We are slowly/quickly finalizing the first 1/3 of the film which will be shown in a private screening in the coming week or two.
We are currently waiting for our artist to finish art for a tricky part of the film where we use the metaphor of a house being built over the centuries and the changes being accumulated to explain on the most basic level how blockchain works. This functions as a way to explain blockchain in the easiest way possible that can relate to the most layman of layman.
Its a tricky one to do so we are making sure its done properly.
Failure to present complex ideas in a simple manner would be a failure of the film.
Our artist is imo one of the most important parts of the film as his work will be what awes the audience visually throughout the interviews. I made sure that any image of his we insert into the film is basically something you can hang on your wall.
Can it go on a wall? Then its good.
Which I will do once I find someone that does these prints at high res. I mean this deserves a frame.
Everything is catered towards the lowest common denominator of knowledge. Even though the interview questions were written specifically to reduce complexity of information and interviewees told not to "overdo it" these topics from a perspective of a regular person are still very technical. The documentary format allows us to cover the topics carefully without falling into information overload. But still, its a struggle. I know its hard to convey because people tend to think:
If I understand it, it cant be that hard to understand.
The folly of anything and everything crypto.
THE STOCK:
I want to show you some stock footage we are working with. For sure, a lot of it will change over time, in the last couple days we changed about 30% of it as we are finding better ways to do the story. Its a continuous effort.
What we are now doing is stock combinations and transitions before adding the last touch of setting the visual identity with the final color correction. So keep that in mind, this hasnt been color corrected or visually manipulated much.
The first image im showing is tied into a transition from topic 2-3 that relates to freedom and money into Bitcoin. The narrator in his smooth silky voice with a touch of an attitude and humor transitions us reading the following. There is more text but I wont show more. :)
Some moments by the narrator are really brilliant, the way he emphasizes certain things, pauses at moments, all of which gives a soul to the film. Its not just cut interviews with some graphics like is the case with 100% of other crypto documentaries. The narrator is a developed character that takes the audience for the ride and that is in my opinion the greatest strength we have in telling this story. He is who the audience connects with. The anchor holding this together.
Heres a bit of @blocktrades in the cinema talking. this isnt color corrected as of now, should be in the next couple days. This is again accompanied by the narrator with a funny quip and a wonderful delivery.
This is an example of stock footage combining we will do. Probably screen caped at the wrong moment but you get the idea. Color will be adjusted, maybe some color changed, all fitting into the visual identity of the film. This is multiple stock footage combined with angles adjusted. The final product will appear as a completely new creation which is how basically high budget projects do it as well. Some of the stock we considered using, some we used, some we avoided using, you can probably see in hundreds of high budget films and documentaries.
I wanted to show you one more thing to explain how we approach things in what you would call storytelling layers.
Here is a screencap with "the Zuck" from the part of the film relating to decentralization and data ownership. This is archive footage taken online.
Some documentaries make the mistake of building a whole film based on this archive footage and drag them throughout the whole film as the basis for everything. In Freechain this is just 1 layer of basically 5:
- Narrator storytelling
- Original art and animation
- Interviews
- Stock footage
- Archive footage
At no point does 1 overpower the other so much that it feels out of place and each are carefully balanced to work in tandem to tell the story.
Ill be ramping up these updates as we go and soon you will have third person feedback about the film. I am really excited to show this to everyone because a lot of work and A LOT of thought went into all of this.
I think Freechain transcends what is thought a documentary should be but thats for the viewer to judge in the end.