New is NFTy for OWNER director
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Just as soon as we’re “out with the old” as in our previous post about the no-budget and barely-seen Illinois horror movie DEAD BODIES EVERYWHERE, C-U Blogfidential switches gears to herald the new with the recent debut of short-short thriller TRICK NOT TREAT from Lawford County Productions of Sumner. I thought it might be worth approaching this topic briefly and separately from our upcoming interview with writer/director Jed Brian so we can delve a bit into how his latest can be seen, purchased, and traded in a way that very few films can at this time. Counter to the established rent-or-buy model used widely by the streaming sites including Amazon Prime, where one can watch the retooled cut of Brian’s UNLISTED OWNER as we’ve recently announced, TRICK NOT TREAT owners will instead have personal access to a NFT (non-fungible token) that is a digital and unique product.
At the risk of sounding like a lost-in-the-crops rube, I’ll start by pointing out an IBM article highlighting the main attributes of blockchain technology. It provides the encryption that allows NFTs to be authenticated and commodified. Unlike physical items that are imperfectly tracked via barcode or serial number from the manufacturing plant to the original point of sale and can then be bought, worn down, damaged, lost, given away, traded, and sold for a few bucks to a friend or stranger when no one else is looking, NFTs are computer-generated assets that retain an entire exchange history and levels of “worth” from one transaction to the next. In this realm, Brian teamed with Previn Wong of the Terror Cards app to offer TRICK NOT TREAT and related “merchandise.” A graphic on the latter’s Web page alludes to the “collect-them-all” and social interaction aspects of what they offer – facsimiles of trading cards branded with horror movie photos and graphics they have licensed from independent U.S. distributors.
TRICK NOT TREAT is distinguished in that it was specifically made to be offered as an NFT, which are viewable in high definition on smart phone apps and computer browsers. The TRICK NOT TREAT products include the complete 5-minute short, cards of the actors in character, movie poster art, and exclusive behind-the-scenes images; scroll down to the bottom of this page for thumbnails of the set. Click on a product and you’ll be shown its one-of-a-kind details and whether it is available to obtain. Here is an example, “copy” number 40 of 47 issued so far for TRICK NOT TREAT the film, offered by “z15b2.wam” which is Terror Cards. One can look through their entire catalog on the marketplace AtomicHub and add money – cryptocurrency converted from real-world dollars and cents – to a “wallet” using the blockchain service WAX (Worldwide Asset eXchange) in order to buy, sell, and trade.
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Producing TRICK NOT TREAT for Terror Cards was otherwise horror business as usual for Brian and his team, including actors Gil T. Wilson, Christine Jones, and Adam Gard. “I had this script already written and was planning on shooting it eventually,” he tells CUBlog, the tale involving a couple who receive an unwanted visitor in Halloween garb on the first day of a cabin getaway. “Terror Cards reached out and I said, ‘Well, I have a script for a short if you want to read it.’ They gave it the okay and the rest is history!” Filmed recently near Lancaster and Mesa Lake in the southeast Illinois county of Wabash, TRICK NOT TREAT was originally written as a possible script for California-based producer Alex Magaña and his genre channel ACMofficial. “He wasn’t able to [take it on, so] we used it for the NFT,” explains Brian. “It fit perfect since YouTube has so many restrictions [with graphic content].” Silly scares in the TALES FROM THE CRYPT vein ensue, and creatives are enamored about the possibilities.
Apparently, the use of NFTs to distribute, fundraise, promote, and build fan bases for films is a Next Big Thing as the headlines are everywhere. Deadline and Yahoo! Finance go into the methods used by the makers of ZERO CONTACT, a science-fiction drama starring Anthony Hopkins and filmed virtually in 2020, to hit all the talking points above as well as the auctioning (e.g., allowing prices to climb a la eBay) of NFT prints of the finished film. The Hollywood Reporter sifts through the potential benefits and pitfalls of NFT use in the industry, from studio marketing pushes to indie filmmaker dabbling from the likes of Kevin Smith (CLERKS III) and Jennifer Esposito (THE BOYS). Also, CNBC reports on Quentin Tarantino’s plans to release never-before-seen, “unedited” scenes from PULP FICTION as NFTs on the startup blockchain platform The Secret Network, named so because it will keep user identities private.
Yikes. I need to lie down for a bit. NFTs have already become a fashionable commodity in other areas like gaming and music, so is this simply the next evolution of film accessibility in the open market? We’ll all understand it better someday. If only the creepy pie hole of TRICK NOT TREAT’s “Treater” could talk…
~ Jason Pankoke
p.s. C’mon, kiddies! TALES FROM THE ENCRYPT! Crack that code, Previn and Jed! Heeheehee!!!
p.s.2 Data generation to accommodate and secure NFT use is not without drawbacks that need to be addressed, as reported earlier this year by The Verge, including environmental waste concerns. To their own defense, WAX bills itself as “the world’s most proven and eco-friendly blockchain for NFTs, video games and collectibles.” May that be the case, and hopefully clean and durable energy can fuel this nascent industry in the future. We thank Confidential agent AME for taking aim and pointing this out.
p.s.3 Well, that was quick. I wonder how many f-bombs Tarantino has lobbed at his former home-base studio since this lawsuit was issued.
TRICK NOT TREAT set photographs are taken by Hip N Humble Studio and courtesy Lawford County Productions.
[Updated 11/19/21, 2:10 p.m. CST]
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From October 2021:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
LAWFORD COUNTY PRODUCTIONS & TERROR CARDS ANNOUNCE NFT BACKED HORROR FILM
(Sumner, IL) October 22, 2021: Lawford County Productions and Terror Cards announce the release of TRICK NOT TREAT, one of the first-ever horror films created specifically to be a NFT (non-fungible token). TRICK NOT TREAT has a total runtime of 4 minutes and 55 seconds, and is powered by the “WAXP” cryptocurrency on the “AtomicHub” website.
TRICK NOT TREAT was written and directed by Jed Brian (UNLISTED OWNER, 13 SLAYS TILL X-MAS) and produced by Previn Wong of the horror digital trading card app Terror Cards. The film stars Gil. T Wilson as “Jack,” Christine Jones as “Sally,” and Adam Gard as the “Trick or Treater.” Derek Huey (MRS. CLAUS, TEACHER SHORTAGE) was the director of photography for the project.
“With crypto being the currency of the future, we are so excited to have had one of the first horror films to be made specifically for the intention of being a NFT. We are excited to see where this journey takes us!” said Brian.
The WAX blockchain was founded in 2017. It has a total supply of three billion. It is used to power e-commerce transactions. WAX has been added to major exchanges like Binance in recent months and saw its price triple in August 2021. AtomicHub is a decentralized application (dApp) and the leading marketplace for WAX-powered NFTs.
Also included in the release of TRICK NOT TREAT is NFT-backed film memorabilia, featuring signature and costume cards of the actors in the film. Grab your copy of the film and memorabilia today!
CONTACT
Jed Brian
Jedbrian57 [at] gmail [dot] com
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