ASET Technology Alberta Winter 2021 - 18

Film production companies like Versatile Media are incorporating tools like video game engines to create visual effects for their productions. Image
courtesy of Versatile Media Ltd.
Manuel Badel is one of Canada's leading voices in the incorporation
of blockchain technology into creative media
endeavours, like film or television. He is also currently developing
Platz, a data room sharing software that allows
stakeholders access to metrics such as environmental sustainability
levels on a production, or representation of certain
demographics within the cast. The application is also
used for rights management, so the stakeholders can see
exactly where their money is going.
With all of the distribution avenues
like different languages, regions and
platforms, Badel says it becomes
increasingly tricky to keep track
of individual stakeholder rights,
otherwise. From there, finding out
things like sales revenue, content
distribution and royalties can be hazy
and difficult.
" This question of lack of transparency can be addressed
through a more decentralized system where the different
stakeholders will access the information directly, " Badel
explains.
" The idea is really to manage the access to the information
and make sure that you will allow the access to the essential
information that the stakeholder will get. "
This process can be itemized through the creation of a smart
contract, authenticated by a non-fungible token (NFT). Such
tokens then prove authenticity and ownership of a certain
asset. Badel uses the various properties of a film to demonstrate
how this works.
" Each time an asset is added to the system it will generate a
token and this token actually is an NFT, " he says.
" If, for instance, a producer wants to license the rights of
his film for a particular territory or he wants to allow, for instance,
a game development studio to create a game based
on the original script, there will be one NFT for this. "
This tokenization is something that can come in handy at
different stages throughout an IP's life cycle. Authentication
in the beginning, to financing the project throughout, to the
monetization of rights around the IP, to community engagement,
can all be easily cleared up with such a transparent
system of ownership.
Badel holds that even if consumers
don't understand the specifics behind
NFTs, they understand the universal
concept of spending a bit of money to
acquire part of a property, be the sole
owner of that part, and have the ability
to trade and share it as they please.
18 | WINTER 2021 | TECHNOLOGY ALBERTA

ASET Technology Alberta Winter 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of ASET Technology Alberta Winter 2021