Most of us have some vague understanding of how screenplays are put through the gauntlet of producer/distributor purgatory for months, years or forever.

And if, by the grace of heaven, a screenplay makes it to the desk of someone who knows someone who knows someone big, it can be optioned, aka: bought.

Someone big wants to take it off the market, so they buy the rights and bury it until they need a favor later.

So the vast majority of these films are locked away, never to be made or touched again.

Tens of thousands of screenplays rot away inside this purgatory.

There is a good chance that your favorite movies were never made for the simple fact that someone big didn’t want someone else big to profit off of those scripts.

But ya know what? At least a writer gets paid. A writer gets to eat real food. A writer finds a crack of light through the wall of nepotism in HoLlyWo0d.

Naturally, this set off a cycle.

We shall call it…

Neutered Voice

The Hollywood Gatekeepers inspire screenwriters to write scripts that will appeal to gatekeepers who have a strong financial/personal opinion about movies that sell.

Oh, hey writer, I hear you have a talent for awkward dark humor?

Great! You wanna eat?

How about you turn you’re little script into Spy Kids and we meet for brunch with someone who knows someone big.

And the cycle of vanilla voice captures another writer.

This is centralization.

All to the dismay of…

Mainstream Audiences

Think about Squid Game. Very challenging and risky choice for screenwriters, and an even bigger risk to invest money in the production.

Well, it paid off, and it’s a far cry from Spy Kids.

Yet, storytelling quality is very rarely the reason films get made.

Mainstream wants more.

The higher the risk taken by the screenwriter, the more likely that story is to challenge and stimulate the audience.

Mainstream audiences want screenwriters to create a world at the edge of their imagination and pull the viewers in for an unpredictable ride.

Producers want audience data to tell screenwriters how to successfully make someone big feel comfortable.

But that’s not what happened to the first generation of art on the Blockchain…

Bored Apes vs. Rembrandt

Put an Ape and Rembrandt next to each other and and you’ll see that they do not belong to the same buyer. I’m not saying that one is better than the other, but they’re different audiences.

BAYC captured the essence of young, rich, new money investors who no longer knew what to do with their money so now they buy anti-valuable (by traditional standards) cartoon apes for $20M.

It was organic, born from the trend of insufferable crypto bull money, and no one could have ever predicted it. Bored Apes are fuckin’ weird when you really think about it.

And even still, celebrities started buying Apes. They wanted to be in this club. Mainstream followed the tiny trend of crypto-rich investors.

It had to start organically…

How to start something organic: Experiment

Whatever comes next will NOT look like anything on Netflix, Prime, HBO, or The Cartoon Network.

It must first appeal to the audience on chain looking to interact, which is also different than the Bored Ape audience a year ago.

And to appeal to that audience means to step into stride with the evolving nature of blockchain tech.

I can’t see into the future, but I can tell you as a writer, director, teacher of 15 years, that writing takes a long time. The production side takes even longer.

As it stands now, the majority of PFP NFTs are algo-templates of other projects. An original idea launches on Monday 3pm, and there are dozens of copies released by 4:30pm, if not before.

Blockchain film communities will really start to grow when artists submit to experimentation in the present, prompted by new tech.

There will be PLENTY of projects out there that Jump the Shark.

They already have. Most artists (rightfully) see this as an opportunity to take control of IP’s, set their own royalties, and cut out all of the parasitic channels of the traditional process.

I’m happy for that. I applaud them for taking the initiative, but…

Film ma

kers can’t just put normal stuff on chain, even if it’s good.

The first example is Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis’s project Stoner Cats. It was launched on chain as episodic NFT’s about a year ago.

On paper, it has all of the boxes checked for blockchain success:

• Crypto Street Cred: Vitalik is on the cast as a voice over actor, as well as advisor(?)

• Mainstream Cred: Massive well of resources and name recognition compared to every other crypto project

• Marketing: Vitalik is on the promo video mingling with mainstream personalities which quickly made it’s way through crypto Twitter

• Adoption: Access to audiences outside of crypto

There are many more, but the point is that this project never took off.

They created a series that belongs on the Cartoon Network. It wasn’t…organic. It doesn’t feel blockchain native.

They took a risk. And that is great. I’m sure Ashton and Mila learned a lot about this process and won’t be too far behind the curve when this new medium starts to take shape.

That said, I think we can somewhat predict the “how” to produce something blockchain native…

The process phase

The community-centric process phase is only place that new film makers can join the audience where they are right now.

A decentralized process phase will guide the art to become what it needs to be with the right kind of balance.

Starting at the community inclusion level, this will bring in the folks who operate in both mainstream and blockchain worlds.

Most importantly, under-appreciated voices will have a MUCH more level playing field.

This means, we just don’t know what to expect but it’s exciting!

Will they be guided experiences? I dunno.

Will they be short, sporadic, and protagonist agnostic? I dunno.

Will they be written buy communities of writers and viewers? I dunno.

Will they merge gaming and storytelling? I dunno.

Will traditional story structure apply? Yes. In some way it will. Boom, subversion.

One thing is for sure though, writers and audiences are hungry for it.

When decentralized principles are valued and enforced within the creation process, organic growth can guide the art.

Current Projects to follow:

I’ve found 2 projects looking to start with process in a clever way (please respond in the comments if you know of others):

Adimverse is a writer focused community granting member passes (NFTs) to enter a writer’s room. Their goal seems to be empowering more diverse voices and channels into screenwriting. The passes are (obviously) on chain and there is an emphasis on ownership, transparency, and community governance. Linktree is here. I feel like y’all should research to find out who is behind this project, as shilling isn’t the point.

Story DAO offers producer NFTs. The sentiment in this community feels a bit more focused on experimentation. They have a few established writers who have mapped out a foundational world and loose story. Then they invite folks to be a part of the expansion process as characters and storylines take shape. I’m looking at this like they’ve created a layer 1 protocol and they’re encouraging everyone to build stories within it’s rails. Join the Discord here.

Both have amazing communities and I highly suggest you get involved if you’re a writer or your just jazzed about this opportunity.

These aren’t investment musings as of now, because I think the time you spend with these projects is going to be the way to success, but for the sake of the statement: This is not investment advice.

I should say that I’m a producer token holder in Story DAO, and I will do what I can to be involved with Adimverse. In both cases, it’s for the experience, not the profit.

Original Content, Copywright© ProofofBeans 2022. Original version published on medium

Cover Image: Photography Maghradze PH found on Pexels

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