Let’s get it out of the way first—I am a Crypto agnostic. I do not own any coin, neither Bit nor Doge. I haven’t joined a DAO or entered into a smart contract. My Twitter avatar is still the same blurry headshot I took 7 years ago from a holiday party photobooth.

Yet, despite recognizing the backlash to all the hyperbolic grifters in the space, and the real energy/environmental concerns around currency mining, I am not staunchly opposed to it either. Since at least 2017, we’ve been tracking initiatives in the film space that leverage the blockchain, accompanied by assertions that they will “revolutionize filmmaking”. While material progress has lagged behind the hype, when we consider that film funding is a pretty miserable prospect for most, if not all, filmmakers, “revolution” is a prospect I’m open to!

The general hoopla surrounding NFTs in recent months has made millionaires out of several artists in our orbit, its been quite a shock to see the success of artists like beeple I knew from my time as a Vimeo curator, but I haven’t seen filmmakers working in traditionally narrative mediums explore NFTs. So when we caught wind that site alums, Zeek Earl and Chris Caldwell, were seeking to kickstart a new cinematic universe via an NFT drop, I was eager to learn more.

Zeek and Chris are the filmmakers behind Prospect, an influential lo-fi science fiction short that featured on the site in 2014. The short sparked development interest and the duo embarked on an arduous process of adapting the film to the big screen. Summoning a collective of artists, the team produced voluminous materials on the world of Prospect and produced amazing quantities of physical sets and props in order to “create the look of an $8m film on a $3m budget”. We had a fascinating conversation with the pair in 2018 on the eve of the feature film’s release which described the process.

Making any feature is quite the accomplishment, especially for first-time filmmakers, and especially a low-budget, yet high-brow, sci-fi. Yet, because of these factors, the filmmakers had to sign a standard (i.e. crappy) deal to get Prospect financed. They were paid a pittance and relinquished control of the film and the underlying IP. While Prospect got made, it was not a hit, and there is little appetite from their partners to continue to explore the world they designed.

So, Zeek and Chris got back to work, and, employing the same meticulous approach they exhibited with Prospect, are set to launch THE FRINGE—a new cinematic universe. This time they want to work outside of the Hollywood system and formalize the unique collective approach they cultivated during the production of Prospect using Web3 tools and infrastructure. They will be kicking off the project with an NFT drop of characters from the universe in the coming weeks, and today marks the debut of their teaser trailer. What are the implications of this approach? How do they foresee it working? To find out, we had a conversation with the duo to learn more. Below is an edited version of our conversation.

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Filmmakers behind “The Fringe”, Christopher Caldwell and Zeek Earl.

Why NFTs?

Jason: I read your introductory blog post, which I thought was really good. It’s a nice and clear narrative about where you guys have been, where you want to go, and the drawbacks of the path that you were pursuing before. In light of that, however, the basic question—why NFTs, and what are the advantages of pursuing them versus equity crowdfunding or other mechanisms?

Zeek: We’re pretty sold on the Web3 future. I think a pretty common reaction for people, when NFTs first launched, was “What the fuck? Why are monkeys suddenly worth millions of dollars,”? And I was right there with them. But what has drawn me into this whole thing is getting at a deeper understanding of the functionality behind these headlines, a lot of it revolving around the creative process and the fluidity that Web3 allows us.

To back up, we made the Prospect feature and the big thing about it was it we had about three and a half million dollars and we wanted to make an $8 million movie. And the way we pulled that off was by opening up our own shop and bringing together this really passionate, creative collective that made it happen outside the traditional system. And it worked. We pulled it off. But then what we found is that by selling the rights to Prospect to get it made is that we then completely lost control of it afterward, and had very little agency to keep storytelling in that world.

So the premise is we’d love to find a system that actually keeps that passion project type incentive through the whole process. We started dabbling in some other people’s Web3 projects and seeing how they could work. A lot of the appeal has to do with the community that forms between the artists and the holders—this is going to be something that is pretty unprecedented.

What it Entails

“One of the appeals of this NFT technology is that it allows us to create something of substantive value.”

Jason: So NFTs are both a funding mechanism, but also a community-building tool around THE FRINGE universe? A lot of the buzz around these web3 projects is this participatory angle— communal ownership, voting rights, et al. Is that not dangerous to give a community formal voting rights over a creative project? We think of storytelling traditionally as something dictatorial, and lionize a singular top-down vision—auteur theory and all of that. How does that square in the context of a creative project?

Zeek: There’s still a lot to figure out, but we’re not seeing this as a “Mad Libs” version of filmmaking. It’s not like, “All right, we’ve reached a point in the story, now everybody vote on what happens next.” That’s not how it works. What we’re trying to formulate is thinking of it as this creative incubator that can enable a larger conversation—almost like a test audience—ahead of time.

So for one example, what would’ve been a storyboard to the financier now might take place as a little episode, a little thing we’re thinking about. We make a graphic novel, four or five pages, and we throw it out to this incubator who are excited about this world, invested in this world, they’ve been learning around the world, and so “Okay, here’s a little story in context.” We then get reactions and comments, and we engage with people to see what they like about it. When we made Prospect, for example, we did, I don’t know, five or six test screenings before the movie came out. We had all sorts of random people, people who weren’t fans of us, people who were fans of us, and we had really interesting conversations that heavily influenced the final product of the film. What I’m excited about is to move that mentality to beforehand, earlier in the process. That’s one side of it.

The other side of it is also allowing to see what ideas can emerge from this crowd. So one idea we’re playing around with that’s very NFT-specific is that after someone purchases an NFT, we’re going to hold a competition for anybody who’s a holder, where they write a mini one-line biography of their character. When we release these NFTs, we’re also going to be releasing an encyclopedia that we’re calling the Compendium, where you can look up any little facet of their gear. You can learn about where they are in the world, what their deal is. And then we’ll hold this competition where everyone gets to write one line, and then we’ll vote on that. Everyone votes on what are … I don’t know the specifics, but the best 100, or best 500 are. And that’s the next round, and those people write a little more, and it gets deeper and deeper.

And the incentive, the prize is the top character actually becomes a minor character in the film. But at the same time, we get to see all these other ideas that emerge, and maybe this results in spinoffs. So it’s less about creating a paint-by-numbers voting mechanism, but instead, we’re trying to create these games, these other forms of storytelling that get people involved, invested in the world, and we all start working on it together, creating it together, and see what emerges.

Christopher: I think one of the things that, outside of the IP and the fiscal implications of this structure, that clicked for us creatively is the way that it felt like an extension of the ethos of the Prospect Shop (editor: this is referring to the TAKA Collective which made the Prospect feature).

What happened in the Prospect Shop was essentially a collective of artists formed together to build out a world. In our approach to world-building with this movie we were making a pretty focused, essentially two to five character intimate indie sci-fi film, but we wanted it to have the feeling that it was set against the backdrop of this really sprawling, expansive world that was really rich and full of detail, depth, and culture and history.

We were just getting this little sliver into it, and so there was this world-building methodology that we developed in the shop, working collectively with a group of people to get at that heft of the real, in an imagined world. And the non-linear nature of developing a narrative through a participatory project, through building characters and encyclopedias and laying all of this foundation, is something that’s really exciting to us from which very specific and focused and characterful and intimate narratives can emerge.

Jason: If I own a character, what does that ownership entail? Can I go and tell stories outside of the collective? Do I have to receive voting permission from the collective to be able to then exploit the character I ostensibly own?

Zeek: We’re taking a different approach than I think some other NFT projects in that there’s going to be canon. This is a collective effort. There’s not a separate … people won’t go off and do their own thing. It’s about what the group can determine is made.

Jason: One thing of the things is that you’re imagining is that a lot of people who are participating in this collective, who are buying in, will be providing a certain degree of creative labor, and they’re going to be incentivized for their creative layer labor because…? Hopefully, it’ll be fun, but also there’s theoretically a payout, either profit participation in the works that are produced, or just the increase in valuation of their assets. Correct?

Zeek: Yes. Okay. This is where … I’ve been on phone calls with lawyers all week and have to be very specific about the language of course. So yeah, the value of the assets of course is one side of the whole NFT thing. On the other side, I cannot legally promise profit participation at this time. The utopian dream, the ambition down the road, after the first film comes out, is that we can build the legal tools within a Web3 framework to give collective ownership between the artists and the fans. That to me is the big goal at the end. But of course, the SEC doesn’t legally recognize these methods within Web3 yet, so we’ll be literally working with lawyers to build that framework. I have to be so clear and honest with people right now, that when you buy the NFT, this does not guarantee profit participation, because I legally can’t do that right now.

Christopher: Yeah. At this initial stage, there’s sort of a roadmap for where this could go in terms of building all of these legal structures, the organization of the DAO, the ability for us to collectively own and control the IP of the cinematic universe together with a community of fans. But at this initial stage, we’re selling collectibles in order to fund this project and get it off the ground, it is simply Step One of kicking this whole thing off.

And for us, it taps into this idealism around the future of filmmaking and IP ownership, but it’s also another tool in the fundraising toolbox. And back to your kind of original question of crowdfunding or otherwise, we went to Kickstarter to finance our short film Prospect, and that was a really interesting exercise. There were a lot of benefits outside of the financing, in that you were building a community of fans around a property before it was even released. So that became an asset in the future with the role of the movie, and I think it helped contribute to us pivoting it into a feature film.

But there was always this, on a personal level, a base-level uncomfortableness with the crowdfunding dynamic in the sense that at the end of the day, you’re begging for patronage. And that just doesn’t feel sustainable when you’re talking about trying to build a career as an artist. One of the appeals of this NFT technology is that it allows us to create something substantive of value. So there can be that crowdfunding dynamic, but there’s just a much more substantive exchange. And on top of that, it’s another outlet for world-building. It’s a creative tool to start laying the groundwork and getting other people, and potential fans, engaged in the world in a non-linear fashion. So that when these movies and other narrative properties start coming out, you’re doing it off of a much stronger foundation.

Attitudes on NFT Hype

“If you’re trying to just flip something in the week, I don’t know, that doesn’t interest me.”

Jason: Many will know NFTs largely through Bored Apes and things of that nature, driven by a lot of sketchy speculative behavior. How do you balance that, since your goal is to create an engaged, committed community that will be involved in the creative process with you for the long haul? If it’s just a small community of people who are uber-fans, then are you going to be able to raise enough money through this initial drop? If it does catch on and there is speculative action, will those folks be committed to the project?

Zeek: When you start looking at a lot of the NFT projects, there is a formulaic cycle where they tend to peak after two weeks and then plummet because it’s this casino trading that happens, which doesn’t interest us at all. When you start looking at them closely, they have all these bizarre, little built-in incentives that encourage that cycle, and we’re not engaging with that at all. Everything we’re saying and talking about this project is incredibly long-term. If this is something you’re interested in, the NFT is almost a ticket for a train that’s going to go cross-country. This will pay off if you want to be invested in this community if you want to see these films made. I think that’s our sales pitch. If you’re trying to just flip something in the week, I don’t know, that doesn’t interest me.

Christopher: The pitch is that there is inherent value in the initial NFT sale due to being tied to an IP that’s that has every intention of being manifested in the real world in the form of a movie, multiple movies potentially, and onward. So there is the heft of that. The tangibility of that IP, as opposed to just these untethered more abstract projects.

Zeek: And we’re trying to build in incentives for people to hold on for the long term. So at some point, I think it’ll take the form of a literal calendar that’ll go out months in time, that’s going to describe various events—like these competitions that I’ve been talking about. But also we’ll slowly release the lead characters as NFTs, and we’ll raffle those away. Look, it’s so hard finding the right metaphor because something like this hasn’t happened. I was previously saying it’s like a music festival that doesn’t end, which doesn’t make any fucking sense. But there will be this calendar of events—you’re going to see the roadmap. And as a filmmaker, there is the totally bizarre side of this, whereas before, you get your funding and go off to make your movie. Here, we have to equally create this whole apparatus, this whole other content pipeline of stuff that makes this community function and vibrant.

So it’s not like we just sell the NFTs and go away. No, this is like the beginning of the Prospect Shop in virtual form, with this huge crowd of people.

Radical Transparency

“I should add, by the way, what I’m talking about also terrifies me.”

Jason: This idea of transparency and community leadership is fascinating, can you speak more to that?

Zeek: Communication is something that functions in Web3 in a way that is just entirely novel to me, coming from more traditional spaces. I think part of what’s hard to describe is Discord, and how moving the creative environment into Discord culturally changes a lot of things that I think honestly is at the root of most misunderstandings about Web3. The frequency of communication is really high. The access to people is really high. The rate of collaboration is really high, and that just doesn’t work well in other spaces. So I think if people are interested, following us on Twitter is a great first step because we are going to be communicating a lot.

As alluded to, transparency is one of the other main draws of Web3. We are pledging to be incredibly open about everything we’re doing. We’re hoping to release as much data, as much about our plans as possible, being cautious not to mislead people or to communicate something that hasn’t necessarily been figured out yet. This is radically different from how the traditional industry functions which are in these black boxes. We’re going to be making these projects out in the open.

There are certain things we will want to hold back, to not spoil the story for example, but in general, a lot of these things are going to be public, in radically new ways. Traditional things like casting, sure. But thinking long term, the promise of smart contracts is incredibly exciting. The history of film accounting is fraught with corruption. Studios will just say, “This is how much we spent on marketing. Sorry, you don’t get any residuals.” And you just have to shrug, unless you’re going to do a lawsuit you can’t afford. The dream for us, and again I have to say this is the dream, is that this all just happens automatically. Out in the open. You just see where the money goes. You see every part of it. And to me, that’s really exciting, and the way that we’ll really start being able to treat people in a really fair manner.

I should add, by the way, what I’m talking about also terrifies me.

Not being able to hide behind what you’re doing is really scary. But it also seems like a swing worth taking. If we’re going to make more stuff in the vein of Prospect, that is these deep universes, it just seems too interesting not to try. But I’m sure we’re going to discover what works and what doesn’t in the process.

Jason: Feel like we’ve talking about the novelty of the Web3 aspects of the project and not so much about THE FRINGE itself. What can fans expect to come from this project? Films, shorts, episodes, graphic novels?

Christopher: Yeah. In theory, it’s all of the above. I think a lot of the appeal right now is this new path towards kicking off an original universe with all of those possibilities. Square One is a film. And I think a lot of the tonal space that we were in with Prospect still applies. You contrast it to Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, these big blockbuster IPs. We don’t want to be that. Well, we want to be like that, but in our voice, in the sense that there’s a commitment to immersion and a commitment to character that we want to bring into these spaces. And that’s what we feel like we have to offer, and that we are missing is all of the ability to dig in and nerd out like with a Star Wars or a Game of Thrones.

But one of the guiding principles of the way that we’re approaching this universe is “small stories, big world”. Unlike a lot of other sci-fi fantasy, we don’t want this to be fixated on the “chosen one”, or knights with superpowers, or the fate of the universe at large. We want to tell character stories about the small people that populate this universe. And a lot of this stems from our childhood, in the sense that we were Star Wars kids, and we were the ones pouring over the visual encyclopedia and playing with the action figures, imagining all of the little pockets in the back alleys. Paired with our love for the Western tradition, our vibe is of those hard knock, blue-collar, dirty little corners of these universes, so we want to explore those facets. On a creative level, that’s fundamentally what we want to do. And a big part of this is we made Prospect and we’ve invested a lot of our creative energy into fleshing out the world beyond the scope of the film, in a way that, at the end of the film we weren’t able to continue to freely capitalize off of, and continue to build off of this foundation. So we want to start a new paradigm where we have that flexibility.

Zeek: And think part of it too, to tie it back to the NFT side of things, it does come back to a matter of incentives. Chris and my primary ambition, I think, simply is not to make money. We are way more excited about this world, and also holding this world to a bar of quality that we feel is not happening elsewhere. And we’re going to be the ones who get to steer the ship, not a bunch of executives.

Jason: Brilliant. I think that’s it for me. Thanks for taking the time and speaking with me and keep us posted!

Zeek: I guess in the end, I’m a space communist.

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THE FRINGE launches today with a teaser trailer and website. Details surrounding the NFT drop will come soon, follow the project on Twitter for future updates.