Reclaiming our Love of Cinema With the Metaverse

When looking at the work of NFT photographer Billy Dinh it forces us to focus on hidden elements. What is behind the lens, what hasn’t been captured? The way he carefully positions objects and people within the frame. Using only one or two sentences to describe the scene, he sets the stage but doesn’t tell the full story and allows the viewer to create the characters.

The same feeling occurs when we take a closer look at the work of NFT artist 0xTjo. The details of each corner, each element of space, each expression dismantled as you could never imagine. The disconnected pieces are what make it mysterious, transformational, mesmerizing.

Another artist that creates a new form of film with digital surrealist art is Moteh. His most recent work ‘It was always you’ takes the viewer on a journey without dictating the path. Who are you? Where have they been? Will they meet again? The narrative is left for the observer to ponder. He manages to create a full story using only a few words and an image. It is film making at its core. It is the highest quality of production and the photographer becomes the film director.

French novelist and poet George Duhamel was onto something when he said “I can no longer think what I want to think. My thoughts have been replaced by moving images,” George Duhamel, Scene de la vie Future (Paris, 1930)

If the art of storytelling has been lost to the manipulation of celebrity culture, then perhaps it is time to restore this artform. To fully appreciate the beauty of filmmaking, the producer should be free to insert scenes that are not simply added to conform to societal norms. So how do we fund this path to the future of film and offer hope to all film makers wishing to break from the norm, the cycle of box office hits and the restraints that come with lack of support from major streaming services.

Funding films of the future

Before a film can generate revenue from its eagerly awaiting audience it has a massive mountain to climb in securing the funding needed to produce the end result.

NFT ticketing is another form of funding that can grow from the seeds of Web3 technology. Tickets to the movie can be created by the producer themselves and minted to put on the movie website. The producer then has increased control when deciding how tickets are used to engage with their film audience. Consider gated access to premieres, loyalty programs for future film releases and tickets that act as gateways to other services. The business of movies can be reimagined using NFTs as access points.

Conclusion

The feelings invoked by masterfully produced films are almost impossible to replicate. The combination of carefully composed narratives, music and acting immediately puts the viewers into a trance. To have the skills required to stir up those emotions through the simplicity of a lens is an artform often undervalued and underestimated in terms of the experience or needed immersion to embody the knowledge. However, with NFTs the artist and film-maker have a new way to collaborate. This evolving new industry is giving producers the right to retain intellectual curiosity at every stage of the creative process.

Visual storytelling through NFTs can help to rectify the filmmaking process and allow the audience to once again become a part of the creative process with engaged observation. Supporting and harnessing the value of individual contribution based on raw talent gives film graduates,filmmakers and film enthusiasts the time to seed ideas and grow with a super fan base.

This story was originally published on Blockleaders and written by Lisa Gibbons