Nouns! An Animated Pilot

Thanks, Messhup! Super appreciate the comment!

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Would you be opening to funding this in milestones? Ie could we work to a pilot episode first before unlocking the rest of the funding? $2mm is a lot of money up front when we have very little idea what this is going to end up looking/feeling like and i think progressive scaling via milestones would make me comfortable in supporting this, whereas $2mm up front gives me pause

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Agreed!
Having this funded in tranches allow the DAO to see where all this could go and how big it could go.

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Big jumps give big pause–I understand that.

Right now we have it being funded in monthly milestones so it is not all up-front, this ensures that we are not going to take the money and run. Each month will have lots of updates and things that can be shared.

Some months of funding would be heavier than others as staffing a show has a bit of elasticity to it as we ramp up production and at some points, we will have staffed up to 44 folks at once.

Sam, this is, without a doubt, the most thorough proposal on discourse. Your vision for this is clear and backed by your industry pedigree. Having been in commercial production, the costs outlined actually seem conservative. I urge people to do some research on the cost of TV pilots vs an entire season. The ability to make a pilot requires a dedicated team that is willing to put other projects aside to drive it to completion. best of luck.

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David, had a Nouner call yesterday and there seems to be some concern about funding the entire production vs making a Pilot. Could you provide any insight?

Also some concern about the teams ability to execute. Do you share those concerns?

Any advice on the best path forward?

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hi @joshuafisher I wasn’t on the call but in general as an approach I would call that a good thing vs a concern, as pilots ( at least as best to my knowledge based on what I have been through personally ) are great proving grounds not only for the funding source but for the creative team, as no doubt it gives time to absorb version 1 of the effort and leaves time and room to adjust, reassess etc. I find that step in the process in general to be important for all parties, at least along my own travels.

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very helpful perspective david, would love to hear if the team behind this prop agrees

Also @Sam, is it fair to assume that the total price tag would also go up if split into pilot + rest of episodes?

How does the dao feel about funding, for example, 500 ETH for the pilot, and then another 1500 ETH for the entire season? Would this be easier to fund in increments, or would the total price tag be a turnoff?

Im curious, where do these concerns come from? Ive seen it mentioned in multiple places but yet to identify the source.

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even an animatic with voices would work…or be preferred, in my view. That way we get a solid feel for the timing, humor, conceit, who the characters are and tone without having to be “all in”, which as we all know would be unusual via industry anywhere within these funding parameters, but above all else, for the creative process, prevent having to backtrack or rework too far down the road.

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Thanks, Remixer.
We hope we can make something that brings in a whole new audience to Nouns and at the same time make something that the DAO and its members really enjoy.

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I am excited about this idea and this topic! I got to say it is a big ask (although probably aligned with industry standards). Personally I always prefer a POC to a big written plan. For that reason might be better to break it down. A pilot, or even a 5 min animatic with voice over and sound effects of one of your best scene could easily be funded in order to evaluate the team and nounishness. Imo this would help unlock further funds if successful.

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I am in the camp of going the route we have with many other proposals, starting with a pilot / much smaller funding round so the DAO can get a clear idea of what the end product may be looking like before committing to a much larger payment. this also seemed to be consensus on the last US Weekly call and I think is somewhat common in the industry?

i think there would be strong support for funding the pilot, but there could be hesitancy from the DAO to commit the full funding without

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The short answer is yes, we would be open to doing a pilot first.
The overall price for the first episode would be higher than doing a full series, but the total cost of 1 episode vs a series is less. we will be submitting an update to the proposal later for a single episode.

We agree that making a pilot is a good way to go at first.

Yes, the price per episode would go up if done this way.

The cost of the pilot can not just be deducted from the remaining episodes of the series, as there are factors such as being able to lump costs like editors, audio engineers, and voice talent together when we were producing more than one episode. If we do it like this, we have to book additional time with all those people so, the costs rise.

When amortizing costs across multiple episodes of a season, the overall cost per episode decreases. Artists’ short-term freelance rates are higher than longer-term employment rates. There are also discounts on software subscriptions for longer-term commitments.

Proposal: Nouns! An Animated Pilot

TL;DR

PPT Studios is asking for $500K (~Ξ385 at the time of 07/16/22) to make one 11-minute episode of Nouns! An Animated Series. This show would be CC0.

Hello Nouns DAO and the greater Nouns community.

We wanted to let you know that we appreciate the feedback and would like to modify this proposal.

We have decided to move forward with only proposing to do a stand-alone pilot episode first. We understand many in the DAO do not know us personally, but we have always followed through, having delivered hundreds of hours of animated content over decades in the animation industry. Additionally, we delivered our pitchbook to Prop 70 well before the internal deadline.

DESCRIPTION

We propose to create a pilot for Nouns! An Animated Series.
Nouns! An Animated Pilot is a 2D tradigital animated 11-minute episode as seen in the Prop 70 (CC0 Pitchbook). The show is an animated comedy following the surreal adventures of best friends balancing the desire for mature adulthood and their reluctance to grow up.

We propose doing a pilot in 3 phases.

  1. Script and Casting (weeks 1-6) $150K
  2. Animatic (weeks 4-11) $200K
  3. Final Animation (weeks 10-16) $150K

We are targeting the schedule for ~16 weeks. However, we may need some flexiblity and increase the time it takes to deliver the pilot to ensure we can put out the best product possible.
If we start at the beginning of August, we can deliver before the year end.

Phase 1: Scripting and Casting

This phase would last for four-six weeks.
During this phase we would work on the outline, script, script revisions and cast the episode.
Start Date: 08/01/22

Phase 2: Preproduction

Starting week 4, we would begin Phase 2.
This phase would last seven weeks.
During this phase, we will thumbnail, and storyboard, refine character designs, and backgrounds, create digital puppets and record scratch tracks and audio.
Start Date: 08/22/22

Phase 3: Production/ Post

Starting week 10, we would begin Phase 3.
This phase is where the actual animation begins, with compositing, editing, and putting the final touches on everything.
Start Date: 10/03/22

TOTAL ASK:

~Ξ385 or ($500K USD) to fund the creation of Nouns! An Animated Pilot.
The ETH will be immediately converted to USDC to ensure we have funding to cover production costs.

Q: Why is this single episode $500K when the six episodes before came out to ~$333K each?

A: When amortizing costs across multiple episodes of a season, the overall cost per episode decreases. Artists’ short-term freelance rates are higher than longer-term employment rates. There are also discounts on software subscriptions for longer-term commitments.

MULTISIG

The proposed budget + Ξ1 to cover gas fees will be released in ETH to a 2 of 3 multisig with signers x, x, and x. The ETH will be immediately converted to USDC, and everything in excess of the original budget, minus 1 ETH to cover gas for the life of the multisig, will be returned to the DAO. If, due to high volatility, insufficient ETH is available to cover the proposed budget, a second proposal will top up the multisig at a later date.

*Phases to be funded at the commencement of each phase. Note that these are guidelines only and that a final determination will be made in collaboration with the person-place-thing-escrow multisig.

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This is great Sam, at 500K it is still below the studio rates for pilots considering that you have to build a team for a one shot. When you deliver, if the DAO wants to greenlight 5-10 more episodes will they go to around $333 each?

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Yes, they should be much closer to that as we could then lump the costs across the season.

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I am looking forward to watching this pilot. I am not Nouns yet, but I strongly believe in your strength and goal to build a better, more developed and less decentralized world.

Someone needs to get this on chain.

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Thanks, Andrew.
We hope to get it on there soon.

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