On Friday, January 6th, a new type of NFT will debut on premiere marketplace OpenSea: the NFT full-length film. The new format is the brainchild of Movieplex, a blockchain tech company, and Cinema Libre, an independent film studio. The two companies have decided to officially call the collection the “Movieplex.io Film Collection.”
The first full-length film the two companies will release is “Phosfate,” an environmental documentary feature that examines the Florida phosphate mining crisis. Next will be the documentary “Guantanamo Diary Revisited” and a narrative Icelandic drug crime film “From Iceland to Eden.” Movieplex representatives hope that they can turn Cinema Libre’s entire film collection into NFTs soon.
The two companies will use Polygon, an Ethereum layer 2 scaling solution, to store the NFT films. Philippe Diaz, founder of Cinema Libre, said in a statement that NFTs are the future of film viewing. Unlike when users buy a movie on iTunes or Amazon, users who purchase an NFT film receive the full asset. They can then resell that asset down the road. NFT films can also grant users the opportunity to view special features or have access to a community.
According to the press release, users may be able to watch the films they buy on the Movieplex website, likely by connecting their wallets and accessing token-gated technology. Others are employing this method as well, from Bored Ape spin-off Jenkins the Valet to other NFT media companies. After the release of “Phosfate,” there is no timetable for the Web3 debuts of the other films.
NFT Videos a Burgeoning Technology
While most people view NFTs as JPEGs, more and more companies are experimenting with turning videos into non-fungible tokens. In 2022, we wrote several stories about just that. Here are three.
First, in December of 2022, Emily Yang, better known as the digital artist, “pplpleasr,” raised $6.9 million for her Web3 video company Shibuya. With the money, Yang intends to hire more people for her team and explore more options for content.
Next, three months ago, Warner Brothers Discovery released Lord of the Rings non-fungible tokens. These movie NFTs come with a 4K viewing option, eight hours of special features, and a trove of still images.
Lastly, also three months ago, New York Giants cornerback Darnay Holmes turned his on-field “NSFW” video into a video NFT. He did so through the platform MomentoNFT, which allows social media users to turn their content into non-fungible tokens.
The collaboration between Movieplex and Cinema Libre could bear fruit if NFT full-length films catch on. Here at Rarity Sniper, we’ll be paying close attention to see if they do.