Film.io's Trailblazing Path to Blockchain For Entertainment

3 mins read

Part 2 is a continuation of an interview with Ian LeWinter, co-founder of Film.io.  Read Part 1 to get up to speed on Film.io, as the first filmmaking DAO, and what this means for the film and TV industry, its creators, and their fans.

Let’s dive back into the aspects of the Film.io DAO and how creators and fans can engage the platform to move project ideas from proposals to mature projects with an established audience, funding, and distribution!

Can anyone submit a project proposal? Are there any requirements for submission?

Ian explains: Anyone can submit their proposal, but their project remains in stealth mode until they click on the ‘submit for approval button.

Film.io has very lean terms of service. First, our team makes sure no pornography or hate speech makes it onto the platform.

Secondly, you must appoint your project showcase page with a minimum of three things: a logline, a poster, and a lookbook.

A lookbook is a more extensive view into what your project is, and what we are really trying to do by requiring a more informational piece of content is to limit the non-serious projects. If we didn’t require anything, we might be getting a 60-second YouTube video of some people horsing around in their backyard, which is not a legitimate piece of content.

We then look through them and if we don’t think they’ve broken any copyright laws, there isn’t any hate speech or pornography, and you meet our three content requirements, your project will go live on the platform.

Will creators be able to submit more content to gain more exposure and generate further interest (e.g., a trailer, interview with the Director or cast members, etc.)

Ian responds:  Absolutely. Beyond our three minimum requirements, there is a specific place to upload a trailer, for example. Using the WYSIWYG text editor, the creative team can add images, videos, and text -- any content to support their creative ideas. We want our creators to make their project pages as interesting and rich as possible because we believe those are the things that will help them build a more engaged fan base.

How can creators unlock funding opportunities?

Ian shares his insights on creators’ motivations and how Film.io meets those needs:

Creators care mostly about three things.  They care about their idea.  They care about raising the money they need for production. And they care about distribution. 

Where Film.io helps creators is as a distribution enabler (although we are not a distributor).  We are working towards providing them with as many different funding tools as possible, which include things like NFT campaigns, reward, and equity crowdfunding campaigns, decentralized finance loans, matching-making Artificial Intelligence-facilitated relationships between traditional funding sources like film funds, equity groups, high net worth individuals and studios, and also a chance to earn grants and seed funding from the Film.io global creativity pool.

Can fans interact with the creators as well as with each other to discuss a project’s storyline or other elements about the project?

Ian explains:  "Absolutely. Fans can talk one-on-one with the actual creators through private messaging capabilities and they can also participate in public screens which exist for the site overall, the individual creators, and for the individual projects.  In the future, there will be even more ways for creators and projects to interact directly with fans and potential fans.

One of the core foundational aspects of blockchain is transparency.  We are huge champions of the idea that this is a transparent world, where people should not only be allowed to participate, but also seek participation.

We are moving into a world where there is a lot more fan interaction with creative projects, where fans help chart the direction of a project. It’s part of the new Hollywood paradigm – whether they want to embrace it or not, we sure do."