Decentralized Pictures Foundation:
Democratic Film Financing and Production Support Through Blockchain Technology
Decentralized Pictures (DCP) offers a solution to one of Hollywood’s biggest problems: finding exceptional talent and content among new and aspiring filmmakers and artists. The Foundation’s charitable mission is to help aspiring creatives in the film industry, especially those from underrepresented and underserved backgrounds, to get their project financed and produced through a fair and transparent process. Ultimately, this also helps Hollywood agencies and production companies who struggle with finding new talent with lots of potential among the many aspiring filmmakers and artists in the space.
The Problems Plaguing the Hollywood Industry
Hollywood is a very insular industry, so it is very difficult for new talent to break in without financial resources or connections. The lack of inclusivity also translates into a lack of diversity — how is it that of all the films produced in a year, only 10% are directed by women, and even less by people of color?
Singular opinions dictate which movies get made, and which movies don’t. Why is one person’s opinion better than another’s? The reality is, that it isn’t. Just because the audience isn’t experienced in filmmaking doesn’t mean it doesn’t know what it wants to see. As of now, Hollywood has been dominated by the belief that brilliant minds are needed to tell people what they want to see. Breaking open these doors would allow for more ideas to be soundboard off of the community, and would lead to content that the audience knows it wants to see in films.
The rigidity of the business side of the film industry goes beyond the belief that select few people should control movie content. Hollywood abides by a legacy formula that is believed to always lead to a successful film — a recipe for success, so to speak. However, this often means that the artist behind the film no longer has control over the project and the artistic vision gets lost in the chaos.
A Democratic Process for Determining Deserving Artists: What Do YOU Want to See?
DCP taps into the community of filmmakers, film critics, actors, graphic designers, cinephiles and anyone interested in film production in order to open the doors of Hollywood to aspiring talented individuals. The platform community is the one to decide which film projects are the most deserving of financing and production support, and those winners are also connected with top agencies, management companies and DCP’s wide network of industry partners. The ethos of this decision-making process is around supporting the Arts and artists in a collaborative fashion.
In reality, DCP not only solves a reigning problem for filmmakers, but also for talent agencies and production companies who are faced with an ocean of project ideas, actors, set designers, etc. and who have to sift through them to find the next big film idea. The community curates talent on behalf of Hollywood, allowing the most creative and innovative projects to receive recognition, funding, and other support, rather than agencies picking an individual introduced to them via a connection, or out of convenience. The community does the hard work for agencies and production companies, while simultaneously making it easier for underserved communities to break into the industry. And the community is rewarded for its hard work. Everyone wins when they participate and review projects on the platform, as they are able to earn FILMCredits for doing so.
Blockchain: The Future of Filmmaking
Blockchain is designed to be transparent, efficient and fair, so what better technology to make use of for DCP’s goal to curate massive amounts of material?
Being built on the blockchain also enables DCP to introduce the FILMCredits onto the platform, which are used to incentivize review and participation. FILMCredits allow DCP to make interacting with their platform fun, and even lucrative for those who dedicate the time to it. The more a user participates, the more FILMCredits they can earn. The daily quizzes and games also allow for a fun way to test cinema knowledge and win!
Blockchain has demonstrated its effectiveness to build communities and foster community involvement, which is what DCP’s platform taps into to decide which films to back. Blockchain technology creates an efficient way of contributing effort and input on the part of users, while compensating participants for that effort. Furthermore, DCP’s Creative Query feature allows users to source opinions and creative input from the community, on, for example, the best cover shot, trailer, actor, and more for their projects.
DCP is inherently inclusive, and blockchain technology is what allows the platform to call on members of the film community all around the world.
