Original | Odaily
Author | Qin Xiaofeng
In recent years, the film and television culture industry has developed rapidly, with frequent movies surpassing one billion yuan at the box office, making film and television investment a popular project. However, ordinary users know very little about it and lack channels to participate deeply.
The emergence of CyberPictures has built a new bridge between traditional film and television and users, establishing financing channels, which also allows more Web3 users to access high-quality asset targets.
As a platform focusing on the issuance of cultural and entertainment RWA assets, CyberPictures will attract a wider range of Web2 users to enter the Web3 world with low thresholds through high-quality content and fan economy. The platform was officially launched on September 12th.
1. After US Treasury bonds, film investment has become a target for high-quality assets.
After the cryptocurrency market entered a bear market, a new round of narrative hotspots this year revolves around RWA (Real World Assets), with giants such as Goldman Sachs and Siemens in the traditional finance (TradFi) sector all making moves.
RWA refers to the introduction of real-world assets existing under the blockchain onto the blockchain through tokenization or NFTization, thus providing sustainable and diverse types of real income sources with traditional asset support for Web3 and the cryptocurrency market.
Currently, the largest asset target of RWA is still US Treasury bonds (represented by DeFi leader Maker and Compound), and more assets need to be supplemented. The currently popular film and television investments may become a source of income for RWA, bringing more incremental assets to the entire Web3 market, while also gaining massive liquidity, broad market opportunities, and huge value capture from the traditional finance market.
Taking domestic films as an example, the industry has developed rapidly in the post-pandemic era. Data shows that as of August 18, the total annual box office of Chinese mainland films in 2023 exceeded 40 billion yuan, and the box office for this summer reached 17.8 billion yuan, setting a new record in film history and surpassing the 17.779 billion yuan achievement in 2019.
In recent years, there have been frequent blockbuster films such as "A Gamble of One's Life", "The Legend of the Gods", "The Wandering Earth", and "Hi, Mom", which have brought rich returns to film investors.
Among them, "Hi, Mom" is a typical representative of "making the most out of a small investment". It had a production cost of only 50 million yuan but ultimately earned 5.4 billion yuan at the box office. Another popular film this year, "A Gamble of One's Life", had a return rate of dozens of times its investment.
It can be said that the return on investment in film is much higher than the yield of US Treasury bonds, and the overall scale is growing continuously. This is sufficient to bring more income sources to Web3 and become another high-quality asset target after US Treasury bonds.
By using blockchain technology to establish a new financing model for film and television projects and user participation and interaction, CyberPictures aims to bridge the gap between content creators and audiences. As a platform specializing in RWA assets in the entertainment industry, CyberPictures will provide a one-stop RWA solution for film and television projects and teams, offering users high-quality assets, and thus realizing more direct and deeper user participation and interaction with the content.
2. CyberPictures: Connecting traditional film and television resources, providing high-quality RWA
CyberPictures has built a new bridge between traditional film and television resources and the Web3 world, creating a new model of "Web3+film and television". While addressing the financing difficulties in the traditional film and television market, it also creates more revenue streams for the Web3 market.
Specifically, CyberPictures' subsidiary, CyberPictures Labs, is responsible for the selection and incubation of high-quality entertainment RWA assets, and conducts asset issuance through the CyberPictures Launchpad. Let's take a look at how CyberPictures operates through an example.
For example, a director/film and television studio wants to adapt a certain online novel into a film or TV series. After approval, they can seek cooperation with CyberPictures. After assessment and selection, projects that meet the criteria can be sold to the general public on the CyberPictures Launchpad platform as NFTs, tokens, or STO products in collaboration with partners who hold valid licenses.
Users who hold the corresponding credentials can gain corresponding rights, such as dividend rights, and can receive income based on the final revenue of the film. In addition, there are many other benefits, which reflect the entire process of film and television production, promotion, and post-production.
For example, holders can vote and participate in script creation, provide suggestions for character roles, scenes, props, art design, etc., choose a certain celebrity for the cast, and even change the direction of the plot. They can also visit the set, have the opportunity to participate as extras, attend meetings with the production team, and participate in exclusive preview events. They can also have priority to purchase merchandise and vote on future development plans... The list goes on. In summary, by holding the credentials (such as NFT) for the film, you also become one of the "producers", enjoying box office dividends and various official exclusive benefits.
In terms of specific forms, to meet different risk investment preferences and investment needs at different stages, CyberPictures can provide three main types of film and television RWA assets:
The first type is IFO (Initial Film Offering), targeting the early or mid-stage. At this stage, the project may only have a certain concept or just completed team building, and the market prospects are uncertain, with a relatively high risk factor. However, once the film receives good market feedback, the investment return rate is also higher. It can be likened toVenture capital "angel round" or "seed round".
The second type is STO, targeting mid-to-late-stage film investment. At this time, the film has officially started shooting or entered the post-production stage, such as in the VC or PE stage. This type of project is relatively mature compared to the previous one and is just one step away from being released. The risk factor is also reduced accordingly, and it can be compared to the A/B rounds of financing in venture capital. CyberPictures will collaborate with Republic, a technology company dedicated to financial digital transformation, to provide STO-related services to users.
The third type mainly targets the later stage and focuses on the fan economy. At this time, the film has entered the promotion stage or has been released, for example, NFTs can be issued, binding various content consumption rights. From this perspective, CyberPictures also attracts a wider range of Web2 users and low-threshold assets to enter the world of Web3 through high-quality content and the fan economy.
Finally, considering the sustainable operation of the project, CyberPictures plans to monetize it and will charge related fees in the operation and sales of film and television assets in the future. According to official sources, CyberPictures is currently in communication with some top-tier encrypted capital and intends to further expand the scale of financing (please contact the official for relevant financing issues).
III. Core Team, spanning both film and Web3 fields
It sounds like CyberPictures' business model is not difficult to understand, and it can even be said to be quite simple. However, simple things are not necessarily done successfully by everyone. Just like the e-commerce model, which only builds a trading platform for buyers and sellers, but ultimately only a few platforms like Taobao and JD.com become dominant, while many others fade away.
In terms of personnel allocation, CyberPictures' founding team consists of experienced professionals from Hollywood and Chinese film and talent agencies, with abundant top-level resources and successful experience in film and television projects. They can help perfect the projects on the platform and provide various professional consulting advice, ultimately increasing the chances of success. At the same time, there are also technical and operations talents with years of experience in the Web3 industry, capable of providing a complete set of RWA solutions.
Founder Jonah Greenberg, formerly served as the head of Creative Artists Agency's (CAA) China office, and participated in film festival promotions, sales, and distribution of multiple films, including "City of Life and Death", "Long Day's Journey Into Night", "Born in China", "Kailash", "I Am Not Madame Bovary", and more. During his time at CAA, Jonah also represented many well-known directors, producers, writers, and actors, including Zhang Yimou, Jackie Chan, and Donnie Yen.
After leaving CAA in 2018, Jonah founded the independent film production company Salty Pictures Ltd, and participated in the production of Zhang Yimou's film "Shadow" - which received critical acclaim at the Venice Film Festival. The second film he was involved in is the Thai documentary film "The Cave", which swept 13 international film festivals.
In reality, many high-quality investment opportunities are often financed within a small circle and rarely directly accessible to the public. After the success of "The Wandering Earth 1" at the box office and in terms of reputation, the investment shares of "The Wandering Earth 2" were already divided in the initial stage. In acquiring high-quality cultural and entertainment resources, CyberPictures has already demonstrated its ability, and it currently has multiple projects in reserve.
(Omeebo Visual Image)
Among them, "Omeebo" is a new film and television IP created by Hollywood-level visual effects writer Philip Gelatt, who wrote "Love, Death & Robots", and Patrick Jean, the producer and writer of "Pixels", the director. It combines cyber virtuality with reality and releases different levels of NFT cards -silver, gold, platinum, diamond. Users holding NFTs can participate in various aspects of film script creation, film and television distribution, and derivative product production from 0 to 1. (Enter the official Twitter to learn more: http://twitter.com/OmeeboNFT)
In addition, the main creators of the upcoming "ROSEMEAD" include Hollywood actors such as Lucy Liu. It is expected to be released in 2024 and compete for the Oscars. "East Asia Super League" is one of the top basketball events in East Asia. CyberPictures users can obtain tickets, participate in guessing games, and obtain other benefits. In addition, CyberPictures has also reserved a large number of Hong Kong and mainland Chinese film projects.
In terms of talent reserves and resources, CyberPictures has unique advantages, which is also its most important core strength.
Conclusion:
Nowadays, more and more film and television stars and companies are starting to venture into Web3.
The well-known actor and director Stephen Chow announced last year on Instagram that he is looking for outstanding talents in Web3 to help him build a creative future, and indicated that he will personally select the candidates. Recently, Stephen Chow also interacted with the cryptocurrency exchange OKX, implying that the two parties will collaborate deeply.
In addition, some film and television companies have also begun to combine their IP with Web3. Toy manufacturer Mattel has launched a "Fast & Furious" movie NFT series, and technology startup Moonbox has secured the rights to use the IP of Stephen Chow's films "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons," "Journey to the West: The Demons Strike Back," and "The Mermaid" in the NFT field...
However, these platforms are still in the early stages and NFTs are only being released as memorabilia, not playing a significant role in Web3.
In contrast, CyberPictures has built a complete "film + Web3" solution, where NFTs are just a tool, not the ultimate goal. The core is to bring more high-quality incremental assets and users to Web3; interactive participation in the entire film production process can also stimulate the generation of more high-quality entertainment content and promote the development of fan economy. The intertwining collision of blockchain technology and traditional real-world assets has already yielded CyberPictures' own answer.
CyberPictures official website:https://cyberpictures.io/
CyberPictures Twitter:https://twitter.com/0xcyberpictures
