t been in vogue for two decades now; in fact, I do wonder if most people my age have ever read a newspaper. But after following some of the ICE raids here in Chicago, I realized it was past time I re-subscribed to the Chicago Tribune, which has been doing essential reporting in really capturing the fear and resilience coursing through immigrant communities right now.
The price of a subscription? One whole dollar for the first six months.
I say all this because this space is intended to celebrate creativity, break down barriers, and bring people together. We’re on a mission to Make the Internet Feel Smaller, after all.
Yet part of building this creative neighborhood of ours is reinvesting in civic life—which starts with awareness of the people and communities around us. If history teaches us anything, nothing really happens in a vacuum. And past our time, the cost of paying attention is literally just one dollar.
I’ll get off my soap box (for now) and switch gears, as I’d like to thank everyone who came out to the studio last Friday. Our afternoon of co-working featured an amazing group of creatives, from a YA author and a sports documentarian to a 3D artist and a budding screenwriter. We plan to host more afternoons like this very soon, so keep following along here and on our Instagram if you’re interested in attending.
For now, here’s the latest installment in our “Twenty-Five Calls for 2025” series, featuring a wonderful storyteller and soon-to-be TV showrunner: Darendarendaren.
— NGL
P.S. Last blog, we talked witb Paolo Abeabe about the trivial task of becoming a morning person and making our own waves instead of riding others’. You can read more here.
P.P.S. Apologies—no “Five Things I Think (I Think)” this week. Lot on the docket; all good stuff, though. I’ll have a new column for you next Sunday.
Daren Michael is a filmmaker and creator based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He’s worked as a producer and cinematographer for creators including Phil DeFranco and Smosh for over a decade. Now, he’s sharing new original series—such as ‘Miles Away’—on his YouTube channel, as well as creating his own TV show for a major Hollywood studio.
The following conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Nate Graber-Lipperman: Hey Daren! When you look back at 2024, what do you think was your biggest win?
Daren Michael: Personally, my biggest win was probably moving to Grand Rapids—getting here safe, and moving into a home.
I have dogs. I have a backyard. I mean, I have a car again, and I'm able to freely listen to music and drive around the streets like that. I've missed that since I moved to New York. So, that's a big win for me.
Professionally, making this show that has not been announced—that's been wonderful. Doing ‘Miles Away’ has been wonderful.
But really, getting to a place where I don't feel like I am chasing this validation from people who might not even be real feels like a win. Who knows what's a bot? It feels good to look at a new YouTube channel and go, I got nine thousand views. F**k yeah. Whereas three years ago, if a TikTok got nine thousand views, I'd be like, F**k. It's over with. I’m done.
So even that's beautiful. And it's crazy—I've still been blessed with brands that want to work with me, even though I don't really post much content and I don't even really know how they find me. Before, I was like, I have to post cuz then I'll go viral and then when I go viral the brand will see it and then the brand will pay me. It was this vicious cycle.
I worked with Booking.com a couple times this year, and it was really a great introduction into a chaotic schedule. We were flying to a house in the middle of nowhere, staying there for a day, shooting all day, waking up at four a.m., going to the airport, and flying to a new place. It was like that for a week and a half. It was crazy, but it was so much fun.
With a lot of brands, I've been very fortunate where they kind of just let me do whatever I want. They trust me, which is not something I was used to. So yeah, I feel very grateful.
I'm alive. Still playing basketball. A little out of shape these days, but life is good.
NGL: Maybe we'll have to hoop a little bit in Grand Rapids soon enough. There’s another question we’ve also been asking creators like yourself. What’s something—like a lesson or learning—you’re bringing into 2025?
DG: I’ve been making stuff with a small team or by myself for a long time. And we kind of shoot until me and my partner and my DP know we got the shot. We know what we want and we know the story we're trying to tell.
And when I went into this bigger production with a crew of thirty-eight, it was the first time I'd ever directed that many people. The biggest lesson I took away was that filmmaking at this level is a lot of compromise.
I have such a strong vision of what I want this show to be and what this scene was supposed to look like, but when you add that many people and that many moving parts, you're on a train that will not stop until they say that's a wrap on the final day. If you miss the train, you're done. It's gone.
So collaborating and compromising on certain things is just part of it. And that might change as the budgets and the levels increase, but yeah, learning to accept other ideas. Not that I'm ever saying, like, it's either my idea or bust. But especially with Miles Away, I'm literally just sharing my life. So it makes sense that I have a very strong vision of what that's supposed to look, sound, and feel like.
I guess the lesson is to be okay with ideas changing on the spot, because there's plenty of good ideas out there.
NGL: Love it. Just want to hand the mic over to you—any last thoughts or comments?
DG: If anybody has any insight on better thumbnails and titles for my videos, please email me. I’m always looking for suggestions, although it's not a focus of mine anymore. I learned this from Jarvis Johnson. I don't know if you guys know who that is, but he is a f**king wizard.*** Not only as just, like, a YouTuber, but this man knows everything behind-the-scenes. This man will look at the analytics and just understand to a tee what is going on.
Although that's not my true focus—I like to just really focus on the art of it. But it's something that I want to get better at. So if anybody has any tips, send them my way, cuz I'm trying to make this channel my job.
Moy Zhong: Your first one worked. It got me and it got Shua—the other guy on our team.****
DG: It's all part of the learning of it all.
You can keep up with Daren’s journey here.
Thanks for reading! Shoot me a reply, comment, or DM if anything resonated with you in particular—we respond to them all.
* Okay, fine—you got me. Yes, I did open X after the Luka Dončić trade in an attempt to gain some perspective on what the heck the Mavs were thinking. I did not gain said perspective.
** It’s easy to shrug this off like none of this matters before you realize how much the guy has bent the knee to adversarial countries. And now, he has our socials.
*** We do! I met him briefly at VidCon funny enough. Seemed like a nice guy tbh.
**** I forgot to mention earlier, but Moy was on this call, too.