How Blockchain Technology Could Upend Hollywood

Could Blockchain really cause an upend to Hollywood?

It’s become a common refrain that big franchise blockbusters rule the box office. However, what was once considered an eccentric concern is now widely accepted. Simultaneously, we are seeing a more diverse range of talent on and off-screen. Web3 has some thoughts on both.

According to a UCLA report, women and people of color have made significant gains in the film industry over the last decade. Since 2011, the number of non-white actors in leading roles and receiving writing credits has quadrupled. Over the same time period, the number of people of color in the director’s chair had tripled.

During that time, the proportion of women in leadership positions more than doubled. The most encouraging statistic, however, was that female director had increased fivefold in ten years. For many moviegoers, this statistic comes as no surprise. Greta Gerwig (Ladybird, Little Women) and Chloé Zhao (Eternals, The Rider) have emerged as industry titans in the last half-decade.

However, as socially conscious filmmaking has grown in popularity, so has the number of blockchain-based projects with similar goals.

Making a Difference with Blockchain

One such project is Astrolucha, a utility non-fungible token (NFT) collection designed to help fund films, TV series, and other media for marginalized groups. They believe that more representation is required. According to official statistics, 19% of the US population is Latino/a in 2021. It does not take a statistician to see that it does not correspond to what is displayed on the screen.

“Astrolucha arose from a deep desire to see more diversity in entertainment,” says one of the project’s co-founders, Moisés Zamora. “I wanted to solve a long-standing problem: why can’t people of color be the heroes of their own stories?”

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Zamora also created the Netflix series Selena, which is based on the life of the charismatic Queen of Tejano music, Selena Quintanilla. A critically acclaimed series that helped Quinanilla’s place in Mexican-American music culture.

Its intellectual property and aesthetic are based on the luchador concept. Wrestlers who are both professional and free-flowing, as well as colorful superheroes. They have created a trading card game based on that concept and plan to develop a live-action series based on it. “Hollywood loves intellectual property, so that’s what we’re doing,” he says. “We want to make sure we’re set up for success, so we’re going to create a DAO and a community that’s incentivized to collaborate and help each other.”

It is clear from their discussions with BeInCrypto that the goals of their project are more reformist than revolutionary. “Astrolucha’s goal is not to replace Hollywood, but to expand it and provide more opportunities for Latino/a and other marginalized creators.”

Filmmaking Democratization

For context, former Disney CEO Bob Iger made a surprise comeback last month. Bob Chapek, his brief predecessor, presided over a period of commercial turbulence. Nonetheless, by 2021, Disney films would account for 25% of the total film market share in the United States and Canada. Because, despite a global pandemic, owning a quarter of one of the world’s largest film markets was insufficient. Of course, Chapek was fired for a variety of reasons. But the fact that even that metric wasn’t enough to save him is telling.

However, in keeping with the spirit of Web3, there are projects whose mission is to level the playing field. Blockchain’s inherent decentralized nature can be used to democratize film. Unlike studio mega-producers like Marvel’s Kevin Feige, film industry DAOs can act as a healthy counterweight.

Of course, the very nature of moviegoing – butts on seats – is a form of democracy. But, according to Lauren Magura, co-creator of Film.io, we can go even further. A decentralized funding structure represents an opportunity for them to build an inclusive decision-making fan and creator community. “Blockchain technology enabled us to develop our proprietary Vault Lock technology, which protects your original ideas by recording all project entries on an immutable public record,” she says. “By its very nature, blockchain ensures fairness and transparency, ripping away the curtain that has long obscured the film-making industry.”

With traditional top-down industry structures, however, some creators will always keep a distance from their viewers. “We can see films that better reflect their audience by democratizing film through blockchain,” she says. “Humans are creatures of habit… If a dominant gender and/or race is in charge, we will see a dominant gender and/or race on screen.”

Giving Talent Its Proper Place

Although many blockchain projects have similar goals, they are not the same. Austin Worrell, a co-founder of KINO, took a circuitous path into the film industry. He grew up wanting to be a film actor, and he is classically handsome. His family business, however, abruptly and violently imploded while he was still young. “There were a lot of lawyers involved; I recall that vividly. But I recall wondering, “Why didn’t the lawyers fix this?”

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Austin chose to become a lawyer himself, motivated by a sense of injustice and enraged by the legal system’s fog. He co-founded ElonGate after attending Miami University and the London School of Economics. A philanthropic Web3 company named after a Musk-related meme. Five hundred thousand people invested, and the company quickly grew to a half-billion-dollar market cap. “It gave me an incredible firsthand realization of the power of this new era of digital presence online.”

KINO was born from a combination of passion, years, and experience. A central criticism of the project was that only some employees reaped the benefits of a successful film. Others worked just as hard, putting in the hours but not seeing any residual income. “You poured your heart and soul into creating this incredible story, and only a few people ended up with percentage points and ownership.”

Blockchain can give you ownership, whether you’re a big star or an up-and-coming actor, a cameraman or a production designer, he says. Someone needs to stand up for Hollywood’s middle class. We don’t have to rely on the goodwill of the powerful because we use a trustless economic system. “Blockchain enables that transparent, immutable, and accessible ledger.”

For many people, Web3 is the best solution.

Unsurprisingly, blockchain was central to everyone BeInCrypto spoke with for this article. Crowdfunding has grown in popularity as a grassroots method of project funding over the last decade. Why are you doing it this way? After all, getting involved in the Web3/crypto space can be contentious at best. Why not make things easier on yourself and swerve this space entirely?

Principles are more important to many people than optics. “The very ethos of the blockchain speaks to solving these problems,” Lauren of Film.io continues. “All support and funding metrics are stored on a transparent blockchain ledger, providing immutable security and a transparent record of your project’s growth.”

Aside from technology and principles, there is an infectious and palpable sense of ambition in this community. A clear-eyed and sincere belief that hard work and sound principles can yield great results. “I want to see a KINO film at an award ceremony in five years,” Austin says. “It’s not really about the technology in some ways; it’s just another way to make great films.”

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