What are DAOs, and what do these innovative groups have to do with making movies?
Decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) are an emerging trend in the crypto space. Industry experts believe DAOs will be a game-changing disruption to current self-interested decision-making by centralized leaders and leverage power to the crowd, unlike traditional structures. But what are DAOs, and what do these innovative groups have to do with making movies?
DAOs are autonomous legal structures that operate without any hierarchical management or a central governing body. They are collectively owned are run by their members, who share a common interest. DAOs operate for a number of purposes, like crowdfunding or making important collective decisions.
So, will the year 2022 be the year for DAOs? With the convergence of web3 and NFTs, DAO will change the way how organizations will operate and will be more community-driven. Even the Hollywood film industry is gradually embarking on the world of decentralized filmmaking.
Noted filmmaker Mark O’Connor launched his first web3 distribution framework of the NFT version “Stalker Movie Pack” of his 2012 thriller movie “Stalker” at the Cannes Film Festival. O’Connor believes that the web3 ecosystem is the best way to control the rights and intellectual property (IP) of movies, which is one of the greatest challenges in traditional web2 filmmaking frameworks. He further states that by the time a movie is released, much of its profits are retained by the big production houses and the distributors, and very little goes into the hands of the creators, filmmakers, and writers.
Veteran director, movie-maker, writer, and producer David H. Steinberg states that of late, there have been back-to-back releases of superhero movies based on popular comic books. This is driving away original content and vesting the power in the hands of big corporations. As a result, there has been a shortage of indie films and low to mid-budget films due to a lack of funds.
DAOs would democratize the traditional film industry and bring power back into the hands of its makers and creators. Filmmakers are gradually becoming aware of the potential of NFT tokenization, web3, and the DAO framework. Community members can use the governance to vote on promising projects that they want to fund.
A DAO for filmmaking envisions a community-driven ecosystem that will take power from big production houses and distribute it among a diverse group of creators, audiences, and fans.DAOs also aim to involve fans in the production process. Fans will play a major role in choosing the script or the plot of the movie through community crowd voting. They can also select the location for shooting the film and even nominate lead actors that they think can do justice to the character. Audiences can use their wallets to connect to dApps and even use NFTs to get tickets to film premieres. The main idea is to distribute the power equally among filmmakers and fans.Movie makers can generate revenue through collectibles like merchandise and other toys after the theatrical release of their films. Community members can form a group and make their NFT films and stream them online. DAOs could create global franchises by outsourcing movies and video games that feature popular characters.DAOs create a popular marketplace to harness like-minded creative minds and fans who can support contents they love and contribute to the filmmaking process.DAOs democratize the movie industry, and establish transparency in financial transactions.Community members and audiences are incentivized to support DAO films and promote them. Profits can be distributed through smart contracts among the production team and token holders.Assemble the team — Filmmakers create the DAO team consisting of directors, editors, writers, producers, cinematographers, sound designers, etc. Enthusiasts and fans also join once the team is formed.Vote on the screenplay — The next step is deciding the screenplay. Community members who own NFTs or “social tokens” have the right to vote and approve the script and decide on the budget.Create a trailer — Once the screenplay is finalized, production companies will create trailers and submit them to the community for approval.Pre-production and production — The production team selects the location and dates for shooting the film and coordinates with all the team members and artists during the pre-production phase. NFTs are minted to raise the production budget. The filming process begins during the production phase.Post-production and launch — The director’s final cut is shown and community members share their opinions depending on which changes are made. The final launch occurs when the film is sold for NFTs and the fund is used for future productions.
The global film industry is widely controlled by large corporations like AT&T, Disney, and Comcast. DAOs could pioneer more democratic and forward-thinking filmmaking where people work collaboratively and are more open-minded in the production and distribution of films.
