GM. 🫶
This is Web3 Espresso ☕—the Web3 Newsletter for creators, marketers, and coffee drinkers looking to understand how Web3 technology is changing the world we live in.
Hello 😎,
As the Cannes Film Festival has just started, I felt it was the perfect time to explore the world of film and how Web3 technology could bring any (positive) disruption to this industry.
👉 This also explains why you’re receiving the newsletter a little early this week!
The traditional film industry is very centralised, with just a handful of movie studios and streaming conglomerates controlling the lion’s share of the global film market. Intermediaries in the existing financing model take over 95% of the revenue and leave the creator with 5% or less.
The technology underlying Web3 has the potential to revolutionise the film industry while also making it more democratic, accessible, and transparent.
How?
The often repeated powers of Web3 technology can (and are) being applied to the film industry; these include: decentralisation, transparency, distribution through communities, and revenue sharing.
Introducing Film3, or how Web3 is empowering creators in the film industry. What are the opportunities and limitations of this growing paradigm shift in the entertainment world?
Read on.
What’s in store today:
🥡 The Weekly Roundup 5 in 5
☕+👧 TechyGirls NFT Collection #2
🎥 Film3 : Web3 and the Film Industry
Lights, Camera and Film3
Challenges of Web3 in the Movie Industry
Are Hollywood’s gatekeepers still needed?
Cannes Film Festival Special
Let’s go! 🥤
🥡 5 in 5 …
The Five Stories You Need to Know This Week
Banksy Immersive VR Experience at Cannes Film Festival 👉 see it here
Success with Rihanna’s music rights helps web3 marketplace raise fresh VC round 👉 read it here
The Emerging Digital Economy: Sustainable Web3 And Utility NFTs Are Rewarding Loyal Consumer Brands 👉 read it here
5 Practical Applications for the Metaverse 👉 read it here
Web3 community-building meets music technology 👉 read it here
☕+👧 TechyGirls NFT Collection
🎥 Film3: Web3 and the Film Industry
The movies are all about stories. This industry, like many others, is having to re-invent itself to stay relevant to new technology (hello, streaming), younger audiences, and changing consumption habits.
In the era of Web3, a new wave of technological advancements is poised to revolutionise the movie industry once again; many are calling this movement Film3.
Along with these opportunities, Web3 technology also brings unique challenges that need to be addressed. From adoption and integration hurdles to regulatory considerations and sustainability concerns, the path towards embracing Web3 in the movie industry is not without its obstacles.
Lights, Camera and Film3
Democratising Access and Funding
We see it every year at the Oscars: a few production houses control how the global film industry creates, markets, and distributes movies. These production firms direct everything from casting to financing and distribution, meaning it is notoriously difficult for new filmmakers and actors to get their foot in the door. The result is that studios dictate what audiences watch, and many ideas, scripts, actors, and directors never see the light of day.
Enter Film3, a web-powered new era of filmmaking.
Film3 aims to change the existing power dynamics and create a world of new opportunities for films and filmmakers by democratising access to the movie industry, making it more inclusive and accessible to a broader range of creators and audiences.
Tokenization and NFTs
One of the key ways this is achieved is through innovative funding models. A crowdfunding platform like Seed&Spark or the NFT marketplace Mogul Productions leverages blockchain technology to enable alternative funding for film projects. Crypto-powered crowdfunding platform First Flights is a tokenized community-driven funding platform for films that is raising funds through the allocation of tokens and NFT rewards in exchange for cryptocurrency.
By tokenizing film assets and offering investment opportunities, Web3 platforms enable individuals to contribute to the funding of movies, breaking away from traditional financing models that often rely on a limited pool of investors or production companies.
Read an introduction to Tokenomics here.
Web3 Hollywood DAOs
Decentralized Pictures is a Web3 film funding platform founded by producer-director Roman Coppola and members of Francis Ford Coppola's production company, American Zoetrope. It works along the same lines as a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO). Filmmakers are invited to submit proposals on the platform for review, paying a small submission fee in the project's native token, FILMCredits. They can earn FILMCredits tokens by providing feedback on other projects' proposals. The community then votes to determine which projects should be considered for funding awards.
Read an introduction to DAOs here.
Creator-Led Community Initiatives
The idea behind Film3 is for a filmmaker and its community to control the streams of revenue. At an individual level, creators can use platforms such as Beem to build their online communities, generate revenue by charging fans to view films in fiat or crypto, and tokenize access for community members who have specific NFTs in their wallets.
On a larger scale, during the 2022 Cannes Film Festival, director Miguel Faus explained how he used the sale of NFTs minted from his short film Calladita to finance a million-dollar feature of the same name. The crowdfunding rewards were also NFTs, including stills and videos from the original short film, as well as a 1-of-1 NFT consisting of a specially shot short film featuring the main character, Ana.
Read an introduction to Web3 community building here
Enabling Decentralised Collaboration
Web3 technologies are enabling collaborative filmmaking by connecting filmmakers with industry experts all over the world through decentralised platforms. For instance, platforms like Cinemarket have created a global marketplace where filmmakers can collaborate with diverse talent pools. These platforms enable the exchange of skills, resources, and ideas, fostering creativity and innovation in the movie industry.
Transparency and Fairness
Web3 technologies, with their inherent transparency and the ability to execute smart contracts, offer promising solutions to address issues of transparency and fairness in the movie industry.
Protecting Intellectual Property
Two examples of how Web3 enhances transparency for tracking intellectual property rights and content ownership are projects like Mediachain (acquired by Spotify) and IPDB (Interplanetary Database). Their mission is to create decentralised databases of media assets, providing a transparent and verifiable record of ownership. Filmmakers can register their works on these platforms, ensuring that their intellectual property rights are protected and that they receive proper recognition and compensation for their creations.
Automatic Revenue Sharing
Film3 platforms are also exploring innovative revenue-sharing models that aim to provide fair compensation to all contributors to a film project. Projects like MovieBloc and Filmio establish decentralised ecosystems where revenues are automatically distributed based on predefined percentages.
Another example is FilmChain, a digital collection account management (CAM) service that uses blockchain technology to collect funds and allocate payments transparently and in near real-time for the global screen industries.
Enhanced Fan Engagement and Monetization
Web3 technologies and in particular NFTs, offer exciting opportunities for enhanced fan engagement and monetization by creating new avenues for fans to connect with their favourite movies and enabling creators to monetize their content in innovative ways.
Direct Fan Participation
Web3 platforms facilitate direct fan participation and contribution to the movie-making process. An interesting example that uses NFTs to foster community and exclusive access is Spike Lee’s “Gotta Be Mars” NFT collection of 3,945 generative NFTs rendered directly from the original 35mm cut of Spike Lee’s debut film “She’s Gotta Have It.”
In addition to owning an NFT, holders gain access to “The Visible Project Portal” community, voting rights in Visible Project greenlight decisions, and access to a private Discord channel and on-chain portal. They also receive tickets for in-person and digital events, early access to capsule collections, and unlocked merchandise and airdrops.
Here, fans become active participants, and this direct involvement not only deepens the connection between creators and fans but also provides a new monetization model that bypasses traditional distribution channels.
New Interactive Movie Experiences
Virtual reality, or VR, is bringing audiences into immersive worlds of video games and metaverse spaces. CineVR is doing this for people at home. Some films have already been produced specifically for virtual reality, and some, like "Vader Immortal: A Star Wars VR Series," even combine the two by incorporating interactive segments into largely linear experiences. These experiences can be extremely memorable for the user, as they feel more real than sitting down in front of a TV.
Initiatives like Vevue leverage Web3 technologies to enhance audience engagement. It combines blockchain and augmented reality (AR) to create interactive movie experiences. Viewers can use their smartphones to access exclusive content, participate in scavenger hunts, and provide feedback directly to filmmakers.
More meaningful experiences lead to audiences coming back more reliably at a time when movie-going at the cinema is on the decline.
Challenges of Web3 in the Movie Industry
Web3 technologies bring promising opportunities to the movie industry, but they also present certain challenges that need to be addressed for successful integration.
Regulation
The regulatory environment surrounding Web3 is still evolving, and this poses challenges for its integration into the movie industry. Issues related to intellectual property rights, licencing, and compliance with existing regulations need to be carefully navigated.
Ease of Use
NFTs and Web3 in general can be complex and challenging to understand, particularly for those who are not familiar with blockchain technology.
Environmental Concerns
Environmental impact is another challenge associated with Web3 technologies. The energy consumption of blockchain networks like Bitcoin and Ethereum raises concerns about sustainability and carbon footprints.
Quality control and content curation
The open and decentralised nature of Web3 platforms can make it challenging to maintain quality control and ensure the integrity of content. Without traditional gatekeepers, there may be an influx of low-quality or unoriginal content, making it difficult for audiences to discover and engage with high-quality films.
Are Hollywood’s gatekeepers still needed?
Intermediaries in the movie industry, such as distributors, agents, and aggregators, bring significant value to the ecosystem. Their market access, financial support, expertise in negotiations, market insights, promotion and marketing efforts, and risk mitigation capabilities contribute to the overall health and success of the movie industry.
Web3 technology holds the potential to revolutionise the movie industry, offering opportunities for democratisation, transparency, fan engagement, and additional monetization.
The movie industry is facing increased competition from streaming services and declining in-person audiences in cinemas around the world. It needs to reinvent itself, embrace new technology, engage its fans, and find a way to create closer relationships between creators and their audiences.
Although still very niche, I think Web3 offers exciting prospects for the industry to re-invent itself, look forward, and become more inclusive.
Let’s see if it reaches the stars.
Cannes Film Festival 2023
This year, the Festival has integrated interesting Web3-based events into this year’s programme line-up.
Cannes Next is an executive conference and innovation-driven business development platform exploring the future of the film and entertainment business.
MetaCannes is an event exploring how the Web3-powered Film3 movement is reshaping the way films are crafted, marketed, and distributed. You can also view the event on your virtual yacht here.
Weirdo, a Web3 short film platform, is collaborating with The Gotham Film & Media Institute to host the annual Welcome to Cannes Party at the Carlton Hotel.
Global Virtual Production Summit
A full day of activities and dialogue dedicated to virtual production aimed to connect leaders of media technology and innovation with producers and studio heads currently shaping the future of the entertainment industry.
The local ecosystem is also contributing to the conversation. MyGlobalVillage and Blockchain Innov, an association I am part of, are hosting a round table on Friday 19th May 2023, as part of the CannesNEXT series of events.
That’s all for this week… 🫶
Please note that I do not recommend or endorse the companies and organisations mentioned in this newsletter. This content is purely informative and not a recommendation. Always be mindful of where you connect your wallet. Always do your own research. 💛