What happens when the hundred billion dollar movie industry collides with the trillion dollar crypto industry? Read on to learn more about the intersection of web3 and Hollywood, which has enthralled film giants from Quentin Tarantino to Reese Witherspoon and others… (thread)
1/ One of the first verticals that blockchain has already impacted hugely was finance. Soon, web3 will shake up every stage of film production, from financing to distribution.
2/ Fundraising is arguably one of the most important use cases of crypto today. But apart from the already well-known ICO (initial coin offering), fundraising also has direct relevance in the world of entertainment.
3/ One great example is FF3, or First Flights, a crypto-powered crowdfunding platform with NFT-tier awards. @stephengraves from Decrypt utilized the platform to successfully fundraise for his indie film, “The Dead of Winter”.
4/ FF3 is still a new platform. "The Dead of Winter" will provide important insight on areas of improvement for the future especially as it attempts to scale successfully while preserving user experience and increasing accessibility.
5/ According to co-founder Phil McKenzie, it is still an uphill battle to onboard non-crypto native users, especially as they tend to have a much greater skepticism about the inherent value of an NFT.
6/ Director Miguel Faus launched an NFT crowdfunding campaign for his short film “Calladita”. His approach of exclusively targeting NFT super-fans has been very successful. Among those who have invested in his project include @CozomoMedici and @nounsdao.
7/ In fact, this was the first on-chain proposal by a DAO ever to fund a feature film. Since Nouns DAO voted in favor, Nouns Glasses and a Noun NFT will be displayed in the film while the DAO will also be featured in the credits as an Associate Producer.
8/ @CamiRusso, the author of “The Infinite Machine”, set up a crypto crowdfunding campaign for the film adaptation of her book about the creation of Ethereum.
9/ She fundraised the project by offering NFT drops on the Ethereum blockchain - with purchasers being able to visit the film set, appearing in the movie, and receiving invites to the film premiere.
10/ Her biggest break came when famed “Alien” director Ridley Scott, through Scott Free Productions, signed up to produce the project.
11/ Web3 is also changing the power dynamics of traditional filmmaking. @DCP_Foundation is pioneering the DAO model for film financing by asking community members to vote on which film pitch should receive funds from its pool.
12/ If the film makes a profit, a portion of that cash flow will be returned back to the DAO to fund future projects.
13/ Founded by producer Roman Coppola and members of Francis Ford Coppola’s production company American Zoetrope, Decentralized Pictures has already received a grant of $300K from director Steven Soderbergh.
15/ The co-founder of Decentralized Pictures, describes the DAO-based model as “an evergreen, self-sustaining film fund”. He argues that the opinion data gathered from each round of voting could substantially improve the quality of future film projects.
15/ Some DAOs want to go a step further and decentralize the very art of storytelling.
16/ NFT artist @pplpleasr1's Shibuya platform will allow creators to directly crowdfund films and web series with token holders having a voice in the creative direction of each project.
17/ According to pplpleasr, this “allows for people to easily bootstrap IPs and crowdfunding”.
18/ When it comes to distribution, web3 is fundamentally revolutionizing the concept of royalties - which would eventually bring about the end of “Hollywood accounting”.
19/ A number of films have already been sold as NFTs, including:
• “Zero Contact” starring Anthony Hopkins
• Pandemic-thriller “Lockdown”
• “KillRoy Was Here” by cult director Kevin Smith
20/ In the case of “KillRoy Was Here”, the entire film was released as a series of NFTs in which the content could only be viewed by the owner. These NFTs also release some IP rights to the holder — they can use the images to create their own art and products and make a profit.
21/ Perhaps the most profound impact of web3 on distribution is the automation of royalties payments. Every time a film NFT is sold or resold, a portion of the profit is automatically reallocated to the cast, crew, or early backers.
22/ Additionally, given blockchain’s transparent auditing process, web3 has the potential to completely reshape Hollywood’s notoriously opaque accounting process.
23/ This is even applicable in the streaming media market too. Currently, buying a digital copy of a film means owning a license that could be revoked at any time (such as what happened to Amazon’s ebook of “Nineteen Eighty-Four”).
24/ Sales of DVDs on the secondary market don’t assign royalties to the original creators. Because NFTs assign digital ownership, creators can now achieve perpetual revenue streams beyond primary sales of their content — similar to the art industry.
25/ That's it for this thread on the intersection of web3 and Hollywood. If you enjoyed my content, feel free to like, retweet, follow, and hit the notifications bar for more threads in the future!
26/ Special thanks to @nonieengel for providing feedback on this piece! Are you interested in reading more content from the @chapterone researchers?