Latest / Bulletproof Screenwriting™ Podcast / BPS 357: Using Blockchain to Make Money With Your Film with Kim Jackson and Jake Craven
Transcript
- 0:03You are listening to the IFAH podcast Network. For more amazing filmmaking and screenwriting
- 0:08podcasts, just go to ifahpodcastnetwork dot com. Welcome to the Bulletproof Screenwriting Podcast,
- 0:14Episode number three fifty seven. Whereas most technologies tend to automate workers on
- 0:19the peripherals of doing menial tasks, blockchains automate away from the center. Instead
- 0:26of putting a taxi driver out of a job, blockchain puts uber out of
- 0:30a job and lets taxi drivers work with the customer directly. By Talic Bertrand,
- 0:35co founder of Ethereum, Broadcasting from a dark, windowless room in Hollywood
- 0:41when we really should be working on that next draft. It's the Bulletproof Screenwriting
- 0:45Podcast, showing you the craft and business of screenwriting while teaching you how to
- 0:49make your screenplay bulletproof. And here's your host, Alex Ferrari. Welcome,
- 0:56Welcome to another episode of the Bulletproof Screenwriting Podcast. I am your humble host
- 1:00Alex Ferrari. Now, today's show is sponsored by Bulletproof script Coverage. Now,
- 1:06Unlike other script coverage services, Bulletproof script Coverage actually focuses on the kind
- 1:11of project you are and the goals of the project you are, so we
- 1:15actually break it down by three categories micro budget, indie film, market,
- 1:19and studio film. There's no reason to get coverage from a reader that's used
- 1:23to reading temp pole movies when your movie is going to be done for one
- 1:26hundred thousand dollars, and we wanted to focus on that. At Bulletproof Script
- 1:30Coverage, our readers have worked with Marvel Studios, CIA, WME, NBC,
- 1:34HBO, Disney, Scott Free, Warner Brothers, The Blacklist, and
- 1:38many many more. So if you need your screenplay or TV script covered by
- 1:44professional readers, head on over to covermiscreenplay dot Com. Now, guys,
- 1:49today on the show, we're going to talk about where I think everything is
- 1:55going to be going eventually. I think we've had this conversation before on the
- 1:59show where I feel that blockchain is something that is going to not only change
- 2:04our industry and when way, shape or form, but will change the world.
- 2:07Is as important, if not more important, than the Internet. And
- 2:13today we have on the show Kim Jackson and Jake Craven of Breaker dot io,
- 2:19and they're doing some really interesting stuff with blockchain in the royalty and distribution
- 2:24of money to artists and to companies using blockchain, as well as potential financing
- 2:32and crowdfunding and crowdsourcing using blockchain, and a bunch of other stuff. So
- 2:38if you're interested in this world of where basically the future of the world's gonna
- 2:44go, this is an episode for you, because, like I said in
- 2:46the show, in this episode, where we are in blockchain right now is
- 2:52where we were with the Internet in nineteen ninety six. Nobody really knew what
- 2:57email was, how it worked, how a website I worked, whether urel
- 3:00was, how to use jpeg. I'm not sure if it was invented not,
- 3:05but it was definitely not being used in in web design. There was
- 3:08no real web design in nineteen ninety six. Everyone was just trying to figure
- 3:13out bandwidth. They're trying to figure things out of how to even get on
- 3:17to this thing called the Internet. That's exactly where we are today in blockchain.
- 3:23There's a lot of roadblocks and obstacles that are being overcome fairly quickly working
- 3:31within blockchain. Technical things that are just we're running against walls. But these
- 3:38things are moving very quickly, and I say within the next five years,
- 3:42easily, within the next ten blockchain is going to be a much more integral
- 3:46part of our lives and how it affects us as filmmakers. I think you'll
- 3:52be pretty revolutionary. So, without any further ado, please enjoy my conversation
- 3:55with Kim Jackson and Jake Craven. I'd like to welcome to the show.
- 4:00Kim Jackson and Jake Craven. How are you guys doing great? Doing great?
- 4:05Thank you, thanks for coming on. You guys are doing some really
- 4:10interesting stuff with your company Breaker. And I saw the film by Alex Winter
- 4:16about blockchain because I've now obsessed about blockchain pretty heavily and about NFTs and all
- 4:24that kind of good stuff, and then you guys reached out to me and
- 4:28I was like, oh, interesting, I'd like to see what you guys
- 4:30are doing. So for the audience who is not familiar with this new magical
- 4:34world that is blockchain and crypto and tokenization all this kind of stuff, what
- 4:41is blockchain? Wow, that's a ginormous question. So in relationship to media
- 4:51and technology and film, well, I think we'll put it in that context,
- 4:57sure, Jake, Right, we'll see in that avenue. Yeah,
- 5:00But essentially, blockchain is the technology that what we're all familiar with as bitcoin
- 5:06runs on. Right, So bitcoin is a cryptocurrency and it operates on blockchain
- 5:13technology. So it's the simplest form. It's a protocol that runs programs,
- 5:20and so at a basic level, the programs. Why they're different than centralized
- 5:28systems is because this network is called decentralized, and that means where there's network,
- 5:33there's data, and where there's data, there's network, unlike centralized systems
- 5:39that we currently work with. So when you apply that to basic concept to
- 5:46certain maybe challenges and problems that different industries like media and film and television have,
- 5:55we have been building and are launching product that allow for media to be
- 6:04you know, writes, revenue and royalty of media to be tracked via blockchain
- 6:10technology, which allows for a decentralized network of data. So I'm going to
- 6:15stop there because j can go a little more specific into what Breaker is building
- 6:23from that more general description. Yeah, thanks for that's a good intro into
- 6:30the big picture of blockchain. How I like to refer to someone's asking what
- 6:38is blockchain? What is a blockchain? It's really just a record of information,
- 6:45right, and what makes it different from other records that we use if
- 6:51you think Google sheets or Excel or just databases, right, is that when
- 6:59you enter in a new row of data, that information is encoded so that
- 7:09nobody can go in and change the information later, so it's locked in place
- 7:15and set in stone. In addition, instead of the data being stored on
- 7:20one person's hard drive or one company's servers, it's held and hosted and maintained
- 7:29by hundreds of people all around the world. So when we say decentralized,
- 7:32it's what we mean. There's people all over the world that are posting and
- 7:35maintaining this network and this record of information. So no one party is in
- 7:44control of that information. And it's all open source, so that anyone at
- 7:49any point can go and view this record. They can pull up the website
- 7:56and you put into information and actually see, you know, proof that information
- 8:01was logged and entered into this record. Now it's all done using you know,
- 8:07cryptography and long numerical chains that the average person can't decipher or any person
- 8:13can decipher, really. But what it does is it creates this opportunity where
- 8:20when you have data that's coming in from one source, instead of that data
- 8:26just living on someone's computer and then some human is like entering data and changing
- 8:31information and sending it an email. That information is automatically recorded and set on
- 8:37this public record in the blockchain that people can go back to. So to
- 8:43simplify, it's basically a database that has pages in a ledger. Those pages
- 8:48are a blocks inside of that chain, and they're hosted cop There's thousands of
- 8:52copies of that exact thing around the world. So even if you hack into
- 8:56my computer and and you know, try to do something, you can't because
- 9:01there's multiple copies all around the around the world that could be verified by thousands
- 9:07and tens of thousands of people around the world. As this continues to grow
- 9:11and grow, is essentially and you can't adjust. And then, like any
- 9:15chain, if you block it in the next chain, if you affect this
- 9:18chain, it would affect the rest of the entire chain. So that means
- 9:22it's literally locked in stone and digital stone and cannot be adjusted. So that's
- 9:28the security aspect of it. Is that a fair explanation, Yeah, absolutely,
- 9:33And I think I think most people, you know, most people you
- 9:37don't need to be tech savvy to to you know, reap the benefits of
- 9:43this or to appreciate how all this technology sort of works. You know,
- 9:46I think a lot of times, especially with the blushing world, we kind
- 9:50of get a little too we start talking about all the tech and code and
- 9:54all that stuff. We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor and
- 10:01now back to the show. When you know, really think of the Internet
- 10:07and email. People don't need to know how email works in order to like
- 10:11reep the benefits of email. So you know, there's always this sort of
- 10:16element of the blockchain world where things get too technical too quickly, But we
- 10:20try and just break it down into kind of very clear concepts, and I
- 10:24think that's that's an important element of just understanding that. You know, normally,
- 10:28when you send an email to someone, the record of that email is
- 10:33being held by the company who owns your email address, right the email server
- 10:37like Google. If Google the were to cease existing tomorrow, you would lose
- 10:43all of that information that's on your email because it's stored by this private entity.
- 10:48So what blockchain does is takes that data and puts it up in a
- 10:52way where it's not subject to like one private entity who can take and use
- 10:58that information however they want, or just disappear and delete it. Fair enough.
- 11:03Now there are and obviously the origination of blockchain was with bitcoin and Bitcoin
- 11:09coming on, and that's when the whole concept of blockchain came to be,
- 11:13I think in two thousand and eight, in December of two thousand and eight,
- 11:16if I'm not mistaken, and there are multiple blockchains out there, because
- 11:22a lot of people think there's just just the one blockchain, there's multiple blockchains
- 11:26out there. Bitcoin has its own blockchain which is based around its cryptocurrency,
- 11:30but then another blockchain came out which is arguably the silver to Bitcoin's gold,
- 11:35which is Ethereum. And Ethereum was created as a blockchain, not as much
- 11:41for money, though it has a component of that, but as a platform
- 11:46to kind of piggyback on. Is that correct correct? Yes? Its intention
- 11:52is to have more functionality and more dimension than just operating currents, which is
- 12:01Ethereum is the is the operating protocol that we're building our applications on top of.
- 12:07Now with with the go ahead, Jack, I was gonna say,
- 12:11you know, to go back to your analogy of saying, you know,
- 12:16uh, theorem is silver to bigcoins gold, I think a better way to
- 12:18think of it is Ethereum is the oil to bigcoins gold because well bigcoin is
- 12:26the you know, an asset that we use this currency fair and Ethereum is
- 12:30a system for running applications and to be built upon. Now with that,
- 12:37with ethereum, uh, because there is a monetary aspect ethereum, there is
- 12:43an ethereum coin which runs everything. So with uh, with etheroeum that some
- 12:50of the issues that I've been hearing and seeing myself uh in the n f
- 12:54T world is that it takes a long time for these things to get all
- 12:58these all these processes to get registered because it takes time to physically get it
- 13:03on. There also gas fees and things like that. Can you talk about
- 13:05that because that kind of goes into a larger conversation about what you guys are
- 13:09doing and how are you going to kind of because we're at the beginning,
- 13:13and I've been telling people there's like we're basically in the Internet nineteen ninety four
- 13:16right now. People are still trying to figure out how to build a website.
- 13:20People are still trying to figure out jpeg because it's not you know,
- 13:22we know, I remember downloading an image that took four days to download one
- 13:28picture because no one understood jpeg. Yeah, things like that. We're in
- 13:31that world right now, so there are these kind of issues and that we're
- 13:35all figuring out and we'll be figured out in the next five years or if
- 13:39not faster, because there's so many people going in there. But what do
- 13:41you think, how are you approaching that? Can you explain gas fees and
- 13:46the speed and things like that with ethereum because there's just so many people jamming
- 13:50into it, Jake Yah in order to understand, you know, and if
- 13:58you're someone that's listened to this and you're not familiar with how blockchain actually works.
- 14:03When we say that they were recording a new piece of information or data
- 14:07on a blockchain, what we're doing is you're submitting let's say, transaction with
- 14:13this data and then there all these people that are maintaining this network. In
- 14:20order to get people and this is what makes blockchain innovative, is in order
- 14:26to get people to actually maintain a network of information and to update it,
- 14:30you have to incentivize them. Right, They're not just going to do it
- 14:33out of altruism and because they like the idea of a decentralized network of information,
- 14:39So they have to get paid to maintain all of this, right,
- 14:45and so they're just using computing power in their computers. But what happens is
- 14:48they get paid a fee to update the blockchain to record your data, right
- 14:56like you pay a fee for a notary public, if you will, And
- 14:58so those that fee is what's called a gas fee. So when you go
- 15:05to transact on blockchain, or you go to use an application that is interacting
- 15:11with the blockchain in some way, you have to pay a gas fee in
- 15:16the form of a cryptocurrency that goes to the individual who's actually like bogging that
- 15:22transaction. So that's what keeps the system going and moving forward, is you
- 15:28know, people are being incentivized because they're getting paid to do it, and
- 15:33that's you know, that's what we refer to gas fees. Now, there's
- 15:35a lot of development that's taking place and a lot of different approaches to blockchain
- 15:41technology and and updates. You know, the original mechanism of it was built
- 15:46in serve one purpose, but it had limitations where in a phase now where
- 15:50there's a lot of updates being made and switching to some different systems that are
- 15:54more efficient and costs less and are faster, and those are going to be
- 16:00implemented, and some of them are already implemented, some are going to be
- 16:03going in the next year couple of years. So the whole landscape is changing
- 16:07pretty dramatically right now in terms of just like the nuts and bolts and how
- 16:11of how it works. But for us, the key thing is looking at
- 16:18just that underlying the value proposition of just a blockchain and then this core concept
- 16:23that of what'll really to call tokenization. What is tokenization? Well, Alex,
- 16:30I want to say one thing, you have it right, it's early
- 16:34days. It's like nineteen ninety six in blockchain right now, so it's like
- 16:40the dial up d oh things take twenty four hundred bod Yeah, yeah,
- 16:45exactly. So it's very it's a very so it's early. It's still early
- 16:48days, it really is. And so you know, the the architects of
- 16:55Ethereum are well aware and they are you know, they're they're you know,
- 17:00I listened to conversations on clubhouse that you know they pop in and out of,
- 17:06and you know, they're they're very much aware, and there's solutions that
- 17:10they're working on, and they're very confident in the future of the Ethereum protocol
- 17:15being able to handle, uh, the number of transactions that would be necessary
- 17:22for it to work properly for the general public, just like the Internet,
- 17:26you know, had to figure that out too. So yes, so you
- 17:32know, it's it's it's definitely a good horse to bet on. No exactly.
- 17:36It's like if you would have told me, like, you know,
- 17:37this Internet things really going to take off, U you know, And I
- 17:41mean I still remember dialing, you know, logging in with my AOL free
- 17:45disc that I got. Yes, I got my freak connection to the internet,
- 17:49like made the sound the great sound effect fantastic, and then you know,
- 17:56you couldn't wait, and we just sat there and we waited, and
- 17:57the little chat rooms it would come off in the windows and you'd be talking
- 18:00to people in like Vietnam, and it was just an amazing time. It
- 18:03was just like such a incredible time. And then you had I put in
- 18:07my name and didn't work, and you know, getting your email address for
- 18:11the first time in AOL. I tried like a zillion things, and then
- 18:14I ended up putting some really random thing in there just like okay, I
- 18:17give up, And then of course it took it. So then that was
- 18:18my AOL AOL address was something weird and random for a very long time.
- 18:23But yeah, it's sort of like that. And I recommend this really great.
- 18:30It's about twenty five minute video that Venet Gupta recorded some years ago that
- 18:37essentially talks about the history of computer science leading to blockchain, and it is
- 18:44super super important, especially those who maybe came a little bit later in the
- 18:49game and don't maybe have holes in their knowledge of computer science leading up today.
- 18:56It was extremely It's like one of those things that we have a required
- 19:00viewing for people who work with us, is it's very important to understand this
- 19:06moment in time of computer science, which is where we are, which is
- 19:10extremely exciting. No exactly, Please send me a link to that. I
- 19:12would love to put that on the show notes for everyone to watch as well.
- 19:15But I feel, I feel that blockchain is as important, if not
- 19:21more important, than the Internet, and it's and that's such a that and
- 19:23that is such a massive statement to say. I'm not alone in that,
- 19:26by the way, I'm sure there's many I think both of you agree with
- 19:30it. It's it's seeing the vision of where it can go. It's not
- 19:33there right now, but seeing the vision of where that can go I mean
- 19:37cryptocurrency, and we can talk about cryptocurrency and that it's a long game.
- 19:41It's a long In a hundred years, we're all going to be dealing with
- 19:45some firm of cryptocurrency. I mean the dollar, paper money, and all
- 19:49of that is I don't I don't think that's going to happen. I mean
- 19:52it keep going, We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor,
- 20:02and now back to the show for the next one hundred years. I think
- 20:06that's very archaic way of doing things. Uh, this is and I think
- 20:08that the defive movement and the decentralization and all that stuff is great. But
- 20:15Jake, remind me, did you did you answer the question on tokenization?
- 20:18No? Okay, okay, okay. I was like, I don't remember
- 20:22him answering it. So decision because I don't know. That's a big part
- 20:25of what you guys are doing with Breaker. Yeah. So you know,
- 20:30to bring it all back around to film and entertainment and how blockchain can be
- 20:36used in the entertainment industry, you have to think of this concept and this
- 20:42is what when people hear at NFTs or they hear of you know, different
- 20:47companies and tokens what we're what we're really talking about is taking a piece of
- 20:51intellectual property and creating a digital identifier with it, which is what we call
- 20:56a token. So it is a unique code that is an address that is
- 21:00recorded on the blockchain that is then associated back to that asset. So what
- 21:07we're doing is taking let's say a film and creating a digital token that represents
- 21:14that film and the ownership shares of that film at the same time. So
- 21:18instead of having just like a contract, then each person has their copy of
- 21:22the contract, and you know, you kind of have to rely on attorneys
- 21:26to confirm all that, and then some accountant will look at it and determine,
- 21:30okay, this person gets this amount. What you're actually doing is you
- 21:33have this digital identify identifier that's recorded on the blockchain. But with that is
- 21:38an associated smart contract, which is another key concept in the blockchain world,
- 21:42which is you're taking the terms of let's say a film finance agreement and you're
- 21:49turning it into a logical formula saying if x amount of dollars, then it
- 21:55goes to this person, then any money after that goes to these people.
- 22:00And so now when something happens that's say there's a transaction or someone sends money
- 22:07to or records it on the blockchain via platform that token, so the asset,
- 22:15right, the money flows back to that address it's associated with, it
- 22:19tied to that address, and then the code based on the smart contract knows
- 22:25how to then split up the money and who to send it to automatically because
- 22:30of the terms that you put in place. So what we're doing is looking
- 22:34at how we can tokenize an asset right, take intellectual property, create a
- 22:40digital token that represents it and the shares and the back end, and then
- 22:45also apply a smart contract where we can then automate the flow of revenue and
- 22:51the management of rights for that underlying asset in a complete transparent way where anybody
- 22:56can go in and look at it, as opposed to the shady world world
- 23:00of distribution today. You said it exactly so instead of relying on uh,
- 23:07you know, an entity, where it really comes down to some you know,
- 23:12accounting associate manually putting numbers in a spreadsheet. And even if everyone is
- 23:18acting with the best of attention intentions, they're still going to put you know,
- 23:23run the formula in correctly or type number, you know, all this
- 23:30stuff and it's just so much error and so much money is lost, and
- 23:34you know, all because of the sort of human and really archaic methodology and
- 23:42practices for entertainment accounting and rights management, which is really hasn't changed since this
- 23:48all started in the turn of the century. All right, So this is
- 23:52you know, a way of bringing this new technology to create more efficiency automation,
- 23:57transparency or what is otherwise a very inefficient process, and that is you're
- 24:03so some key elements that you're using are tokenization and then smart contracts. Can
- 24:07you go, you mentioned smart contracts, Can you explain the smart conscience art
- 24:11to the audience? Well, yeah, smart contracts are really it's a set
- 24:17of code, uh that is embedded on in the token. But really what
- 24:22that code is is you're taking the terms of an actual paper contract that you
- 24:29sign and then taking the logic of like the flow of funds and who receives
- 24:33what and when, and then applying that into actual like logic like math of
- 24:41and that's what smart that's really all a smart contract is. It's that logical
- 24:45formula that is reflecting agreements between parties that are done outside like the waterfall.
- 24:52It's a normal waterfall politic funds. Yeah, on the back end correct first
- 24:57in like first in financers, first moneys, in all that kind of stuff.
- 25:02But it's broken up through using basically smart contracts and the blockchaince of when
- 25:06A happens, then B happens, and then once B is done, then
- 25:08it goes out to C, D, E and F and then you could
- 25:11just lay out however you want these smart contracts to play out essentially correct so
- 25:15that when revenue flows into that token from the external sources, it automatically will
- 25:22get split into those buckets that you know, you know this this shareholder,
- 25:26that shareholder of that member. You know, if you have your writer and
- 25:30your director or you're let's see, you know you have guilds that need you
- 25:36know all of it. You can do all of all of the any anyone
- 25:38who's sharing revenue in the particular piece of content or intellectual property, it will
- 25:45automatically when revenue come comes in, the revenue be pushed into all of those
- 25:52different entities. Yeah, because right now there are a handful of companies around
- 25:56the world that do this, but in a manual way, not in a
- 26:00and I you know, I've had those those companies on the show. I've
- 26:03spoken about that, and it sounds great like they make sure all the you
- 26:04know, the unions get taken care of, and all entities are very comfortable
- 26:08with that because there's a centralized kind of almost s girl account that handles the
- 26:14money that is not being handled by anybody else and they know that they're going
- 26:17to get paid because this entity is going to do it. But the way
- 26:18you're proposing it would be essentially humanless in the sense of it's going to be
- 26:23set up in a completely transparent way where you could literally log on check the
- 26:27check your site and go, okay, this is how it's coming in.
- 26:30But the question I have for you is this is off of course, based
- 26:33on blockchain and cryptocurrency, because that's how these payments have to be moved through,
- 26:41has to be moved through ethereum cryptocurrency, correct. I mean you're not
- 26:44writing checks essentially, or not doing wire transfers or are you no, But
- 26:51there is a mechanism that it can be turned into fiat, it can be
- 26:56turned into you know, USD and so we're using a stable coin in this
- 27:00case so that that deals with the fluctuation that will happen with cryptocurrencies. So
- 27:08you know, when revenues come in and something gets you know, pushed into
- 27:11the token, it will be pushed into the stable coin, and then those
- 27:15stable coins can be held onto or transferred into, you know, exchanges however
- 27:22you however you choose. So this when you say stable coin, is that
- 27:26an actual name of a coin or is that just a generalized name of a
- 27:30coin that you're creating to make sure that that if ten dollars comes in,
- 27:33ten dollars comes out as opposed to ten dollars comes in if theorym bombs or
- 27:37explodes and then they got one hundred dollars or No, we didn't invent that.
- 27:42It's a mechanism that you know, others. I mean, it's an
- 27:47issue, right, that's a problem, right to pay people in crypto just
- 27:52playing crypto. I mean, it's going to rise and fall in a millisecond.
- 27:55I mean, so how do you deal with that? So you know
- 27:57it's been figured out, you know, Jake, you can shed some a
- 28:00little bit more light on that one, because I know you're you know,
- 28:02we're working on our SaaS product right now, and that's one of the mechanisms
- 28:07that we use. But no, we can't take credit for because I've seen,
- 28:11I've seen preventing that. But there is a point that's a usd coin
- 28:14that's just basically tracks. So that's the point you're using essentially. Yeah,
- 28:18so we use us d C. There are a number of other stable coins,
- 28:22but the core idea is, you know, it's getting the benefits of
- 28:26you know, sending funds via the blockchain and but without the volatility or the
- 28:32risk of interacting with forg. Currency, So it's tied to the value of
- 28:36the US dollar. And you know, what we really look at is and
- 28:41this is something that we encounter. You know, there's a lot of companies
- 28:42that have been in this space that came around. We've been doing this for
- 28:47a lot for a while now and have really learned what are the pain points
- 28:51and some of the limitations to really for broad adoption of this technology, and
- 28:56so we build tools taking those learnings in applying that. So when you are
- 29:03a filmmaker, you need to be able to exploit your film anywhere where there's
- 29:11a revenue opportunity, right, and there's only the number of avenues that you
- 29:17release the film is just growing, right, because audiences are more spread out,
- 29:21there are more new platforms every day. And it's important to be able
- 29:25to reach those audiences wherever they are to find those opportunities to have your films
- 29:30stand out. So we've built a tool that we call it an on ramp,
- 29:34right like a fiat to cryptra on AM, so you're able to collect
- 29:38payment in dollars right Usually it's process bank account transfer so ACH and then our
- 29:48technology automatically converts that to a stable coin. And by doing that, once
- 29:52the funds are in a stable coin, then they can be sent to the
- 29:57We'll be right back for a word from our sponsor and now back to the
- 30:06show. The films token and the smart contract can then do its job,
- 30:14send the funds to all the different participants and they can then claim their share
- 30:19of the royalties and the revenue immediately right then and there. So you know,
- 30:25we look at this sort of full chain of funds and how do we
- 30:30make it as smooth and easy as possible while still still actually getting the benefits
- 30:34of the technology at the same time. And then, so let's say you
- 30:38have a Netflix deal, You've got some transactional on iTunes, and you sold
- 30:45Germany for a few thousand bucks. Let's say you did all those three things
- 30:49you would basically have them send checks or wires essentially into an account that then
- 30:55automatically turns them into a stable coin. Well yeah, so what it is
- 31:00is you will in one way to think of the to kind of step back.
- 31:04When we talk about tokenizing a film, think of it in the way
- 31:08that we would go about and create like a PPM. Right, if you're
- 31:12trying to raise private equity for a film, you need a private placement memorandum
- 31:17which breaks down what is the equity structure, what is the person who's investing
- 31:21in the film getting all that sort of stuff. And tokenizing the film is
- 31:26taking that waterfall, putting it into the smart contract and deploying that so it's
- 31:30recorded on the blockchain. So now you have this token that has been deployed,
- 31:33it's in place, and then begins time to like, all right,
- 31:37let's start collecting revenue. So for Netflix, and if you're releasing a film
- 31:44on iTunes, you're like going through an aggregator or a distributor. Those payments
- 31:48most likely are going to come via an ach transfer, right a direct bank
- 31:53transfer, And so we are a filmmaker can then share the link to our
- 32:00payment portal if you will, and that contributor or license or can then submit
- 32:07you know, remit payment via AH directly on that and that those funds will
- 32:13then be automatically associated with the filmmaker with that film, right, and so
- 32:17all of the like you know, the manual, all the like accounting stuff
- 32:22is all happening behind the scenes automatically the international probably you know, the good
- 32:27chance that that might come the wire payment, but also you know bank transfer.
- 32:32So you know, we're looking at, you know, how are the
- 32:35ways that filmmakers actually get paid today and how can we evolve this technology to
- 32:40be able to address those different use cases. And you, as breaker,
- 32:46don't hold any of the money coming in, because that's been one of the
- 32:50big issues with aggregators and things like that, that they hold the money might
- 32:52misspending money. Money comes in automatically with instantly once the money hits that account
- 32:59turns into okay at the stable coin and then goes down the waterfall into the
- 33:02thing. You guys never touch anything. I regard it, and I mean
- 33:06obviously regarding whatever the payment is for your service might be taken off the top
- 33:10or there's a pay I don't know how that works. How do you make
- 33:13money with this all. So, I mean, we're providing this service right,
- 33:22software as a service, So you know, there is a mechanism of
- 33:25people, you know, paying for it like you would pay for any technology
- 33:30that you use it. So, but the goal, the core goal for
- 33:34what we're doing it and this is something that goes back to something that you
- 33:37brought up collection account management services and you know, one of the big,
- 33:42the big curls of them is that they are expensive, very prohibited, especially
- 33:46for independent film. So us using this technology allows us to provide this service
- 33:52to creators at a much more affordable rate, right than theacy systems that are
- 34:00in place today. Very very cool. And then you know, another goal
- 34:06that's worth mentioning here is that you know, is to have everyone in this
- 34:14ecosystem participate with blockchain technology utilizing this, So not just the content creator,
- 34:22but also the media companies who are distributing the work, because we talk with
- 34:28a lot of them and we are approaching you know a lot of them at
- 34:31the moment in very exciting conversations because their back room accounting is extremely inefficient,
- 34:40cost them millions and millions of dollars and they lose millions and millions of dollars
- 34:45all the time based on just either you know, error in accounting or just
- 34:52the inability to really track stuff, especially when it starts getting complicated with multiple
- 34:59yeah, you know, territories that you can imagine a piece of content will
- 35:02go to, especially like you know, Netflix now and all across the world.
- 35:07So the long term goal is to you know, really have everyone participate
- 35:13in uh, you know, with this software and building a bridge between the
- 35:17between the two because it can benefit both sides. It's baby steps and it's
- 35:23it's new, so you know, everyone has to start to get comfortable with
- 35:28the concept of telling the truth. Anyone who's anyone who listens to my podcast
- 35:35understands my feelings in regards to traditional distutions, right with you all. It's
- 35:42one of the reasons that this is happening is is I got tired of being
- 35:46short changed. I got tired of not having revenue reports, not being able
- 35:51to report to my my investors, and good, bad are and different,
- 35:57you know what I mean, Like, Okay, sometimes a picture doesn't you
- 36:00know, do well, but at least you have numbers to be able to,
- 36:04you know, justify that and show why we don't even get that information.
- 36:07And so when we learned about the potential of blockchain on media and content.
- 36:14Uh, it's really what inspired myself and my co founders to do what
- 36:20we're doing right now. And realizing that it is a long game, and
- 36:22realizing that we would be disrupting and interrupting, you know, quite quite a
- 36:27system. But just like the Internet happened, it was undeniable, and people
- 36:31though I'm not going to use that, I'm not going to do that.
- 36:34It's one of those things where you're we're all going to be using it,
- 36:36whether we realize it or not someday soon. And so by introducing the power
- 36:43of this and the efficiency, I think that organically, I'm hoping this is
- 36:49my pie in the sky, you know. But but I'm hoping that organically
- 36:52everyone just adopts this and then we don't even have to have a conversation about
- 36:57the truth anymore. It's just it just happens because it's just more efficient,
- 37:01right, And that's what this whole that's the whole beauty and genius of blockchain
- 37:07is that two strangers can do business without knowing or trusting each other. Uh.
- 37:15And that's been the issue from the beginning of the humanity time since the
- 37:19beginning of time. It is like I want to give you my goat and
- 37:22you're going to give me a cow. But how am I sure you're not
- 37:25going to kill? Like there is there's no there's no way of doing.
- 37:29And that's why be out money in gold and all these kind of things.
- 37:32You know, we've tried to figure it out all the years. But in
- 37:36this digital platform with blockchain, it completely erases everything and it's completely transparent.
- 37:42We don't have to have like a moral or philosophical or ethical conversation. It's
- 37:45just going to be an is. It's just going to happen because it makes
- 37:47more sense. It's logical, you know. And this is like Jake just
- 37:52said, it's math. It's math. Get down to the core of all
- 37:54of it, and it's math. And it's just with the acceleration of technology
- 38:00and media in particular, it's going to make sense just from a logical perspective,
- 38:07because how do you account for all this content and this content sharing.
- 38:09I mean, it's like it's insane how much is out there. I mean,
- 38:14just from the perspective of the viewer, we're overwhelmed with choices. And
- 38:20if you think about it from a content creator's perspective, The competition out there
- 38:24is insane, and the lifespan of your of your content now is much much
- 38:29longer and much greater and much grander than it ever was before. And it's
- 38:32going to just keep accelerating, right exactly. And you know, I'm in
- 38:37the leads with this all the time. And when you're saying, all these
- 38:40films are out there, most of them aren't getting paid, and it's not
- 38:45it's either you know, they're just not. They're just not most most most
- 38:50of them are not getting paid because of these kind of weird distribution agreements or
- 38:54shady practices or air human error as well, or Amazon switches from ten sense
- 39:00a minute an hour or two one pen an hour of streaming and things like
- 39:05that where they get acquired and somebody else buys them and they have a new
- 39:07department and then they have to transfer all that centralized data and then I've got
- 39:12a new person and I'm looking at this first time and I don't know what
- 39:15I'm looking at. It's just it's insanity. It's really insanity. And when
- 39:19we talk to a lot of the CFOs and the counter types people at these
- 39:22media companies, you know, a lot of times, the one department stop
- 39:27talking to the other. So the department that's doing distribution for television is not
- 39:30talking to to the department that's doing distribution for the traditional film. And they
- 39:35have data that's separate and those that data should be connected and it's not being
- 39:38connected. And it's in the same within the same company. So the inefficiencies
- 39:44are getting the gap is getting wider and wider, and so they know that
- 39:47something's got to give because they're losing money. We'll be right back after a
- 39:52word from our sponsor, and now back to the show. And so,
- 40:02you know, the blockchain is an incredible solution, and you know, we're
- 40:07very very excited and very motivated by the problems to blockchain and and you know,
- 40:14it's very exciting that you guys and the listeners and everyone you know get
- 40:17this. And you know, it's like talking it's kind of boring on some
- 40:21level to talk about it a blockchain, because it's like talking about JavaScript.
- 40:23It's like who cares, It's like what's going on underneath of the hood.
- 40:28But you know, what you really care about is you know what's what's you
- 40:30know, the bottom line for you, and what the bottom line is is
- 40:34you know, understanding the or that you're using is actually going to level the
- 40:43playing field, you know, take away you know, the mistrust, and
- 40:46be able to give you instantaneous reporting. These are very important and powerful things,
- 40:52especially for independent companies that want to sustain a business and revenue model for
- 40:57themselves, because it's it's almost impossible, you know, you'll get a bunch
- 41:00of funding, you'll make you know, a half a dozen movies, and
- 41:02then you're closing your doors for five years later. This happens all the time,
- 41:07and so there's got to be a better model, and we're you know,
- 41:12with this technology, we hope to be able to provide that to these
- 41:17filmmakers and these companies. Now, there's another thing I saw on your website
- 41:22in regards to financing a film. How do you use this technology in the
- 41:27financing game on how to get your independent project financed? Because there's some very
- 41:32very interesting benefits that could possibly come from it. Sure, it's a bit
- 41:37complex right at the moment. It's not black and white, as you know,
- 41:44you know, I think if you're in the perfect world and in the
- 41:47future, I can see that you could tokenize your movie, do a token
- 41:51raise, just almost like crowdsourcing in a way. But the difference is is
- 41:54that instead of getting a T shirt, you're actually getting revenue participation in that
- 42:00movie and in real time, just like we're talking about through the same mechanisms
- 42:04we were just discussing. And that's in a perfect world, and that's what
- 42:07we we envision for token in the future. It's not possible for various reasons
- 42:13right right now really from that perspective of you know, we can't be it,
- 42:20we can't hold money and be a bank for people, like if there
- 42:22has to sort of be that separation, and so it's not as easy.
- 42:25And also on some level it's crowdsourcing, so you're kind of based with that
- 42:30same kind of situation with you know, the kickstarters of the world right in
- 42:35terms of like getting people's attention to be able to, you know, raise
- 42:40the amount of funds that you need for your picture. And so there is
- 42:45a mechanism that I could see in the future that would kind of combine those
- 42:50two efforts where people, especially if you're a well known filmmaker and you have
- 42:53a track record and people know you, you're already going to have a fan
- 42:57base, and so i'd imagine imagine if there was the our worst token,
- 43:00you know what I mean, like magic, and but all those token holders
- 43:06who were fans got to participate in the success, almost like the NFT type
- 43:10of model, right right, but from more of an intellectual property and a
- 43:16revenue sharing model. So, Jake, you I'm sure you got it.
- 43:20It's like it's like equity crowdfunding essentially almost, but using blockchain and token decisis.
- 43:25It's complicated because of kyceing and because of all of these these these SEC
- 43:30rules and regulations that are from like nineteen forty eight or something that don't really
- 43:35apply to technology today, and so it makes things a bit challenging. But
- 43:40how about for this for this specific moment. But what about IPOs? So
- 43:45wouldn't this be similar to an ipo? Well it would be, but we
- 43:52forget I mean, we don't forget it. It's a very small pool of
- 43:55people who actually get to participate in IPOs, right, It's not. IPOs
- 44:00are not something that every person gets to participate. We might be able to
- 44:05buy a stock after a bank purchases X number and then they sell it again.
- 44:10Initial coin on an ico excuse men ico, not an IPO, but
- 44:15ico when when they like Deutsche coin for God's sakes or something like that,
- 44:20when they put out a coin, could initial coin offering, could that be
- 44:23kind of like a movie initial movie offering? So well, and that's the
- 44:28thing I mean, we're we're at the stage, to go back to the
- 44:30analogia, where we are in the evolution of the technology, right there's we're
- 44:36at the stage where, yeah, it's you know, nineteen ninety six internet,
- 44:39but the SEC has caught up enough, learned enough about the Internet right
- 44:44that they're on on c SPAN calling it a series of tubes, but you
- 44:50know, applying their existing framework to this, and it's causing a bit more
- 44:57you know, you know, it's still an evolving process. So you know,
- 45:01we've gotten to a threshold where you know, twenty seventeen twenty eighteen is
- 45:07where you had the sort of ICO boom, and that's where the technology was
- 45:10very new to a lot of the regulators in you know, countries around the
- 45:15world. But now twenty twenty one, it's much more familiar. It's on
- 45:19the radar, so they've limited stuff to a point that you're really not seeing
- 45:22those happening as much right now. The coins that are released very often it's
- 45:28it's not something where people are raising funds through a release of the coins where
- 45:32people are personally them. It's usually more the new currencies or tokens are being
- 45:39utilized where they have some utility to them and they're being distributed to a community
- 45:45of people who can then you know, use them for different purposes. But
- 45:49it's not being used as something to you know, crowdfund in the same way
- 45:52that it was in twenty seventeen twenty eighteen. So you know where we look
- 45:58at in terms of if you're a filmmaker and you're going to raise money.
- 46:02I think one of the big aspects is you know where's the money coming from,
- 46:06and you can still go out and raise equity and get investors. But
- 46:12what happens more often than not is you're a filmmaker, you get an investor
- 46:16to help you with your first film. You make that film. But from
- 46:20the investor standpoint, the experience of being an investor on a independent film is
- 46:23so bad because there isn't a lot of information, right, there's you know,
- 46:29they don't it's not even that they didn't make their money back. It's
- 46:31just like there's the black hole, right, there's no data there's no it's
- 46:37very hard to get a sense of like what's going on, you know,
- 46:39what is that, how's this money actually being used, Where's how's the film
- 46:44doing? What was the value of my investment in this? And so it
- 46:47becomes incredibly difficult to get people to investor and invest in a second film.
- 46:52And you know, what we really see as the technology being a tool that
- 46:58creators can use when they go out to investors saying, look, using this
- 47:01and the technology ensures that you're going to have this access to information and you
- 47:07know, we're addressing these sort of pain points that a lot of film investors
- 47:09encounter and that makes that you as a creator, a more intriguing, you
- 47:16know, option for someone to invest in, because there's this level of like,
- 47:20I don't have to trust that you're going to right me a check and
- 47:22pay me back. It's it's we're utilizing technology that's going to automate all of
- 47:28that, so you're going to get everything as soon as we do, and
- 47:30you know that are our aim is for that to be something that helps these
- 47:35conversations when filmmakers you're talking to investors, and that's how it right now,
- 47:38without getting into regulations and sec stuff is a way today that it can be
- 47:45used as a tool to help with financing. Well, where can people find
- 47:47out more about what you guys are doing, Well, you can find out
- 47:53on I mean on our website, so, uh, Breaker dot io this
- 48:00website. For our technology side, we have a website called tools Upbreaker dot
- 48:04Io. And then we also have our studio side where we produce and fin
- 48:08It's our own slate of films and that's Breaker Studios. And actually I'll add
- 48:15that, you know, those films are our own test cases. So we're
- 48:17using this technology to manage the revenue and the rights for the films that we're
- 48:22producing ourselves. So we're not just asking people to use it, you know.
- 48:25And we're also not just technology people that are trying to build something for
- 48:30the film industry, because we think the film industry is cool and sexy people
- 48:36that happen to be technology people. At the same time, I'm an entertainment
- 48:38attorney and spent my career as a distributor, working with new distribution mechanisms and
- 48:45new tools and platforms and kims of producers and producing films our whole career,
- 48:51So we're also we come from the entertainment side and have that background and knowledge
- 48:58that has informed how guide this technology. And the old joke is how do
- 49:04you how do you make millions in the film industry? You start with billions?
- 49:07Yeah, you don't. I mean, it's yeah, I mean and
- 49:20you say that, you know, when you define the film industry, Alex,
- 49:23Well, the film industry is very There's so many aspects of There's the
- 49:27independent film industry. There's the people like Marvel. Uh, there's Disney,
- 49:31Uh, there's you know, then there's the back back alley, you know,
- 49:37predatory distributors. Uh. There's so many aspects of the film industry on
- 49:43the just performance side, then there's the production side. Then there's the uh,
- 49:47there's there's there's so many different aspects of it. But so you can
- 49:52make money in the film industry. There are definitely places you can make money
- 49:55in the film industry. But if you're a pirate, we'll be right back
- 50:01after a word from our sponsor, and now back to the show. And
- 50:09you know, no, I've met them on all every side you're talking about.
- 50:14I've met them in production of course. Go we'll go what's your budget,
- 50:19okay, and then they do their own creative accounting on the production budget
- 50:22so they can filter, you know, filter money over to some other into
- 50:25whatever it's happened. And you're like, you know what, I'm a line
- 50:29producer. I don't how to count. I know what things cost? Are
- 50:32you kidding me? And they look at you a straight face, like what
- 50:36do you mean craft services cost twenty thousand dollars a day on one hundred thousand
- 50:39dollars movie. I don't understand that's a you know, one hundred dollars bagel.
- 50:45To get off my back, like yeah, I don't, Yeah you
- 50:50have, Yeah, there's there's four extras and you have, you know,
- 50:52one hundred thousand dollars and for extras, like you know, it's like what,
- 50:55no, the extra still, you know, like these types of things.
- 51:00But yes, you have to be a pirate, you do. You
- 51:02have to be a pirate. And you know, I've definitely made movies with
- 51:07my fair share of them, and I have to say it was a lot
- 51:08of fun. However, I want to make money. I want to make
- 51:14money. I want a business, a revenue source you know that's reliable,
- 51:17that allows me to sustain a business model for myself. And you know,
- 51:22one of the other interesting things that I always bring up to is a lot
- 51:28of colleagues who've been in the biz a long time, who have survived,
- 51:30long time survivors of you know, independent films specifically, you know, they
- 51:36are coming up against where are the rights to these films that we sold fifteen
- 51:42years ago? Where are these who owns the rights to these films? Because
- 51:45they're expiring now and technically they should be able to you know, repackage and
- 51:51redistribute these films, especially the sweetheart films that have you know, an ability
- 51:57to be repackaged and you know classics or whatever how we want to package it.
- 52:00And they're finding that they have no idea where the rights live anymore because
- 52:06a lot of times the companies that they first sold to were bought. The
- 52:08libraries were bought and sold maybe multiple times, and the the resources it would
- 52:14take them to do the research is just not they're not it's not available to
- 52:17them. So they just kind of have to let things, you know go,
- 52:21And it's a lot it's a missed opportunity. It's a missed business opportunity,
- 52:24especially if you're a long time you know producer, it's our director,
- 52:30you know, a creator, it's it's it's a lost opportunity, and if
- 52:34you have smart contracts that kind of avoids that situation. If everyone's on a
- 52:37smart contract, like at fifteen years, it automatically closed to this person's account
- 52:43again, and blah blah blah or whatever it is, correct, I mean,
- 52:45if everything in a magical world eventually will get there. I think we're
- 52:49still years away from everybody jumping on board because it's it's like the Internet and
- 52:54how long did it take? I still remember going online and going Paramount dot
- 52:59com nope, Disney dot Com nope, Like there was I remember those times
- 53:04that there's how long did it take before everybody jumped online? Before anyone had
- 53:07a website? So this is the same thing. I think it's going to
- 53:09take. It's going to be faster than it did with the Internet though,
- 53:14and bitcoin is kind of like done a lot of the heavy lifting over the
- 53:17last decade since it's since it's come out, it's like they've kind of refined
- 53:22the idea and now it's starting I think it's starting to pick up a little
- 53:25bit of steam. Would you guys agree with Ahole? Just blockchain and everything
- 53:30is people are starting to become much more aware of it. Well, technology
- 53:35has evolved to a point that it's you know, there are there are certain
- 53:38hurdles that we encountered in twenty eighteen that limited our ability to do certain things
- 53:43that we are no longer hurdles because the technology has evolved. So it's growing
- 53:47and improving really really fast. And that's a great thing because you know,
- 53:53we see the potential use cases and the potential is becoming the actual very quickly.
- 54:00Yeah. I mean, if you remember nineteen ninety six and then you
- 54:02remember two thousand and six, I mean YouTube was a year year year too
- 54:06old, and the compression of video was horrible, and it took them another
- 54:10five or eight years before oh look seven twenty p It takes time for this
- 54:16to go. But I think that's I think it's a very exciting time and
- 54:20I think what you guys are doing is really exciting. And there's there's a
- 54:23lot there's a big learning curve coming. There's a lot of hurdles that we
- 54:25have to get over for everybody involved, including the old school dinosaurs and the
- 54:34new young kids coming up who understand this much better than plus tool. But
- 54:42you know, don't sell yourself short. I mean, you know, we
- 54:44were there in the beginning, so we have more knowledge, you know,
- 54:47because we were at sort of the the beginning of the Internet craze. And
- 54:52I think that being around for that and witnessing that and sort of being turned
- 54:57on by it. You know, kids today they just automatically come into it.
- 55:00They don't know, they don't understand, they do not get you know,
- 55:06like I had a bag phone. I had a phone in my car
- 55:08that was in a bag, like that was my I was talking about this
- 55:12this this past weekend with somebody, like like cell phones. It was like
- 55:15this giant thing. If anybody wants, if anybody wants a reference to that,
- 55:19watch lethal weapon. And at the end, towards the end of lethal
- 55:22Weapon, Danny Glover is outside on a bridge talking to Rigs on one of
- 55:27those phones, one of those phones, and it was like the nine hundred
- 55:30dollars on my net, Like it was really really expensive, but it was
- 55:32seriously like you get only it was an emergency situation, you know. But
- 55:37you know, the Internet was it was very interesting, you know that the
- 55:39whole thing. I mean, I I was in college and I was dating
- 55:45a guy who was a computer science major at bc any I was joke he
- 55:50bought me my own r L for like Valentine's Day, and I was like,
- 55:53what is where are the flowers? What is the nerdious the nerdiest room
- 56:00of this romantic gesture in the history of I have my name dot com because
- 56:04of him, and like there's a million Kim Jackson's on the planet. I
- 56:09mean, I've ran into him. I've had some people email me saying,
- 56:12can I buy my own U r L? Because I'm like, no,
- 56:15kidding me, Like that's amazing that I have my own U r L.
- 56:19But I mean, you know, back in the day, I would not
- 56:22have thought of that. I would not have even thought about that. I
- 56:25was like, what's a U r L? What do you mean? I
- 56:29was lucky enough I bought Alex Ferrari dot com and like late nineties, Uh
- 56:31so I was, I was, I was. I had a website business.
- 56:36I had. I had an online business in the nineties. I used
- 56:38to make I've sold the story a couple of I used to make like five
- 56:42six grand a month. The problem was my server bills were five or six
- 56:44grand a month because of bandwidth band with right? Is it? Yes,
- 56:52that's where we're at now, Yes, this is where we're at right now,
- 56:55and you know, it's super cool to be talking to you. You're
- 56:59so knowledgeable about it, Alex, and it's really awesome because you know more
- 57:02than you let on that you did so with you. Like I said,
- 57:09I've been doing a lot of research about this because I'm really fascinated by the
- 57:12whole concept. And I do think it's it is the future of uh,
- 57:15it's gonna it's gonna affect so many different industries. Ours our small little corner
- 57:21of the world, which is we think it's really big, but the film
- 57:22industry is so small comparatively to medical records, and and yet and just just
- 57:29infrastructure on like tracking food and and manufacturing and finding parts and everything will be
- 57:35on the blockchain eventually, eventually medical records everything, everything, I mean imagine
- 57:40Like that's one of the examples. I use a lot of its medical records
- 57:45because people say I don't don't quite understand any Say, well, think about
- 57:47like you go to the doctor and then your insurance changes you and you got
- 57:51to go to another network and that network didn't talk to that network, and
- 57:53you gotta fax. You're faxing where it's twenty twenty one, we're faxing,
- 57:58Okay, okay, facts medical records over to another thing, and then they
- 58:02didn't get it and you get there and they're like, we never got the
- 58:05facts, and you're like eating its facts, and I mean, you know,
- 58:07it's like insane, the inefficiency in data sharing in the health industry.
- 58:13I mean, it should just be an decentralized network. You could just go
- 58:17okay, which is a little scary because then you know, you have to
- 58:20think about that for one second. I mean, there is some security and
- 58:22some you know, privacy things that would have to be for me to be
- 58:28comfortable to And by the way, there are blockchain companies who are working on
- 58:32the security, uh and the privacy issues around you know, the fact that
- 58:39it is decentralized, and you know, anyone could find the hashtag that would
- 58:45be this long that you would have to understand that this, you know,
- 58:47Jake's hashtag for that particular thing, and unless he told me, I wouldn't
- 58:52know that. But people don't quite understand that. But and when people's names
- 58:58and more private information is going to start being shared, I think, you
- 59:01know, it's good to know that there are blockchain companies that are working on
- 59:05the privacy and security protocols around that because it will be necessary. Now just
- 59:12really quickly, does what do you guys think of the NFT situation? Because
- 59:15I mean I've done I've done three episodes. I did a series of episodes
- 59:19on NFTs because I was fascinated with them, and once I understood what an
- 59:22NFT was, which is basically a digital baseball card, I'm like, Okay,
- 59:24got it. It's a baseball card, it's a comic book. It's
- 59:28what it is. So I put up some NFTs just for fun and sold
- 59:31out. I was like, wait a minute, how does this work?
- 59:36And my NFTs that I sold were I have the distinct honor of having the
- 59:40very first filmmaking tutorials ever uploaded to YouTube. Cool. I have a series
- 59:46of six of them, and they were all up there and I showed the
- 59:51link and everything and they I sold the first three and then now I uploaded
- 59:54the other three. We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor,
- 1:00:02and now back to the show. And I've had interview. I had the
- 1:00:07interviews with the guys at a Lottawana who NFT their their their feature and some
- 1:00:14they're not selling their distribution rights, but there's you're able to buy basically shares
- 1:00:19in their movie and then whatever money comes in gets out there. And then
- 1:00:22Kevin Smith is selling his entire distribution for his latest film on that whatever he's
- 1:00:25doing there. What do you guys think of NFTs and how it affects the
- 1:00:29film industry? Just out of curiosity. I know that's not what your company
- 1:00:31does, but this is just a curious question. Jake. Well, you
- 1:00:36know, and it's funny. I wouldn't say that we don't do anything with
- 1:00:40NFTs because NFTs are tokens, and we operate in tokens, right, And
- 1:00:47so while we see greater application of fungible tokens to a film where you're creating
- 1:00:54the you know, Jake's movie token, and you're creating one hundred of these
- 1:01:00and each one represents one percent of the total share of Jake's movie token,
- 1:01:06it's still a token. And I think that, you know, the core
- 1:01:08concepts that you need to understand to buy and interact with n f t s
- 1:01:13are the core concepts you need to understand to use any blockchain application. And
- 1:01:17so to that regard, it's a rising tide, you know, raises all
- 1:01:23ships because the more people that learn about this and become comfortable with the fundamentals
- 1:01:30of the technology, the better I think at the end of the day.
- 1:01:34You know, there are things that come up with n f ts where people
- 1:01:36like NFTs can do this, they can do that, tokens can do that.
- 1:01:38It's it doesn't have to be an n FT to do it. It's
- 1:01:42tokens. And so, you know, we focused and NFTs are flashy because
- 1:01:45of the you know, the dollar amount that comes up with some of the
- 1:01:49sales, and you know, I think it's a very particular audience that's very
- 1:01:52excited about that. And you know, it's a specific pool of people that
- 1:01:57are actually transacting and purchasing n f T s. It's not you know,
- 1:02:00it's a very it's actually a very small number of people in the whole you
- 1:02:04know, of the total population that are actually purchasing. But they're collectibles,
- 1:02:08right, it comes down to it, a collectible item, merchandise, things
- 1:02:13like that, and that's great. It's really interesting how it's evolving in the
- 1:02:16gaming space, you know, and how these tokens can be used to unlock
- 1:02:21different things, and that's exciting to see that evolve. But I think that's
- 1:02:23going to be in the next couple of years where it's going to continue to
- 1:02:28get exciting is in gaming, right, because video games the whole world of
- 1:02:34you know, I bought this game for one hundred and fifty bucks, I'm
- 1:02:37playing it, and now I have to purchase you knows they need to play
- 1:02:42yet. But then you don't own those things, right, It's stuck.
- 1:02:45It's limited to just that game. They're not transferable. That's that's a you
- 1:02:50know, problem in itself. But we just keep going back to. You
- 1:02:53know, the more people become comfortable with tokens, the better for our standpoint,
- 1:03:00because that is what grows the technology. We at this point, you
- 1:03:04know, you mentioned, you know that there's a lot of the not boring
- 1:03:07stuff, you know, or the boring aspects of blockchain or applications like with
- 1:03:13healthcare. We focus on the boring stuff in the film industry, and I'm
- 1:03:17fine with that because you know, we're nerds and you know, I said,
- 1:03:22I'm an attorney. I like the boring stuff. I find it fascinating.
- 1:03:25And you know, so what we do is necessarily sexy, you know,
- 1:03:30you know, videos and flashy stuff that's selling for you know, millions
- 1:03:35of dollars. But we think it's a tool that can can really help this
- 1:03:37industry and help independent creators across the board, whether or not you're tech savvy.
- 1:03:43Yeah, and look what the NBA has been doing with NBA Hotshots and
- 1:03:46and Major League Baseball's coming out with their like digital packs, and those digital
- 1:03:52packs are just like flying off the shelves and things like that. When do
- 1:03:55you think, when do you think we're going to see you know, Marvels,
- 1:04:00n f ts, like, you know, when are we going to
- 1:04:01start? Because it's coming, It's coming, there's no question. Tomorrow.
- 1:04:06Yeah, it might be tomorrow. I think Box is announced they're making a
- 1:04:10big investment, and you know, it's it's it's an inevitability. But when
- 1:04:15you look at in that regard, it's it's just an extension of their merchandise
- 1:04:19division. Yeah, and it's just more merchandise and with no cost, very
- 1:04:24little cost of manufacturing. Yeah, exactly. So you know, I think
- 1:04:28it's I think it's a good thing in the law. Yeah, because you
- 1:04:31know what, it's everything's digital now, right, So we're going we're going
- 1:04:36to We've been going into the digital world for decades now, and so one
- 1:04:42I think challenge, especially for art, you know, is how do you
- 1:04:46rarefy and make digital art meaningful and worth something. And so I think that
- 1:04:54n f ts are you know, valuable in that way, because then you
- 1:04:57can you know, create value in a new, a new way, especially
- 1:05:00for digital art. And I think that in the studios, they've got all
- 1:05:04the you know, they're the they're the you know, a thousand pounds guerrilla
- 1:05:09sitting in the room and they just sort of wait till everybody else figures it
- 1:05:11out, and then they just go, Okay, we'll do that. Here's
- 1:05:14the money, make it happen. Let's do it. And it also took
- 1:05:16it also took them twelve years to a major studio to come up with the
- 1:05:19streaming service. So there's that they aren't they're not fast. They're not fast.
- 1:05:24No, they're not fast because it's bureaucratic and there's some biocracy inside of
- 1:05:28a studio if you've ever worked at one, I had the pleasure of doing
- 1:05:32when I first came out of the gate, you know, with my career
- 1:05:36and realized that that I don't think I could remain employable in that atmosphere.
- 1:05:42So I you know, just thought the indie road would be would be better.
- 1:05:46But I feel that what we're the road we're on with building applications on
- 1:05:54blockchain technology is going to aid in the evolution of our industry. And that's
- 1:06:00really what we're what we're dedicated to. And and you know that that slow
- 1:06:10and steady wins the race, Oh, there's no question. And to bring
- 1:06:14it back to where we started with the nineteen ninety six analogy, remember when
- 1:06:18when the Internet first popped out, how many people were scared of putting the
- 1:06:21credit card in? Oh? Yeah, and that's the same thing with like
- 1:06:24how many people are afraid of buying an NFT or buying a token or putting
- 1:06:28their You know, that's where we're at right now, and I think it
- 1:06:31will it will change probably faster than any of us think. It's it's starting
- 1:06:36to already grow and so fair. I mean even in the small time that
- 1:06:40I've been aware of this, and I've knew about bitcoin obviously like everybody else
- 1:06:43has probably but understanding this, I've only been really got into this deeply probably
- 1:06:49the last six months to a year, and just in that time things have
- 1:06:54changed so dramatically and will continue to change as things go forward. So it's
- 1:07:00exciting. I'm excited about what you guys are doing. Thank you for fighting
- 1:07:02the good fight and trying to help creators and filmmakers out there. So I
- 1:07:05appreciate you guys again. Where if anybody wants to check you guys out,
- 1:07:09where they go Breaker dot io and watch Trust Machine The Story of Blockchain.
- 1:07:16Yes with with is it ted? This? Tednotes? Bill Bill from Bill
- 1:07:20Ted Bill, Bills Preston Esquire, Let's do it correct? Indeed he's the
- 1:07:26director extraordinaire. Yes, thank you so much. Fight. Yes, I'm
- 1:07:30sorry, No, thanks for having us. No, thank you so much
- 1:07:32for being being on the show. Guys. I appreciate you. I want
- 1:07:35to thank Kim and Jake so much for coming on the show dropping their blockchain
- 1:07:41knowledge bombs on the tribe. Thank you guys again so much. If you
- 1:07:45want to get links anything we spoke about in this episode, head over to
- 1:07:46the show notes at Bulletproof Screenwriting dot TV Forward slash three fifty seven. Thank
- 1:07:51you so much for listening, guys, as always, keep on writing no
- 1:07:55matter what. I'll talk to you soon. Thanks for listening to the Bulletproof
- 1:07:58Screenwriting podcast at bullet Group Screenwriting dot tv. MHM