{"id":22884,"date":"2022-07-15T02:45:28","date_gmt":"2022-07-15T02:45:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/egrowonline.com\/?p=22884"},"modified":"2022-07-15T02:45:28","modified_gmt":"2022-07-15T02:45:28","slug":"coppola-backed-film-cryptocurrency-boosts-independent-filmmaking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/egrowonline.com\/?p=22884","title":{"rendered":"Coppola-backed FILM cryptocurrency boosts independent filmmaking"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"wpds-c-grBDNq hide-for-print mb-sm undefined\">\n<div class=\"PJLV PJLV-iAjpuP-css flex items-center pr-sm\" data-qa=\"article-actions\">\n<div class=\"wpds-c-fLphcs\"><button class=\"wpds-c-gNHrZC wpds-c-gNHrZC-bywHgD-variant-primary wpds-c-gNHrZC-biynoz-density-compact wpds-c-gNHrZC-hZSyid-isOutline-true wpds-c-gNHrZC-ejCoEP-icon-left wpds-c-gNHrZC-futxca-cv wpds-c-gNHrZC-ihhnWqF-css\"><button class=\"PJLV PJLV-igcOMTV-css\"><title>Comment on this story<\/title><\/button><\/p>\n<p>Comment<\/p>\n<p><\/button><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"teaser-content grid-center\">\n<div class=\"article-body\" data-qa=\"article-body\">\n<p data-qa=\"drop-cap-letter\" data-el=\"text\" class=\"font-copy font--article-body gray-darkest ma-0 pb-md\">Patrick Quinn lives with his wife and four-year-old daughter in a yurt in West Cork, Ireland, a long way from the global media hubs where an aspiring screenwriter might find community or opportunity.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-body\" data-qa=\"article-body\">\n<p data-qa=\"drop-cap-letter\" data-el=\"text\" class=\"font-copy font--article-body gray-darkest ma-0 pb-md\">But nearly every night, Quinn logs on to Decentralized Pictures, an unusual new platform where he can earn and spend a proprietary cryptocurrency known as FILM. Quinn is using the system to garner feedback for his budding movie project \u2014 a dark comedy set during the Irish Potato Famine \u2014 to provide notes to other writers and, even, to win grants run by the site\u2019s founders.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-body\" data-qa=\"article-body\">\n<p data-qa=\"drop-cap-letter\" data-el=\"text\" class=\"font-copy font--article-body gray-darkest ma-0 pb-md\">\u201cI\u2019m sitting here pretty far from everything,\u201d Quinn, 36, said by Zoom from his writer\u2019s cabin one recent evening. \u201cSo to be able to find a place where people are incentivized to give feedback on my project really means a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-body\" data-qa=\"article-body\">\n<p data-qa=\"drop-cap-letter\" data-el=\"text\" class=\"font-copy font--article-body gray-darkest ma-0 pb-md\">Quinn is evidence for a case made fervently by Decentralized executives and other advocates that, contrary to<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/business\/2022\/06\/03\/crypto-skeptics-growing\/?itid=lk_inline_manual_8\" rel=\"noopener\"> a growing skepticism,<\/a> crypto is more than a poorly regulated asset class where people can lose their life savings or a chance for<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/transcripts\/1108033471\" rel=\"noopener\"> celebrities to boast about their NFTs.<\/a> It  can have  beneficial uses.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-body\" data-qa=\"article-body\">\n<p data-qa=\"drop-cap-letter\" data-el=\"text\" class=\"font-copy font--article-body gray-darkest ma-0 pb-md\">They say crypto can be a way to forge a global community that doesn\u2019t center on restrictive old-timey Hollywood clubs \u2014 and, possibly, even help the industry find the next \u201cGodfather\u201d or \u201cPulp Fiction.\u201d Decentralized, a nonprofit with involvement from the Coppola filmmaking family, aims to use its unofficial currency to encourage and surface a new generation of filmmakers they say might otherwise never be found.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-body\" data-qa=\"article-body\">\n<p data-qa=\"drop-cap-letter\" data-el=\"text\" class=\"font-copy font--article-body gray-darkest ma-0 pb-md\">\u201cThe decision about what gets made in Hollywood comes from small groups of people,\u201d said Michael Musante, a co-founder of Decentralized, or DCP. \u201cWe want to open this up so the process is democratized, so all these ideas can be tested and developed by new people who will now get a chance to break through.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-body\" data-qa=\"article-body\">\n<p data-qa=\"drop-cap-letter\" data-el=\"text\" class=\"font-copy font--article-body gray-darkest ma-0 pb-md\">DCP was founded by several executives at American Zoetrope \u2014 the company long overseen by \u201cThe Godfather\u201d director Francis Ford Coppola \u2014 including Coppola\u2019s son producer-director Roman Coppola and Musante, Zoetrope\u2019s vice president of production and acquisitions. Launched in May, DCP has attracted about 2,000 users, executives say, with the goal of eventually reaching 2000,000 and catching the attention of cultural gatekeepers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-body\" data-qa=\"article-body\">\n<p data-qa=\"drop-cap-letter\" data-el=\"text\" class=\"font-copy font--article-body gray-darkest ma-0 pb-md\">\u201cI know there\u2019s a certain cynicism when people hear the word \u2018crypto\u2019 \u2014 how does this have value and is not just some hype-y thing?\u201d Roman Coppola said. \u201cBut we put value on the intelligent engagement of our participants. And we think that engagement should earn them something, which will bring more intelligent participants and build a community.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-body\" data-qa=\"article-body\">\n<p data-qa=\"drop-cap-letter\" data-el=\"text\" class=\"font-copy font--article-body gray-darkest ma-0 pb-md\">At DCP\u2019s heart is a kind of barter-based town square that advocates say could never happen at a non-crypto website, even as some critics ask why the current social web can\u2019t achieve many of the same goals.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-body\" data-qa=\"article-body\">\n<p data-qa=\"drop-cap-letter\" data-el=\"text\" class=\"font-copy font--article-body gray-darkest ma-0 pb-md\">Most arts-industry communities on the current web \u2014 for example, the agglomeration of writers known as Book Twitter \u2014 run purely on the interest of their participants, who post thoughts and receive notes if the mood strikes. A screenwriter who wants to ensure more regular feedback for their ideas might apply to a so-called lab \u2014 a postgraduate fellowship run by a high-end institution like Sundance. But labs are so intensely competitive as to be inaccessible to most.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-body\" data-qa=\"article-body\">\n<p data-qa=\"drop-cap-letter\" data-el=\"text\" class=\"font-copy font--article-body gray-darkest ma-0 pb-md\">Web3 dangles a different promise \u2014 that by gamifying and even financializing the notion of feedback, it can lubricate a robust community that is available to all.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-body\" data-qa=\"article-body\">\n<p data-qa=\"drop-cap-letter\" data-el=\"text\" class=\"font-copy font--article-body gray-darkest ma-0 pb-md\">Decentralized\u2019s system works like this. The site solicits projects \u2014 shorts, scripts, pitches \u2014 for a small fee. Users can earn crypto by reviewing those projects as well as engaging with the site in other ways (lending their computing power to validate transactions, for instance). They then can use the crypto they\u2019ve earned to pay to enter their<i> own<\/i> projects \u2015 on which others can, in turn, earn crypto with their own reviews.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-body\" data-qa=\"article-body\">\n<p data-qa=\"drop-cap-letter\" data-el=\"text\" class=\"font-copy font--article-body gray-darkest ma-0 pb-md\">It is a self-perpetuating ecosystem \u2014 a constant re-circulation of work and currency that, if all goes according to plan, will leave  creators with  feedback and agents and producers with market insights.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-body\" data-qa=\"article-body\">\n<p data-qa=\"drop-cap-letter\" data-el=\"text\" class=\"font-copy font--article-body gray-darkest ma-0 pb-md\">\u201cThink of how deep into the process a filmmaker or a studio gets a sense of what audiences are thinking \u2015 it\u2019s basically at a test screening [after a movie is completed],\u201d said Leo Matchett, Decentralized\u2019s chief executive. \u201cAnd now we\u2019re saying you can know how your horror movie idea will play to women 18-35 before you spend a dime on production.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-body\" data-qa=\"article-body\">\n<p data-qa=\"drop-cap-letter\" data-el=\"text\" class=\"font-copy font--article-body gray-darkest ma-0 pb-md\">Not insignificantly, the system also gives Zoetrope a look at a whole bunch of fresh scripts and projects \u2014 with the blockchain doing some of the sorting for them.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-body\" data-qa=\"article-body\">\n<p data-qa=\"drop-cap-letter\" data-el=\"text\" class=\"font-copy font--article-body gray-darkest ma-0 pb-md\">For users, feedback isn\u2019t the only reward. DCP also runs a series of grant contests that pay tens of thousands of (real-world) dollars to finance projects that have been voted on by other Decentralized members. Projects are reviewed by users under a complex system that weights not just total number of upvotes but such factors as the reputation of voters and their frequency of usage. (Voters can even spend crypto to push a script to a more prominent spot on the site, though executives stress this just ensures more overall reviews, not more good reviews.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-body\" data-qa=\"article-body\">\n<p data-qa=\"drop-cap-letter\" data-el=\"text\" class=\"font-copy font--article-body gray-darkest ma-0 pb-md\">Projects will then fluctuate up and down in the public rankings. The top few advance to a final round. There, a small group of professionals casts the final decision on which should get the cash award.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-body\" data-qa=\"article-body\">\n<p data-qa=\"drop-cap-letter\" data-el=\"text\" class=\"font-copy font--article-body gray-darkest ma-0 pb-md\">Filmmaker Steven Soderbergh has sponsored one such contest that will pay out $100,000 apiece to three different projects;  writer-director Kevin Smith has backed one for $40,000. DCP also says it will help steer these blockchain-blessed projects to production companies and talent agencies.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-body\" data-qa=\"article-body\">\n<p data-qa=\"drop-cap-letter\" data-el=\"text\" class=\"font-copy font--article-body gray-darkest ma-0 pb-md\">\u201cWe think this is a much better way to run a competition,\u201d Matchett said. \u201cAnd it\u2019s all on-chain, so no one can claim that someone manipulated it.\u201d The blockchain, a digital ledger, makes every action on a platform public, rendering tampering with a result difficult to hide.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-body\" data-qa=\"article-body\">\n<p data-qa=\"drop-cap-letter\" data-el=\"text\" class=\"font-copy font--article-body gray-darkest ma-0 pb-md\">Young filmmakers say a web3 approach \u2014 or film3, as some in the entertainment world are taking to calling it \u2014 can also help cut through a legacy industry\u2019s unknowns.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-body\" data-qa=\"article-body\">\n<p data-qa=\"drop-cap-letter\" data-el=\"text\" class=\"font-copy font--article-body gray-darkest ma-0 pb-md\">\u201cWith a lot of the other competitions and fellowships you\u2019re just throwing your materials into a void and hoping something happens,\u201d said Tiffany Lin, a writer-director whose narrative short film <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.lintiffany.com\/film\/poachers\" rel=\"noopener\">\u201cPoachers,\u201d<\/a> about the illegal trade of succulents in California, won a grant through the Decentralized voting system. \u201cWith DCP you have more control on what you put up, and also you can track progress live so you actually know what people are thinking.\u201d The site offers a high level of analytics, she noted, breaking down votes by age and other demographic info.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-body\" data-qa=\"article-body\">\n<p data-qa=\"drop-cap-letter\" data-el=\"text\" class=\"font-copy font--article-body gray-darkest ma-0 pb-md\">Some who submit to the site also say it can reduce Hollywood\u2019s structural bias. Producer DC Cassidy, who founded the production company<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/thediamondentertainment.com\/\" rel=\"noopener\"> Diamond Entertainment <\/a>and is producing a story of Black athletes in extreme sports called \u201cBlack People Do,\u201d says a platform like Decentralized furthers this goal.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-body\" data-qa=\"article-body\">\n<p data-qa=\"drop-cap-letter\" data-el=\"text\" class=\"font-copy font--article-body gray-darkest ma-0 pb-md\">\u201cThe power of web3 is that you don\u2019t have to attend Chapman, USC, NYU, UCLA or AFI to have a shot to meet the right industry people,\u201d Cassidy said in an email. \u201cTwitter and Reddit cracked the foundations, web3 tears down the walls.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-body\" data-qa=\"article-body\">\n<p data-qa=\"drop-cap-letter\" data-el=\"text\" class=\"font-copy font--article-body gray-darkest ma-0 pb-md\">DCP execs say talent discovery isn\u2019t the only use case. While the FILM cryptocurrency cannot currently be used  outside the site, Musante said the company is in talks with film-production vendors to authorize it for purchase of various production items \u2014 enabling users to finance their movie, at least in part, with crypto earned on the site.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-body\" data-qa=\"article-body\">\n<p data-qa=\"drop-cap-letter\" data-el=\"text\" class=\"font-copy font--article-body gray-darkest ma-0 pb-md\">Coppola has an even bigger idea. He asks whether the whole system can be deployed to locate talent in new ways. Right now a producer who wants to find, say, a specific location or a highly specialized performer must work through a network of expensive and not always accurate  agencies.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-body\" data-qa=\"article-body\">\n<p data-qa=\"drop-cap-letter\" data-el=\"text\" class=\"font-copy font--article-body gray-darkest ma-0 pb-md\">\u201cBut what if you can use web3 for that?\u201d he said. \u201cWhether it\u2019s casting or development or locations or anything across our industry, crypto and blockchain are going to allow us to find more of what we need and work better as a business than we ever have before.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-body\" data-qa=\"article-body\">\n<p data-qa=\"drop-cap-letter\" data-el=\"text\" class=\"font-copy font--article-body gray-darkest ma-0 pb-md\">Crypto-skeptics, though, say this is offering a solution to a problem that no one has posed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-body\" data-qa=\"article-body\">\n<p data-qa=\"drop-cap-letter\" data-el=\"text\" class=\"font-copy font--article-body gray-darkest ma-0 pb-md\">\u201cWith almost any community, the question is what could be done with crypto and Web 3 that you couldn\u2019t just do with regular money and the web we have,\u201d said David Gerard, a commentator and author of the crypto-skeptical book \u201c<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3RwRwzd\" rel=\"noopener\">Attack of the 50 Foot Blockchain<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-body\" data-qa=\"article-body\">\n<p data-qa=\"drop-cap-letter\" data-el=\"text\" class=\"font-copy font--article-body gray-darkest ma-0 pb-md\">A talent representative contacted by The Post who asked for anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press added that they worried these changes could favor not the best storytellers but those who understood how to work and even manipulate a crypto-based system.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-body\" data-qa=\"article-body\">\n<p data-qa=\"drop-cap-letter\" data-el=\"text\" class=\"font-copy font--article-body gray-darkest ma-0 pb-md\">But Smith, the <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Kevin_Smith\" rel=\"noopener\">pioneering indie filmmake<\/a>r behind hits like \u201cClerks\u201d and \u201cChasing Amy\u201d who is <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.indiewire.com\/2022\/04\/kevin-smith-killroy-was-here-nft-release-1234714555\/\" rel=\"noopener\">releasing his new movie as a NFT<\/a>, says he sees these tools as necessary now in the same way movie theaters or home video were to a previous generation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-body\" data-qa=\"article-body\">\n<p data-qa=\"drop-cap-letter\" data-el=\"text\" class=\"font-copy font--article-body gray-darkest ma-0 pb-md\">He said: \u201cIf you\u2019re an established independent filmmaker, you can go to streamers like Netflix or HBO Max. But where\u2019s the emerging filmmaker going? Where\u2019s the microbudgeted filmmaker going? With crypto and NFT there\u2019s a community that\u2019s hungry and already here.\u201d He said he saw crypto\u2019s speculative bubble now as similar to the dot-com bubble around the internet two decades ago: one that ultimately wouldn\u2019t hinder the underlying innovation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-body\" data-qa=\"article-body\">\n<p data-qa=\"drop-cap-letter\" data-el=\"text\" class=\"font-copy font--article-body gray-darkest ma-0 pb-md\">As he waited to see whether he would land a DCP grant, Quinn said that no matter the direction any of this took, he already felt as though he was winning.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-body\" data-qa=\"article-body\">\n<p data-qa=\"drop-cap-letter\" data-el=\"text\" class=\"font-copy font--article-body gray-darkest ma-0 pb-md\">\u201cI\u2019m from a working-class family with no connections in the business,\u201d said Quinn, who studied screenwriting but spent years in his 20s working at a local creamery. \u201cJust to have a platform to put my work on feels like a real turning point.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<section class=\"b bt bc-offblack dn-ns hide-for-print\" data-testid=\"mostRead\" \/><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/technology\/2022\/07\/14\/film-crypto-decentralized-coppola\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Comment on this story Comment Patrick Quinn lives with his wife and four-year-old daughter in a yurt in West Cork, Ireland, a long way from the global media hubs where an aspiring screenwriter might find community or opportunity. But nearly every night, Quinn logs on to Decentralized Pictures, an unusual new platform where he can [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22885,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[36],"tags":[1889,9767,52,1474,9768,2278],"class_list":["post-22884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cryptocurrency","tag-boosts","tag-coppolabacked","tag-cryptocurrency","tag-film","tag-filmmaking","tag-independent"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/egrowonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/CDHI7FDC6VC5LBW4L2IAZF3HWE.jpgw1440.webp","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/egrowonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/egrowonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/egrowonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/egrowonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/egrowonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22884"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/egrowonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22884\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22886,"href":"http:\/\/egrowonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22884\/revisions\/22886"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/egrowonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/22885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/egrowonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/egrowonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/egrowonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}