I’ve been a writer / director for decades and have been learning about crypto and NFTs for a couple of years now, and the future of NFTs and film is becoming increasingly obvious: films will soon be minting every single frame into an individual 1-of-1 NFT so that fans can own a piece of the films they love and be a part of that film’s legacy. What’s your favorite film? Wouldn’t you love to own an NFT of one of the actual frames from it?
So far the intersection of crypto and film has mostly been on the fundraising side before the film is shot. As a producer myself I understand the appeal of this approach. Raising money for a film is the hardest part of the filmmaking process, so having another tool to potentially help with that task is always welcome.
During the Crypto bull run in 2017/2018 I ran into lots of producers who were trying to get their own token launched and have their own ICO to raise money for their films. At the time I knew very little about crypto, but I could tell the people who were rushing into it didn’t either, and the whole thing felt like a money grab. But a few films were produced this way, so it can work, but I never saw the value for the film fans.
More recently with NFTs and films, producers have created artwork to help promote the film, then minted that artwork into NFTs. Again, there are some examples of this approach working, but as a film fan myself, none of the offerings felt very compelling or interesting.
So I kept searching for answers and wondering how these two technologies could intersect in a way that offered something interesting and valuable to not just the producers but also the film fans…
As a child I was a huge Star Wars fan and I collected Star Wars trading cards. I still have the cards in the original pencil box from 1st grade. Back then you could buy a pack of cards for less than $1. I would look at them for countless hours, reliving my favorite moments in the film. I took them to school and traded them with friends. On the back of some cards was a cut-apart picture making it a piece to a larger puzzle, so I collected all the necessary cards to complete that collection’s puzzle.
So I asked myself… What would be a modern day digital version of a film’s trading cards that actually piqued film fans’ interest?
The answer feels obvious: an actual 1-of-1 frame from the film. I would love to own a frame from the original Star Wars. Wouldn’t you love to own one from your favorite film?
Imagine if you owned a bunch of NFTs from your favorite films. It won’t be long before we have an app on our phones to display and trade them with friends. You could show your NFTs/frames to your friends and they could show you there’s. Inevitably you’d laugh and reminisce about the film and the particular scene your frame was in. If you love a particular actor you could collect NFTs from various films that actor starred in. Or you could collect all the frames from a specific scene the actor was in. Or you could collect all the frames from one scene in a film you loved. There’s an endless number of ways to put interesting film NFT collections together.
Unlike other crypto assets that promise huge monetary gains to the owners, I see this very much as being equivalent to collecting baseball cards. Sure some of them do go up in value, but most of them, even the valuable ones, are within reach of most collectors. While limiting the supply to a unique 1-of-1 NFT of each frame makes them unique and scarce, there’s roughly 170,000 frames in a 2 hour film, so there will be lots of frames for collectors to buy, some of which won’t be nearly as desirable to collectors as others. The high end films like Star Wars and Marvel will have an instant audience clamoring for those NFTs probably making the prices quite high. But smaller films will probably offer unique 1-of-1 NFTs for just a few dollars, and with gas fees coming down on blockchains like Polygon, these 1-of-1 NFTs will be incredibly affordable even for the average collector.
If there is demand from fans, producers will be eager to jump on board. Just some quick napkin math can illustrate how potentially lucrative this could be for the production companies. Think about how many Star Wars and Marvel fans would clamor to own frames from the latest film. Most of the big tentpole blockbusters run well over 2 hours, so will have in excess of 200,000 individual frames that make up the entire film. If the frames sold for an average of $100 that’s $20,000,000. If they sold for an average of $1,000 that’s a staggering $200,000,000, more than the entire budget of the film. And that bit of quick math doesn’t even factor in the residual revenue from future sales baked into the smart contract giving the studio long term passive income. If fans want the NFTs, it won’t be long before the films begin offering them.
The Rideshare Killer – The First ‘Every Frame Minted’ Feature Film
My team and I have gone ahead and minted every frame of our new feature film, the horror/thriller The Rideshare Killer (starring Eric Roberts and Tuesday Knight), into a unique 1-of-1 NFT. It’s the first “every frame minted” (EFM) film.
The Rideshare Killer NFT Giveaway
We’d like to offer readers of this blog some free frames. We’re going to give away 100 frames to the first 100 people who email us. If you’d like a free frame just email us your Polygon address and if you’d like a specific frame, email us the frame ID you’d like.
You can see all the frames on our website here: http://www.theridesharekiller.com/nfts/
You can watch The Rideshare Killer on Tubi for free here: https://tubitv.com/movies/654467/the-rideshare-killer
You can email us at: info@sellingyourscreenplay.com