“Lights, Camera, Blockchain!”
Legendao Puts Artists Back in the Director’s Chair
The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) is on strike.
Members of SAG-AFTRA — which includes nearly every TV, film and radio actor in the United States — decided to join the Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike with a hefty majority vote in June.
“From the time negotiations began on June 7, the members of our Negotiating Committee and our staff team have spent many long days, weekends and holidays working to achieve a deal that protects …the working actors and performers on whom this industry relies. Over the past decade, your compensation has been severely eroded by the rise of the streaming ecosystem. Furthermore, artificial intelligence poses an existential threat to creative professions, and all actors and performers deserve contract language that protects them from having their identity and talent exploited without consent and pay. Despite our team’s dedication to advocating on your behalf, the AMPTP has refused to acknowledge that enormous shifts in the industry and economy have had a detrimental impact on those who perform labor for the studios.” — Fran Drescher (SAG-AFTRA President), Duncan Crabtree-Ireland (SAG-AFTRA National Executive Director & Chief Negotiator)
Let’s Break This Down:
There are several reasons both unions are striking. Our focus is specifically on the AI end of things.
The actors and performers are afraid AI and streaming services are going to cut their profits per performance and steal their jobs (streaming services already have).
The writers are even more afraid AI is going to steal their jobs.
The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) are unwilling to put protections for these service providers into their contracts because yeah, AI will cut their costs dramatically.
These actors and writers believe AI is an existential threat to everything they do.
The Actors
The actors think that:
- AI is going to enable publishing studios to replace their images, voices or performances without payment or consent.
- AI will generate new performances based on an actor’s existing work, again, without payment or consent.
The Writers
The writers think that:
- AI will replace them completely.
Filmmaker Justine Bateman, who was an actor in the old school hit Family Ties, wrote a Newsweek op-ed tearing into AI to expose its apocalyptic menace to the film industry.
As one example of the career-decimating power of AI, she mentioned that “You can also expect to see the training of AI programs on older, hit TV series in order to create new seasons.”
Looks Like A Job For…
We at Legendao have solutions for both SAG-AFTRA and WGA union members.
Of course, we can’t solve the issue of production houses wanting to cut costs as much as (in)humanly possible.
But we can give creatives certain tools in order to take their financial power back.
WTH is Legendao?
Legendao is a Secret Network-based platform where actors, musicians, filmmakers, writers and any other creative can:
- utilize bespoke privacy technology to create unlockable and exclusive content for their paying fan base
- create executable contracts as per milestone delivery
- store their content in a decentralized manner that no one can access without a specific digital collectible that acts as a key
- digitally authenticate their content
It would really throw a wrench into the AMPTP AI grifting if word gets out across the board that:
If the content isn’t verified by your digital collectible, it’s not authentic content.
Many of the artists protesting at this point have a substantial fan base who will be more than happy to support their beloved idols by paying for content they know is legit.
Of course, proper marketing carried out by both Legendao and each artist within their own fan base are necessary for projects like these to thrive.
But if it’s done right, fans will know that the only place they can be sure to buy authentic content is through the artist’s personal privacy platform.
We’ve worked with the likes of Quentin Tarantino and Kevin Smith, who released the first-ever decentralized full-length feature film on Legendao.
But it’s not only the super-famous who can benefit from Legendao’s privacy perks.
When artists use Legendao, they cut out the middle man, allow for fan interaction as per the artist’s comfort level and build an active, participating community around themselves and their IP.
Kevin Smith’s Killroy Was Here
The premise of KillRoy Was Here is pretty simple — and the technology is still available for anyone who wants to use it.
Fans purchase a digital collectible that allows them to unlock (in this case) a feature-length film that isn’t available on any other platform.
But this digital collectible opens the floodgates to a wealth of unique experiences like:
- 1 KWH digital collectible
- Access to the KWH full-length feature film
- 1 of 20 PDFs of different script chapters signed by Kevin Smith
- 1 of 20 different exclusive comic videos
- Creative rights to the specific IP in each digital collectible, including the ability to monetize it
KillRoy Was Here connected a creator who’s already made it — Kevin Smith — with the creators of tomorrow.
Despite the catastrophic market crash which impacted sales at the time the project dropped, many holders created some pretty amazing IP that Smith said he’d integrate into a sequel to the original film.
KillRoy Was Here aimed to make collectors feel like they’re part of the journey of the artist they look up to and allow them to get that artist’s eyeballs on their own work.
Whether or not that type of model is for every artist isn’t relevant.
What is relevant to every artist is that using our platform created a whole new world of engagement, brand loyalty and community built around someone everyone involved had a common affinity for.
It’s also important to make the following clear: we can build around this model according to the specs of any artist or writer imaginable.
“Digital sharing and streaming no doubt revolutionized the entertainment industry, but they also caused piracy issues and profit loss for creators. Through partnerships like ours with Smith and Tarantino, Legendao can work alongside creators to develop projects that they can share without losing ownership.” — SCRT Labs and Legendao founder Guy Zyskind
Legendao can easily be a lethal weapon against the current gatekeeping models of creative expression and exposure in Hollywood.
Together, with the actors and writers who are rightfully afraid of what AI means for their future careers, we can completely explode the existing structures of digital distribution for creators and collectors.
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