Closed - Original Series - Package Strategy

Proposals
#1

TL;DR

Based on meetings held by the Core Team in January 2022 with film industry professionals who have expressed interest in helping our community (including animation studio development executives, writers with Hollywood credits, independent film producers and entertainment attorneys), we have designed a Package strategy to execute on the goal to develop and sell an original animated limited series that best follows industry standards, best minimizes risk and best involves the community.

PROPOSAL

Spice DAO will pursue the goal to develop an original animated limited series by preparing a Package which can be shopped to streaming services to fund the development of the complete series. A Package is a PowerPoint deck containing creative elements such as the project’s logline; series arc or story summary; main characters; tone; themes; episode ideas and concept art.

The Package will be prepared in conjunction with a team of industry professionals comfortable working in collaboration with a DAO. The Core Team will continue our due diligence and R&D by meeting with film industry professionals to create, develop and maintain relationships that will help us create the most attractive Package to take to market.

PRECEDENTS

We have been advised by multiple professionals who have sold projects to Netflix, Disney + and HBO Max that all you need to approach a streaming service for a sale that would finance the production is a package and not a finished product. We trust their experience and believe pursuing the Package Strategy is the best use of the DAO’s time and energy with minimal impact to the DAO Treasury.

The Package is the minimum up-front investment we would need to prepare a series for sale. Alternative suggestions have included making the up-front investment to finance the entire series ourselves or finance the production of a single episode called a pilot that can then be shopped for sale.

We trust the advice we have received from these industry professionals and believe pursuing the Package strategy is the best use of the DAO’s time and energy with minimal impact to the DAO Treasury.

SPICE DAO PACKAGE STRATEGY

The Core Team would like to gather feedback from the community on the Package strategy and related proposals (see the Writing Competition proposal discussion) and continue meeting with film industry professionals who could potentially be involved in the creation of the Package including writers, concept artists and development executives.

Our goal is to create a Package that is purchased by a streaming service. There are two deals that can be made when selling a Package:

  1. Negative Pickup deal where the streaming service covers the entire cost of production but purchases all of the project’s rights including 100% of the IP.

  2. Licensing deal where the streaming service covers a percentage of the production cost but the DAO retains full rights to the project and 100% ownership of IP.

BUDGET & TIMELINE

It is too early to identify every line item to create a comprehensive budget. At this time we are aware of the following expenses to create a package:

  • Writer
  • Concept Art
  • Professional Advisor (Development Executive)

Our timeline is:

Jan. 21 - 23, 2022 - Gather community feedback on Discourse

Jan. 23 - 26, 2022 - Vote on Snapshot for Package strategy that incorporates feedback from the community

image

3 Likes
#2

As a method of communicating the story, visuals, etc. that you wish to convey in your project , I would suggest looking at creating a limited series comic book. It would serve as a deck, but also be something that is commercially viable and better able to really gain a sense of the overall story and feel.

#3

We are in discussions with two comic book publishers to create an extension of the world building that will begin in the animated series

#4

If you need assistance in that respect, please let me know. I’ve worked for all the major publishers in North America over two dozen years in comics publishing.

#5

Cool pls DM us on twitter (@thespicedao)

#6

Will do! Thanks much

#7

Have you considered a writer’s room instead of a single writer to help with the speed of getting the series written quickly and efficiently? Who is going to be the “executive producer” if the DAO gets a licensing deal? How are those decisions going to be made?

1 Like
#8

We were quoted $500K USD for a writer’s room early on and quickly abandoned the thought. Writing competition would end on Feb. 14 and pro writer would finish script by Mar. 7. This absolutely the quickest way to turn around a finished script at the most reasonable cost.

#9

Where did that quote come from and what’s your guarantee this writer can make your turn around time?

#10

We receive verbal quotes every day in our discussions with industry professionals. A stipulation of the contract with pro writer will be “finished script by x date” or they don’t get paid.

1 Like
#11

A Negative Pickup deal would nicely double as a low-risk way to test run the viability of DAO led productions. It would both conserve the DAOs treasury and promote the project.

This project has viral potential. It’s chaotic & decentralized formation is something that could only happen in today’s renaissance. This will capture lots of attention.

Even if the DAO’s extended purpose just becomes kickstarting various productions, that’d be pretty cool.

questions
Do any net-profits get passed to the DAO, or just the production studio?
Which of these strategies is more commonly accepted by streaming services?

#12

A Negative Pickup deal means we cannot CC0 the IP because we will not own it anymore. Something to consider.

The DAO is the production studio. We are the owner of the property and the seller. DAO receives the profits from any sale. Keep in mind profits can be split with professional partners we bring on, most likely a producer. That is industry standard practice.

1 Like
#13

Thanks for the clarification!

If we CC0 the IP, we won’t own it anymore either. I wonder if there’s a way to make the story public domain while also surrendering the IP of the specific audiovisual production.

For instance: the book, “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” is public domain. However, the Disney movies are still protected under Copyright law. If I’m correct in assuming there’s a legal distinction between these examples, it could probably be emulated.

Time to write a book.

#14

CC0 works for us because the DAO is the original author. If Star Wars was CC0 and you were given a choice to see George Lucas’ new version or Kathleen Kennedy’s new version, which would you chose? You’d prob go with original author. So there can be new versions every week, but the fans would likely pay more attention to content created by the original author.

#15

As an FYI, there is a legal distinction in these, as the original novel Alice in Wonderland is public domain due to the length of time between the death of the creator and the current date, whereas Disneys is their interpretation of the original novel, and enough time has not passed for that.

So, you can write your own interpretation of Alice in Wonderland, but not your interpretation of Disneys interpretation of Alice in Wonderland! Lol

The best example I can give of someone playing with public domain is Lovecraft. He attempted to write the Cthulhu mythos in such a way as to make it public domain even after he died (so that no one could attempt to protect it). He altered names of people in different books, had different authors bring Cthulhu into their writings, guest writers write stories set in his world, etc. It was an intentional effort, as he felt creating something that everyone owned would ensure something creatively interesting, instead of stagnating when controlled by a publisher.

3 Likes
#16

Comments have closed now that this proposal has gone to Snapshot for a vote by community members that hold our $SPICE governance token: Snapshot