Blockchain is slowly becoming popular in Hollywood. One of the reasons was its ability to make middlemen redundant because of its transparent and direct nature. Today's podcast episode of Diving into Crypto welcomes Gex Williams, Founder and Team Leader of Moonstream. He talks about Moonstream and how it is building a one-stop shop for filmmaker crowdfunding, asset trading, and streaming consumption all with an NFT model.

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BLOCKCHAIN HOLLYWOOD - GEX WILLIAMS

JP( Host)

Gex Williams ( Founder of Moonstream)

00:24

JP

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to this episode of Diving Into Crypto. I'm your host JP from AdLunam, Inc. Bringing to you everything about Web3. On today's show, we have a special guest who is doing something unique in the space that ties in both our favorite genre of activity where a bulk of the world's population spends its time, and that's watching movies. In addition to that, he also has a very interesting past in the background, and I'm going to let him introduce some of those various hats that he has worn as we move along through this episode. Please remember, ladies and gentlemen, that ideas expressed on this program are meant for education purposes and the opinions expressed herein belong to those of the speaker. That being said, welcome to Diving Into Crypto, the show where we bring to you everything about Web3 from thought leaders, strategists, and those movers and shakers there.

01:30

JP

So without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, give us a warm reaction as we welcome our speaker today, Gex. Gex, hi, how are you doing?

01:40

Gex Williams

Hey, I'm doing great, JP. Thanks for having me on. I am glad to be here.

01:45

JP

Excellent, Gex. This is our birthday anniversary month for AdLunam. So this is indeed a special show that we are doing in this particular week and we're so glad to have you and to start the ball rolling. Gex, could you tell us a little about your background and the journey that it took to get you to Moonstream?

02:09

Gex Williams

Yeah, absolutely. So for those just kind of tuning in, my name is Gex Williams. I am the founder of Moonstream.com, which is a new it's kind of like Kickstarter plus Netflix combined for Web3 and then a little bit more on top, but a new type of streaming service, a new way to make films, watch films, and be rewarded. My background is in kind of a variety of areas, but always entrepreneurial. I got into blockchain from the tech side, so I'd actually started a tech kind of networking consulting security firm in the US. About a decade ago and that kind of took off, went well. We serve clients nationwide. That firm is still running. About a year and a half ago during the pandemic, I really started to get into blockchain actually through the IPFS side. So it's kind of from the networking security side.

03:08

Gex Williams

I was really interested in the ways that we could avoid some of the bottlenecks we have in our current kind of routing system with our internet and top level domains. And I got into IPFS and I sort of fell down the rabbit hole and never looked back. And as I got into blockchain, it stood out to me as an amazing technology that can be applied to so many industries, one of which was film, which is I have business in that area as well, and a film degree and worked in that industry for a number of years. So that's what Moonstream came out of, and I can go into that, too. JP, I didn't know if you were unmute to say something, so I didn't want to hog the space too much from you.

03:51

JP

No, not at all. I mean, it's always interesting to see how the journey began. So thank you for that. In your introduction. I am going to ask you, however you did say something interesting is that you kind of stumbled into it because you were fascinated by the technology. But I do want to put a spotlight on that moment when you decided, hey, you know what Web3 is for me. What was it for you?

04:16

Gex Williams

05:01

Gex Williams

So then it kind of really just sat in the background of my mind. And again, what I'm saying, what brought me into the world was the utility of it matured, right? Like, we all know that. Obviously, it would have been great if I'd acted on it at the moment, but, hey, you live and you learn. I was involved in a couple of other ventures and focused on that at the time, but the utility of the space really expanded. Right. And now we're at a place where you've got Ethereum, Solana, Bitcoin. There's really so many ways that you can use this space, and the way that Ethereum or Solana uses blockchain with decentralized kind of utility is very different than how Bitcoin really started. So the moment I think that it kind of clicks for me is again, I read that white paper way back when.

05:49

Gex Williams

I was like, this makes a lot of sense from a math perspective as far as trusting the idea of a blockchain, this idea of I'm trusting the code, right? Like, I'm trusting the math, I'm not trusting the person. That piece clicked to me the very first time I read the Bitcoin white paper. I was like, this whole idea of a blockchain is great. This answers a lot of problems. Then I think, like I said about a year ago when I started getting into IPFS and seeing how that trust can be related to so many different industries, this is probably about a year and a half ago that again was like kind of this another AHA moment. And fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. I was like, I'm going to do something with this, right? I'm not going to forget about it or sideline at this time.

06:35

Gex Williams

07:34

Gex Williams

And it was like a really big testament to the power of individual. I think. In this space we often call them retail investors, but I like to just call it everyday people like you and me. So then having that experience and seeing the blockchain technology, I said there's this massive hole in film kind of in the relationship of viewers, creators, and backers in our current film industry, we're really in kind of a consumer model, right? There's these kind of traditional studios that are large and they have the funds to make films. And then as viewers, we just kind of consume and there's not really a two way street. And with Moonstream, we want to change that. We think that each part of that triangle is really important. So giving everyday people, retail investors, the opportunity to invest in new films or shows that they like, and creators that are maybe growing up from far reaches of the world.

08:32

Gex Williams

A lot of these creators, it's never been cheaper to make quality content. But there's a huge bottleneck when it comes to the ability to get funding or even to have a platform to get exposure, right? You got these creators all over the world that don't have the ability to get to Hollywood or have the contacts in Hollywood. And I feel like this is in large part why AdLunam was created, right? Like the same kind of concept as these bottlenecks that exist that if you can break those, you really unleash so much potential. And then on the viewer side, viewers can be more than consumers. Viewers with Moonstream, we're kind of building out this idea of like, Watch to Earn that as you're viewing, you are participating in that process. And there's a lot of ways we built out to kind of incentivize and allow viewers to earn for their efforts.

09:22

Gex Williams

And I can go into that more. But that's kind of a high level overview of where Moonstream came out of.

09:29

JP

Certainly. I mean, that is fascinating that you speak about how you made that connection between this is an area that you could apply blockchain, but at the same time recognizing the power of the individual. Right. And I think that really encapsulates what blockchain and of course, cryptocurrencies have been. It's been about empowering the individual to be able to do more, to live more, to be more. Right, yeah, I'm with you on that thought. I'm curious to understand, though, I'm certain the viewers are the listeners are on this program as well. How did you see the two of them fit more specifically in the process where you could apply blockchain? Because I'm certain that's a gray area for a lot of us. I don't think anybody wakes up in the morning and says, hey, you know what? Today I want to be a Hollywood producer.

10:31

Gex Williams

Let me process. Absolutely. So for those not familiar, even though not familiar with the film industry, I think this would kind of probably sound familiar. There is actually a term, you can look it up on Wikipedia called Hollywood accounting. And it's basically a legal form of ripping off your investors. In the film industry, we have a term that we say the real creatives in film. They're not the screenwriters, they're the accountants. And that's why all your major films, they don't make money on paper. Return of the Jedi didn't make money. Many other films like that didn't make money on paper. And that's because from a Hollywood accounting process, there's so many ways to hide the profits of films. And because of kind of the traditional model where studios sort of are the gateway to getting funding and getting exposure, they can hire the accountants to do that.

11:24

Gex Williams

And what happens is studios don't really want retail investors in Hollywood. They're not looking for retail investors to jump in. Filmmaking is done pretty much the same way today. It was 100 years ago. Honestly, there's large studios that have the funds and the ability to take the risk as film. It is a risk like any industry to inject in a film, and then they take that and they have the connections to then get that seen by people through TV and theater. But the retail investor, when you do see these indie projects where they're trying to raise funds for a project, a lot of times there's a well intentioned filmmaker who goes out and he might raise a million or $2 million for his film. He gets it made, he distributes it. Those investors, even though the filmmaker had great intentions, never see their returns back, even if that film does well.

12:14

Gex Williams

And that's because they sell it to a large distribution company who then sells it to another company, who sells it to another company, and all those profits are shielded all the way back to those investors. So they never make money. So this is obviously an area of a major trust issue, which for those involved in blockchain is like, hey, we might have something that can help with that. So there is a major trust problem, right? There's a problem with the fact that the accounting is obscured. So from the investor side, that's where blockchain made so much sense, right? It's like, hey, we can use automatic programmable accounting logic to compensate investors immediately. And that would be impossible in the traditional film space. I mean, if you had a traditional film with 10,000 or 20,000 micro investors, the accounting headache and saying like, hey, this film this week, this film made this much money, now I'm going to pay these 20,000 people their little bit of that they're owed.

13:19

Gex Williams

That would be a massive migraine day for that accountant. And it really just isn't feasible. But with blockchain, you write the code and you deploy it and you're done. And that's what we've done with Moonstream. So just to kind of give a brief overview, our website, Moonstream.com, you can go there right now and check it out. We have a lot of the features up in Live, but disabled as far as viewing and backing projects go. But we have our site split into three sections, right? A watch portal, a market portal, and a fund portal. So the idea is that a creator, a filmmaker from anywhere in the world can put a film in the fund portal and say, hey, I want to make this film. They have a minimum and a maximum budget and they associate an NFT collection with that film. Then Backers can check out these films and say, hey, I love this.

14:06

Gex Williams

I saw this director's project previously. I loved it. I want to invest in this. So they choose to pledge towards that project. And once the project meets its minimum budget, the NFT is released to those backers. And depending on how the project is set up, those backers in that token, kind of represents their stake in the project. And that allows them that when that project gets made and moves to the watch portal as people watch it and funds are made, that project just has a single wallet that represents that film or that show, right? And any funds made for that show flow to that wallet. And a program sits on top of that wallet and just automatically distributes those funds to whoever holds the NFTs that represent that project. And it's done programmatically and automatically using blockchain. And that's not anything that exists in the film world today.

14:58

Gex Williams

You can't have something like that. And our marketplace, of course, allows people to back a project and then trade out different projects that they like. Maybe sell the NFTs that represent certain projects, buy into new ones. But it opens up a whole world of possibilities for everyday people who might like to watch shows, but also might like to get behind some. And it lets creators from anywhere kind of break that mold and get funding for what they're doing and actually reward their backers without having to be professional accountants. Right. They can drop an NFT collection of 10,000 and make a movie and the program just takes care of it on the blockchain and it automatically compensates people and everyone can see the transactions. And it's clear. Right. There's no wondering what went where.

15:45

JP

Exactly. Like you said before, there isn't any creative accounting happening while you can see all of that happening at the same time.

15:53

Gex Williams

Right, exactly. Yeah. And that's what it helps avoid. Now, what we're working on in this space is like, yes, we want to give filmmakers the opportunity to fund a film through the portal, have it on the watch portal, but also go do theatrical runs, also go do TV runs. And when they do that, there is the potential for that person that they sell that TV station to maybe try to obscure some of the funds. And to kind of combat that, we're taking kind of the future approach of hey, kind of having this idea of verified vs unverified. Right. Like a creator can say, hey, this project, we have all the rights. We're going to take it out wherever we will. Investors need to know that up front. Or kind of taking the approach of saying, hey, we've worked with this investor, and whether they want to set it up so that token holders have to approve any distribution deal outside of the blockchain, essentially.

16:49

Gex Williams

Or whether Moonstream has to approve that, whatever that is. That's a piece we're working on because we don't want to limit the exposure that a project gets because it's a fantastic opportunity to bring value on chain. Because if you can take your film, you can stick it on a TV station, you can stick it in a theater, and the funds that come in for that then just flow back to that platform wallet and distribute out on the chain. It's a great way to onboard value in the blockchain space, which benefits everyone.

17:20

JP

Exactly. And thank you for that, Gex, because that does really put the spotlight on where the system can find so much improvements. Because one of the things I think that a statement a lot of us may have come across is, of course, hey, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

17:38

Gex Williams

Right? Right.

17:42

JP

And at the same time, you've got these business models that evolved from renting movies to blockbuster downloading movies and then of course online streaming. That's happening. This seems to be the natural progression. So with Moonstream like you're doing, do you see that as the next evolution? Or do you still see that there's going to be a few iterations before this settles in and a lot more people join into the system? What are some of the flaws also from the earlier models that you see that Moonstream may have been able to solve?

18:23

Gex Williams

Yeah, absolutely. I do think that what Moonstream is doing is kind of this absolute next step. It's almost a no brainer. We're very new in the space. So we started building this year, have an awesome development team. We've really only been out kind of public a couple of months as far as like, hey, we kind of built this whole fund portal on the basis of the platform. And then really only the last couple of weeks have we started reaching out and trying to let people know, hey, we've kind of built this really cool platform. And part of the reason we're moving so quickly is because this just makes sense, right? It's kind of like, wow, I can't believe someone didn't think of this before. And the reason it makes sense is because you see people always kind of wanting to engage in the Hollywood industry, in the filmmaking industry, right.

19:11

Gex Williams

There's always kind of been this allure of like in the film world there's this kind of subsect of indie films of investors kind of having this fun, like, hey, putting money into this film, what if it blows up? But then on the viewer side, you have this interest in that space. People have their favorite shows. If you go to a party, inevitably somewhere at that party, someone's talking about like, hey, this is a show I was just watching. It's really cool, I really enjoy it. Or this or that, right? So there's a lot of this interest. But the model is built in a way that really doesn't engage kind of the everyday user. It is really just like a consumer one way street. And kind of the part of Web3 that's really emerging is the strong communal aspect. This idea that, hey, we're going to partake in this kind of free market and we're all going to benefit as a result and be upfront about it.

20:02

Gex Williams

So that's where Moonstream I think comes in with kind of the next wave of iteration is instead of just like turning on the TV and consuming, just watching and having no feedback, there's this idea that viewers are more than a consumer. So with Moonstream, with our viewers, what we're planning to do is initially in our watch portal, we've got loaded a ton of classic films. And that's because launching things in our fund portal, we're going to do that very soon, launch some original projects. But it's going to take time for those to hit the watch portal. So what are going to viewers going to do in that meantime? Well, we've got a curated kind of collection of all these classic films and we want to launch our Watch to Earn. And what that lets viewers do is watch these films. And we're going to do things like every month we'll have a high value NFT Easter egg inserted in the background of a couple of films.

20:54

Gex Williams

And as viewers watch, if they see that NFT, the first viewer to name the films, name the time codes, claims the NFT because viewers kind of connect their wallet as they're viewing their public wallet, address is visible and noble the platform. They can say, hey, this is the Easter egg for the month, right? Or doing things like whitelist or weekly NFT giveaways where we can say hey, you stream for four minutes today, you're in the running for the day's giveaway or do you checked in three times this week, you streamed a little bit. Great, we have a weekly NFT giveaway. And the way that's sustainable because that business model is like how do you sustain that kind of Watch to Earn model? I think that in this current time, the Blank to Earn. You've seen that kind of crop up in a lot of industries, right?

21:42

Gex Williams

Like insert Whatever to Earn. And I think that's because there's a lot of kind of validity there for users, but oftentimes you can get either kind of a platform coin that maybe has no value or it's not sustainable, right? It's kind of like propped up by some venture capitalist funding and there's no way to kind of sustain that earned value with Moonstream. The way we want to kind of make that a sustainable business model is when users sign up on the platform by default, they can just start playing and watching. We have three tiers for the viewers, right? The first tier is kind of this privacy ads tier, sort of taking a brave browser approach where there's kind of like one to two ads of the day. We're not doing data harvesting where we're trying to figure out what your Social Security number is or how many kids you have or your blood type.

22:33

Gex Williams

Instead it's just like across the platform, this advertiser puts their ad on. We want to focus on Web3 communities. They can advertise and say, hey, this is our ad. And it just shows to everyone and that's free. So you can watch, you see a five to ten second ad, then you get to watch your film. That's the free tier. And then above that there's kind of two paid tiers where you can pay for like a five day subscription or a 30 day subscription and not see any ads. The revenue that comes in from either those ads or the subscriptions, that revenue has a chunk of it, a percentage of it that's just automatically allocated to the Watch to Earn sort of wallet pool on the platform. And that gives the platform the ability to say like, hey, we have this revenue coming in. We're just allocating this chunk over to the Watch to Earn pool.

23:16

Gex Williams

And that means the platform is going to be doing sweeping floors on projects or buying new NFTs or buying new crypto, giving away crypto to users. And our goal is to make it really fun and engage the community. So it's kind of like you're watching and you're building up that pool and then you're also having the ability to be in the running to win some of this Watch to Earn crypto, essentially. So that's kind of our model for making that a sustainable approach long term and really helping engage viewers in a way that's not done currently in Hollywood at all. Right now you just pay $20 to go to theater, right?

23:56

JP

Well, it is early days still and I'm certain that we eventually pray that everyone migrates to a system where you have a Watch to Earn so you don't have to go to different places and you can enjoy it from the comfort of your own home. But that being said, I do want to give a shout out to your content curator because like you said, you've got some of the classics. And as I was browsing through the Moonstream site, I mean, the one that got me was of course Night of the Living Dead, right? That's like an all time favorite.

24:27

Gex Williams

Absolutely. If you browse through the site, we kind of name every you go to Hulu or Netflix and it's like action adventure. And these are the different rows of categories. Right. Web3 is our birthplace and that's what we're leaning into for our initial launch. So we've got fun little titles up there the team put together. Not going to make it. Degen Delights is one of my favorites. It's just like the best worst films of all time. I posted that to the Space, yknow, Wag Me classics, Scared Ape Couch Club for our thrillers, which is where you'll find your Night of the Living Dead. There's just some great classic films in here that a lot of people probably have never seen. So I think there's a lot of kind of like fun to be had on the platform even before the original content hits the streaming platform.

25:15

JP

Yeah, exactly. And those of you that have recommendations, please feel free to tweet them into Moonstream. I'm certain that they will take those recommendations.

25:24

Gex Williams

Absolutely. Love it. Obviously we have to clear up licensing invites. So if you tweet The Matrix at us, I'm sorry, we're not going to be able to acquit that request.

25:38

JP

Yeah, so it's only time. Classics for now. Cult classics will follow, right?

25:43

Gex Williams

Yeah, exactly. Well, cult classics will be made, right? We have some really cool projects in the works. We don't have anything exactly locked in with the date that I want to announce. But we've talked with a number of filmmakers that have a handful of different projects that were kind of like wanting to sort of be like the first kind of collection of projects that launched through the fund portal. Things from animated shorts to kind of these really fun documentaries focused in the kind of web world to more traditional film type projects. So I think that there'll be some really cool content that comes out of it in the kind of Moonstream space. A really new term that's just kind of emerged is what they call Film3. And it's obviously a riff on Web3, right? But the term is Film3. And it's kind of like any type of film or media project that has to do or is associated with blockchain in some way.

26:45

Gex Williams

So there's a couple of projects that recently did just sort of an NFT kind of collectors collection. They dropped the NFTs and then they made a film that's like one or two, and then there's a couple more in the works from creators that are in the blockchain space, and they're like, hey, I like to make movies. This is my movie pitch. I'm just kind of dropping this NFT collection. It's sort of like more of a Kickstarter charitable kind of giving, right? You buy this NFT as a collector item, and I'll make this movie, or I'll make this show. And we hope that Moonstream will be a platform. We want the watch portal. We want that to be something for creators that regardless of where they launch, you don't need to launch through Moonstream. I think that if you've launched your film by selling an NFT collection, you minute it out somewhere else on a different launch pad or you did your custom site, great.

27:37

Gex Williams

We want to be an outlet for these types of movies. So it's like, we will be reaching out to these creators as these projects come to fruition and they actually have a finished product and say, hey, we're going to have a Web3 originals row on our site. Load your content in here, receive the rewards. In our marketplace, we plan to be sort of uniquely focused on Film3 collections, right? So the whole marketplace in our site will be all NFT collections that are associated with films or shows in some ways, regardless of whether they launch through Moonstream. We want to be a lot more than our fund port. You don't have to start there, but we have that there if people want to use it. But the marketplace lets us tap these creators that are across the ecosystem right now. Some on Solana, some on Ethereum who have kind of funded a project and are making it.

28:31

Gex Williams

Once they complete, we'll be like, hey, onboard here, show your film. Let's throw your collection up in the marketplace. We want the marketplace on Moonstream to be a place that, if you're like, hey, I want to invest in the Film3 space. Or I want to trade in the Film3 kind of collection space. That's the place you go, that marketplace. So we're working really hard to build cross chain. Our watch portal is already we've built out Solana and Ethereum wallet support and integration. And our marketplace, that's what we're working on right now is building out kind of this ability to be a cross-chain environment where you're seeing Solana and Ethereum based NFT collections side by side in the marketplace so that creators can choose whichever kind of blockchain. And we want to expand beyond that. But those are two of kind of the large ones in the NFT and creative space right now.

29:23

Gex Williams

So that's why we're starting with those and kind of you want to see those collections side by side is really fun. And we're kind of working on the metrics to allow using wormhole to let someone who's maybe a Solana user say, hey, I really like this Ethereum NFT. And instead of having to go spin up their Ethereum wallet, letting them from their Solana wallet kind of purchase that pull that NFT over on wormhole into their Solana wallet, just really make it easier for community members on either blockchain to participate in collections on either side. So there's some metrics there that are difficult to solve, but we are working on it. And of course, the easy part is launching probably first will be hey, get a wallet for one or the other. We'll have them side by side.

30:11

JP

Yeah, certainly. And I think that leads me back to one of the particular points that we wanted to focus on today. Being in the studio in right. We found an easy rather you found an easy way with Moonstream to help capital flow into the creative process of developing movies of independence. Having now an avenue to be able to get capital. But we can't discount the fact that you have these large studios that have heavy capital investment, tons of inferno computers that are able to create these magical graphics that do that. But at the same time, we have to wonder, will this be the new avenue for that funding to occur, for these magical stories that get told on the silver screen?

31:07

Gex Williams

So I think that there is a massive market opportunity here in that your traditional independent film market. There's no money to be made in your traditional indie market, but specifically in your Kickstarter or Indiegogo or crowdsource funding. That's what most people think about when they think of a film not made by a studio. They're like, oh, it was crowdsourced funding, which is really kind of just a charitable contribution. There's never been a market for crowdsourced kind of retail investing into a film project. And now we're working with our legal team because obviously there's some regulatory constraints that we need to make sure we work within. But there are a lot of places in the world where that's pretty wide open for users there, but US based users making sure that we are in line is very important. So we have engaged a very, let's just say a great legal firm that's very familiar with the blockchain space to make sure that things are in line there for the US.

32:09

Gex Williams

Audience. But outside of that, there's a lot of opportunity, the concept here of people even just from the collector side, even if you were just thinking of these NFTs, the creator wants to launch these as a collectible, as an art piece that goes along with the film. It's more than just a charitable contribution and you get a signed copy of the script. You're getting an actual NFT. It opens up a whole world of retail funds where it makes sense for people to put funds into these movies. And there's compensation. Like this kind of investment for them grows in its value over time. Right. The idea that there's other people that want to trade in this artwork or whatever it is, and there's a market for that, and we've never seen that, right? So currently, that's why studios being the ones that really take the risk, there's never been this kind of market opportunity for everyone around the world to be able to say, like, hey, I got $10.

33:07

Gex Williams

I'm going to buy into this film project and support it because I want to see it. And then I also get a NFT as a result. And I think it opens up a market cap that could be potentially huge. It kind of feels like this opportunity of, like, I say this with love to all of us in the blockchain space with a fool triumphant, right? Like traditional accounting doesn't love crypto. It's these idiots over there. It's volatile. You're going to lose all your money. Right? But there's this huge opportunity here for people in the space that it's like, we can break into this new industry and leveraging the power of just how many individual retail investors are in the space. There's a potential for a pretty strong return, especially, I think, once you start seeing some films get funded and get made and those collections increase in value.

33:56

Gex Williams

And it makes sense for the retail users who were backing those projects. I think the storm just builds from there, right? People are like, wow, this is amazing. And then there's this whole new market that breaks out. So, yeah, initially, absolutely. Are these films going to be lower budget than what you see in Hollywood? For sure. But long term, yeah. Netflix dumps twelve or 15 billion in to their streaming this year. And that's like this insane amount to the film industry for streaming platform. But when you tap the power of retail investors around the world and we say, hey, we've built this model where anyone can contribute a little bit, like that twelve to $15 billion, it becomes a drop in the bucket to the potential that's out there. Right, but getting there. There's a lot of challenges along the way. I'm not saying it's easy by any means.

34:52

Gex Williams

I'm just saying that it's an open opportunity and one that we want to provide to people. Yeah, absolutely. There'll be competition that crops up along the way. It'll be interesting to see how some of the traditional studios pivot to it. Traditionally, the film industry has not been good at recognizing change and changing, which is part of the reason we did Moonstream, is because when Netflix came along, the whole film industry was like, the stupid Internet thing. No one really watches this. No one really cares. And they were way behind the ball. Right? And then Netflix, interestingly enough, really kind of worked its way back to becoming a legacy studio versus continuing to push forward, in my opinion. They kind of started this cutting edge Internet like the World Fair oyster, and then they worked really hard for the Academy Awards and to move back into more of that traditional studio role that has a streaming platform, which is fine, obviously worked well for them.

35:50

Gex Williams

But I'm just saying that there's opportunity for kind of a David Goliath situation in the sense of these light, agile, kind of Web3 communities to take advantage of an industry that is pretty set in its ways. I think that means that a lot of the creators that partake on this platform will probably be outside of the traditional Hollywood circle initially. And there's tons of them.

36:15

JP

I could imagine. I think that what you're trying to do also, in a way, is paving a way for more stronger storytelling. And this is also in line with some of the classics that you've lined up. Of course, on Moonstream, there was a very different feel, a very different flavor of storytelling during that particular time, as opposed to storytelling requiring that amount of high budget extra special effects and CGIs, and making actors look like they were just teenagers. Right?

36:58

JP

Go ahead.

37:03

Gex Williams

No, I was just going to say, I think something that these classic films that you see on there at the time, they were all original stories, right? They weren't the fifth iteration in a franchise. I love franchise films, don't get me wrong. Fast and the Furious, I will always go see the newest Fast and the Furious film. But there is more than that out there. Right? And I do think that a lot of the studios now you have seen storytelling kind of take a backseat, and instead we're kind of because it's such a large capital risk, they don't want to risk on a new thing as much. Right. So you're seeing like the reiteration of the same story over and over again in the same franchise, which can be enjoyable to an extent, but it leaves a void in the space. I think there's a lot of people that want to watch kind of quality, original storytelling that are interested in deeper lore.

37:54

Gex Williams

And what's interesting is, aside from kind of Film3 or what Moonstream is doing in the blockchain space, you've seen a lot of projects pop up around kind of like intellectual property rights for sort of collective storytelling or lore building in communities that are building kind of these stories on lore. And I think that those kind of communities have so much opportunity with a platform like Moonstream because they've kind of got this built in. Like they're a bunch of people that are writing these really cool stories, collectively leveraging blockchain to merge in their commits and whatnot. And right now it's just a story. But now they have an opportunity with Moonstream to be like, hey, there's this community of 60,000 people that have developed this really cool world and these really cool stories. Let's connect them with a really burgeoning producer or filmmaker and let's bring that to life.

38:50

Gex Williams

And that lets them take their community that already loves this story and knows it, and they get to put a screenplay and bring it to life on the Moonstream platform. So, again, we envision this platform being kind of a way like, hey, use it and abuse it. These communities can come here and use this thing to bring their ideas to life. And I think the initial foot in the door is hard. But that potential for exponential growth as communities on board, as these story communities with their 50,000-60,000 followers bring their film, bring that to life, that brings in more people to their community, brings more awareness of their story. And then another platform does the same thing. And we're launching these original projects. I think that eventually the avalanche just kind of rips, but it's surviving until you kind of get to that tipping point, right?

39:42

JP

Yeah, it's all about momentum and the same way that franchisees kick off because there's been something powerful at the beginning and it just has to snowball in the right direction, right?

39:54

Gex Williams

40:49

Gex Williams

Not that hard to do. Do some odd jobs on the side. Like you can get one. Right. So it's never been more accessible for people to make kind of like higher quality content. A big bottleneck here is the distribution aspect. So that's where Moonstream comes in. And I think that why I said earlier, I think a lot of our early players will be outside the traditional Hollywood circle. They'll be these people that are out there grinding, these people that are out there working, that have a passion and a vision for a project, but they're outside that traditional realm of being able to get it made. And you bring blockchain and Web3 communities along, and all of a sudden you can be shining the spotlight all across the world no matter where you live.

41:34

JP

True. I can totally see that because this is, as you were suggesting, one of the ways that blockchain will help pledge rather, upcoming artists or upcoming movie makers or people who want to express that creative idea, the creative storytelling, through a medium like film or video. This does give them the opportunity to do that. So, yeah, I'm with you on that same thought.

42:03

Gex Williams

Yeah, absolutely. I think that the stories that can be told from around the world and even the mediums that you might see emerge different than the traditional medium. Someone in the middle of South America might make their show a little bit differently than we've traditionally seen it. So I think it'll be really fun to see what creatives out there do, given the platform and given the opportunity.

42:28

JP

Certainly this does look like exciting times ahead.

42:33

Gex Williams

Yeah, absolutely. We think so.

42:38

JP

Certainly. I agree with you about the quantum of opportunities that this does bring to the table to people who are looking for finance, because that's, of course, one of the biggest hurdles there. That being said, being on this particular trend. Gex, what do you see as, for example, the future of filmmaking as a whole? Because you've walked us through each stage of the way, from creative accounting to some of the distribution to how they don't see profits, to now having the ability to crowdfund your own production, your own venture. What other avenues can you shed a spotlight on that will lead us to see the future of filmmaking as you understand it as an industry insider?

43:27

Gex Williams

Yeah, I think that avenue has already started with kind of engagement. I mean, you see online, right, when a franchise drops a new film, you'll feel part of that loyal fan base be really pissed off, right. Whether it's the new Star Wars or whatever it is. Right. People grow these kind of attachments to these stories, and they can get really upset when it deviates. And that has a little bit of an impact. But it's like a post impact, right. That film has already been made. Like someone already spent two to three years making that movie. It comes out, it's like, sorry you're upset, but this is the movie. Right. I think that the feedback cycle between kind of a viewer base and a creator stands to really change from what it is now. If you're talking about a filmmaker being able to turn out a new show or a new movie and build a loyal following of just even 20,000-30,000 people, that would probably sustain most filmmakers on a platform like Moonstream around the world, where they can kind of keep turning out content, original content that their community is interested in.

44:37

Gex Williams

And I think there's a lot of potential for kind of because we're so integrated with the Internet for feedback along the way. So something we are looking into is the opportunity for viewer participation or spectator participation and how that plays out. And I'm not going to get too far into that because it's kind of an emerging space, but you see that in kind of like this choose your own adventure model where spectators are able to participate. But I think with the world of VR, there's a lot of really cool potentials for how viewers actually participate in the active storyline of a project. And again, we would be a platform that would allow creator to kind of take these creative ideas and implement them as they want to. And I think that on the platform, there's a lot of room down the road for filmmakers or creators or kind of like even influencers, so to speak, to evolve in this space where it's like, hey, these are my picks, right?

45:36

Gex Williams

Like on the fund portal, if we've got thousands up there, you might have a couple kind of like key individuals that people really like how they pick projects, right? They like the story types that they pick and that kind of thing and kind of create an opportunity for these individuals to be like, hey, this is a collection of my picks for upcoming projects. Or on the platform itself, projects that are streaming, being like, hey, these are my picks of projects that I love. So I think there's a lot of opportunity for just everyday people to kind of build their own niche in the way that they kind of back projects, but then also in the way that they influence the new kind of material being made. And I think that aspect of influence is not something that you really see, really. Studios, they do polls to kind of try to figure out, hey, where are people at these days?

46:27

Gex Williams

What are people thinking? And a lot of it is broadcast, right? They're just trying to appeal to sort of with streaming platforms like Netflix, you kind of have your niche projects that they'll make like a niche one here and there. But a lot of times it's kind of like they're saying, hey, what's like the general dynamic of society right now? We're going to make something that appeals to that. I think with Moonstream, you have the opportunity to really allow creators to drive in on a particular point, build a community around it and not have to be kind of beholden to this idea of, hey, 500 million people have to dig this project. Maybe only 50,000 or 100,000 people like this project. That's enough to keep that project going.

47:09

JP

Of course. Wow, okay. That's that's a lot of digest. And and I'm glad that you were able to put a spotlight on that and also share with us these insights. Gex, much appreciated. My last question to you before I open up questions to the audience in the room is as a person who's born so many hats across so many ventures and is creating something path breaking where you're disrupting an industry, what would be your personal message to the audience listening in today? What would you like them to know?

47:51

Gex Williams

48:36

Gex Williams

49:24

Gex Williams

Ones to kind of do that stand to be really unique and really cool pieces of art and a really unique kind of project to be exposed to. So I would keep your eye out.

49:38

JP

Well, certainly. And Gex, you have spoken to us about that from a project point of view, as a leader in this particular space, what's your personal philosophy? That's what I was going for.

49:50

Gex Williams

Okay. Yeah. My personal philosophy really, honestly revolves around truth. You see a lot of people talking about storytelling, and I personally think that good storytelling comes out of exploring good truth. So I think one of the things with Moonstream that we want to encourage on creators is, like, try to uncover some kind of truth, be focused on the truth of the world. That's what drives people. When you look at people and they talk about story, it's not just a formula. It's that a filmmaker is saying something about the world that resonates with that individual and what that looks like. It can be an action and adventure flick. I'm not saying it needs to be this deep, pensive thing. I'm just saying the stories that people the films that people love, the stories that are unique and original, that originality becomes from there's an element of honesty from the filmmaker side of trying to explore or touch on something that's true to the human experience.

50:51

Gex Williams

And that's kind of my personal philosophy, is, like, I want to see projects there's, people that have different political opinions, different philosophical opinions, but driving towards trying to drive towards this idea of, like, uncover some kind of truth in the process. I think that's what makes really powerful storytelling. I think that when people look at storytelling as a formula, aside from truth, they lose a lot of power there. And that can be animated film that can be whatever it is. I think humans are driven by stories that uncover something that resonates with our human experience as a kind of collective race. And I think that there's a lot of potential for that in the indie world and also in the filmmaking world, across the world.

51:42

JP

That is absolutely true. Totally. Because there's only so many times you can repeat Othello before the formulas.

51:50

Gex Williams

Yeah, exactly. And they talk about Shakespeare being, like, the greatest of all time. Right. Just because you mentioned that. What's really interesting about Shakespeare is he was popular at this time. All his stories were unoriginal. Most I shouldn't say most of his plays Macbeth, Hamlet. These stories, they were not original formulas. Like, a lot of them were, like, the structure, the what happens, the who gets killed. These were iterations that had already been done. So it wasn't like the plot reveal that was kind of this, like, wow, this is so great of his side. It was like the dialogue, the content, the truth that he was trying to kind of uncover or explore in his different projects that appealed to the audience at the time. And obviously, over time, I think that filmmakers can do the same thing. And personally, you're just asking me about my personal desires.

52:39

Gex Williams

52:54

JP

Well, I'm certain that you've already created the opportunity for that. And the more that people start interacting with it, the more we're going to see that happen.

53:04

Gex Williams

Hey, thank you very much. We certainly hope so. And we appreciate all the support and that's the stage we're at is getting out there, telling people about what we're building. And really, if we're able to successfully engage and build something that people enjoy, I think that the rest takes care of itself.

53:21

JP

Yeah, I'm certain it does. And fingers crossed, of course. I do have one person who's requested to ask a question. So Gex, if you're ready, let me see if I can add them on as a speaker and yeah, let's have them on board.

53:40

Gex Williams

Absolutely. Sounds great.

53:43

JP

Okay. It looks like it's approved, but let me see.

53:48

JP

Okay, in the meantime, I do have another question that's come in.

53:52

Gex Williams

Sure.

53:52

JP

Do you have another question that's come in from Nd. And Nd wants to know, do you believe Watch to Earn will open more jobs for internships and filmmaking? Yeah, go for it

54:06

Gex Williams

I think that Moonstream as a whole will open up a whole new slew of jobs. Internships? Yeah, absolutely. Potentially, I think actual jobs that are more than an internship. The Watcher model, if we build a viewer base that's what I'm getting at, where I'm saying, if we open up the potential for a filmmaker anywhere in the world to make a film, all of a sudden you have these industries that can be popping up all across the world regardless of the country you live in. That's really where blockchain came from. Right? It was this promise that this borderless transaction that isn't bound by your physical location. And that's what Moonstream is for the film industry, it's like you don't have to be physically somewhere, have this connection. You can live anywhere and you can make something, and that means tons of new jobs.

54:57

Gex Williams

There's a filmmaker that's got a creator that's got a lot of talent, and he lives in either a big city or a little town. He can make something. And the people around him that pitch in and become a team or her, that team can make something. And that will employ a lot of people in their immediate vicinity to continue creating that thing that people all around the world enjoy. So I think there's an opportunity for a massive kind of new market to emerge and a new way for people to find employment and gain exposure. So, yes, from an internship, if you're interested in film and you're like, I don't know where to start, I think that Moonstream will really help with that. Right. Because we do have this vision for a creator hub in the future. I'm not going to get into that because that's not on the site right now.

55:39

Gex Williams

But this idea that you kind of can have these creative teams that build their own little kind of like team or hub, and they're cross working with each other wherever they are in the world. There's the potential for you to be like, hey, I live in whatever country, in whatever town, and I want to collaborate with someone. And you don't even have to physically be near that person. You can virtually tag in and maybe help them sort footage for the day or maybe help them write. Allowing creators to connect brings in a lot of potential for people that might want to get into this space, to be able to pitch in with a team that might be shooting a project that's five countries over from you. But you can go and sort their footage for the day and learn from them and help with different things and then kind of get your own leg up in the industry, if that's kind of where that question is angilng

56:23

Gex Williams

I'm not sure, but I think there's a lot of potential for that.

56:27

JP

Super. I think, yes, I think it does hit the nail on the head. The creation of opportunities was where that's going. Okay, we do have one of our listeners who wants to ask a question. Let me see if I'm saying this right. Nuikay, go ahead. You can ask your question. Sorry. Okay, so I'm sorry, maybe I'm not.

56:58

Gex Williams

He might have gotten rugged maybe away at the moment.

57:03

JP

Okay, all right, no problem. So in the meantime, we'll take one more question that has come in. This one is from RM. An ID known as RM. And what she wants to know is, and of course, I'm just going by the profile picture, is if I wanted to be an actor, how does this help me?

57:29

Gex Williams

Yeah, I think this touches a little bit on the previous question, which is like, how does this create opportunity? So I think the answer is very similar, so I won't reiterate everything, but let's just kind of follow the "if then" trail, right? If Moonstream is able to get a foothold and is successful, then that means that there will be filmmakers popping up all over the world, and that will build opportunity for people that want to get into acting, because there's going to be that many more projects kind of launching. And because of the retail investing in niche communities, there will actually be a way for them to make a living doing that with kind of a niche project or niche community without having to kind of be this massive make or break. So I do think that you'll see modestly compensated actors. And what I mean by that is in the current industry, it's like you either make nothing or you make millions, right?

58:27

Gex Williams

And I think that this brings the opportunity for a lot of filmmakers to make projects that do modestly well that provide a good living. And I think that there'll be a lot more opportunity for people that. Want to get into acting. Of course, that's just my opinion. People can do with it whatever they want. I hope that people are making millions. I'm just saying that I think there's a lot of opportunity for kind of projects to be supported and thrive with its sort of niche community, and those projects will need actors.

58:59

JP

Sure. Okay. So thank you for that, Gex. I think, yes, that does answer the question, and I can see that the person who had requested to speak did want to have that, but seems to have a bit of a challenge asking that question. Nuikay, if you can still ask that question, I can see that you're connecting, but if you can would like to ask that question, go ahead.

59:23

JP

If you can hear us. Okay.

59:28

Gex Williams

I guess the Internet didn't like them. Hopefully you can come back.

59:34

JP

Well, yes, hopefully it does. Though, this is all the time that we do have on the show. But what I will do is we'll ask the audience at this point of time, if you still want to have those you have those questions and you want to have them answered, you can send them in, tweet them in to AdLunam, Inc. If not, you can send them on a direct message to us. And of course, you can also tweet them to Gex at Moonstream, which has the ideas already shared and tweat above. So, Gex, thank you so much for this enlightening power hour that we've had about looking how Moonstream is changing the face of Hollywood. Thank you so much for being on the show today.

Gex Williams

Hey. Thank you, JP. I really appreciate it. Thank you for everyone tuning in. We're excited to continue on this journey with everyone. Appreciate it.

JP

All right. Okay. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you so much for tuning into the show. Do remember that we'll see you again here at the same time next week with a brand new episode of Diving Into Crypto. And also, just to bump up this particular point is that we have our other channel. I'm kind of out of breath here because of all the wonderful things that Gex has been sharing with us. Please remember to tune in on Tuesdays at the same time to The Future of NFTs, a show that's hosted by our co-founder Nadja Bester. Right. That being said, ladies and gentlemen, I wish you a wonderful week ahead, cheers.