Hey Nouns DAO,
Artist and slapstick conceptualist Marc Horowitz here, with a proposal to co-create a Nouns DAO-ified season of my new serialized NFT video collection, Worst Case Decision. It’s like Adult Swim on a dozen espresso shots, in one-minute-or-less episodes, released as 1/1 NFTs.
This is an opportunity to expand Nouns DAO culture by unleashing highly visible artist-created, community-developed CC0 video content that can be distributed everywhere. It’s also a brand-new way to use web3 tooling to release episodic videos, and an opportunity to pioneer a decentralized media production model that can help inform the future of entertainment. *takes a breath
Read on and watch the below video to learn more.
What’s Worst Case Decision?
Worst Case Decision is maybe the first episodic “show” to be released as an NFT series.
Each season of WCD features 7 bite-sized fever dreams that are handcrafted into 30-70 second “episodes.” Every episode chases surreal characters along a bat-shit hyper-casual narrative that loosely follows a theme. So far we’ve explored themes such as “mayonnaise portal,” “everyone is wet,” “hi-fi asparagus rain,” and “too many cats,” to name a few.
The show’s vibe feels like surfing in a sea of technicolor absurdity, with a low-fi, internet-infused, stop-motion animation style. Video, painting, web3, DALL-E, comedy, commerce… WCD has it all. (Scroll to the bottom of this proposal to view sample episodes.)
Worst Case Decision Quick Facts:
- 50 Seasons planned, 7 episodes per season (350 episodes total)
- Episodes released episodically as 1/1 video NFTs via worstcasedecision.com
- Each season features an ever-changing cast of characters and collaborators
- NFTs can be purchased with credit card and digital currency (ETH)
What makes this exciting for Nouns DAO?
We’re at the dawn of a new era for entertainment—one that will enable audiences and creators to build sustainable models of cultural production together. As perhaps the first-ever serialized 1/1 NFT video collection, Worst Case Decision is taking a pioneering approach to launching meme-y, weird, funny narrative shorts with and for the communities who believe this kind of art should exist in the world.
Beyond pioneering this new web3-native episodic production model, there are a few specific benefits that Nouners can expect from supporting this project:
Noun-ified Episodes The entire season will be built based on decentralized creative direction by opening up key decisions to the Nouners (and in some cases the internet at large, for max visibility). This includes community input/voting on:
- The “themes” of each episode
- Protagonists (I’ve got so many weird character ideas, man)
- Supporting cast (really, so many weird characters)
- Episode backgrounds
CC0 Content & Nouns Memes The Nouns season of WCD will be entirely CC0. This means that anyone can meme the shit out of the entire season, which will be full of Nouns references, noggles, and other inside jokes specific to Nouns’ community, culture, and lore. Cut up and re-mix the episodes however y’all see fit, and post wherever you want.
Additional Benefits to Nouns DAO
- Major marketing and PR exposure. This is a first-of-its-kind video collection in the NFT space, and there’s “a lot of press to be had.”
- WCD is planned for 50 seasons. Nouns would be the 3rd season of 50, and the first-ever sponsored season—representing an early entry into supporting what could become a historic release.
- Introduce Marc’s audience to Nouns. I’ve been an independent artist for 25 years, and as a result I’m decently well known. I can help bring the fine art world’s attention to Nouns and web3 at large.
- Reach non-web3-savvy folks, too. Our tech partner Hashku has both crypto-native and custodial credit card minting solutions, meaning that non-crypto folks can participate in NFT auctions.
These are just mere examples of potential Nouns x WCD characters! Glorious, yes? Please feel free to take ‘em and make ‘em your PFPs. (Shhhh…. there will be plenty more via https://nouns.build/ in the future.)
What makes this exciting for Collectors?
I care immensely about my collectors. I want to add value and make the experience as fun and engaging as the episodes themselves. We have an expansive vision and are thrilled to include our collectors along this journey.
If you are a holder of a WCD episode from any season, you’ll get access to:
- My network via a private discord channel for collectors (a seat on the board so to speak)
- Input on IRL WCD events
- Early access to future WCD collabs and projects
Marketing & Community Development
Our philosophy for marketing and PR follows the vision for the project. Simply put: Our weird creative vision and IRL performances are going to cause some really interesting responses, which we’ll engage with using our built-in strengths with social media and PR.
Marketing Plan
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Launch activities – Our team will produce strategic content and a mix of online and IRL activations to generate as much pre-launch awareness as possible. We have an existing list of interested & interesting media partners to engage here. The web3 PR agency Serotonin is among them.
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High-velocity engagement – A dedicated Project Ambassador will act as a marketing strategist, online social maestro, and Nouns champion, using multi-channel engagement tactics to build momentum.
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Partnerships & sponsorships – I (Marc) have a long history of partnering with brands to co-create projects. We will be bringing on some truly exciting collaborators and sponsors to spread the word even farther.
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Long-term community growth – Our desire is to make this project fully self-sustaining. To do this, our goal is to increase the performance of NFT auctions and overall engagement with the series by aggressively growing the WCD community.
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Transparent success metrics – We will track and analyze meaningful engagement metrics to keep the community informed on how we’re doing, and to strengthen our marketing approaches overall.
Open-Sourcing Our Promo Strategy
We wish to be as transparent as possible with our learnings about marketing and running this project. We’ll create a public document outlining our goals, metrics, successes, and learnings so that our efforts can help future projects and the community at large.
Project Team
In addition to an amazing lineup of advisors, our core team currently consists of the following:
Marc Horowitz // Creator & Visionary Chris Coy // Partner & Spiritual Advisor Damien Newman // Creative Consultant & Power Supporter Matt Casanova // Builder of Technologies Hashku // Minting Platform
Budget
Anticipated activities and budgets (by phases):
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Pre-Production – $9,650 Studio usage, lighting equipment, episode concepting/ production planning for all 7 episodes, props, backgrounds, art department (hand making all the noggles and weird other props).
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Production – $16,875 Director fee, cinematographer/camera operator fee, additional creative direction and shoot crew/collaborators, daily incidentals during shoot (food, grip, etc), and production assistance.
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Post-Production – $11,500 Sound finishing/sfx/sound design, music licensing, editing, smart contract customizations for specific season NFTs, season-specific website costs (video bandwidth and hosting).
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Promotion of Nouns + WCD Season (Outreach/Marketing/PR) – $17,475 Spread the word about the Nouns DAO and its sponsored season of WCD via strategic editorial write ups, podcast appearances, live events, IRL media stunts/performances, and other activations TBD. See further notes in “Marketing Plan” (above).
Total Budget ($55,500) + price contingency: 50 ETH (converted to USDC immediately)
Timeline & Logistics
Mid-late February, 2023: Launch the project with unsponsored seasons 1 and 2.
Mid-January: Collaborate with the Nouns community. Using voting mechanisms and other means of gathering community input, we will collectively shape WCD season 3.
Mid-late January: Once our Nouns season is planned, each episode takes roughly 2 days to film and edit. That brings pre-production, production, and post-production to 3-4 weeks total.
How NFT Auctions Will Work on worstcasedecision.com
Each season of WCD video episodes will be dropped over the course of a week (dates will be announced via @marchorowitz).
- Each day at 9am PST a new episode will drop on worstcasedecision.com
- Each episode will be released as a 1/1 NFT
- Each NFT’s auction will end at 8:55:59 am PST the following day
- When one auction closes, the next one drops—and this continues for 7 days in a row, Mon–Sun.
The Future of WCD and Episodic NFTs
We have the team and vision required to evolve WCD into a genre-defining series. Beyond this, we think we’re onto something in regards to how serialized NFTs can be used as a sustainable model to fund the production of some truly weird and great videos—and other creations as well.
If you are interested in learning more and chatting with Marc and the team personally, please reach out and we’ll have a chat ;)
Thank you, Nouners!
If I get the chance to collaborate with you all, I know we can make something really fun and amazing. If you have any questions, feel free to dm me.
Also, if you happen to be in the Swiss Crypto Valley, I’m in a show @unpaired__ NFT IRL gallery through 12/02/22 w/ Krista Kim, Shavonne Wong, Pak, Takashi Murakami, Pilar Zeta, Nancy Baker Cahill, The Haas Brothers, and Urs Fischer.
Much love to you all ✌🏼
Sample Episodes
Total Despair: Coffee Maker Fantasy (Season 1, Episode 3)
After God rains down hi-fi asparagus and kills parrot, our crew gets to the bottom of why such a thing would happen.
Sticky Resuscitation: Frog RomCom (Season 2, Episode 1)
Sometimes a bagel just isn't worth it. Or is it the missing piece to a new romance?
Night Terrors: Saint Bernard Sci-fi (Season 4, Episode 3)
Saint Bernard's friend didn't take his night meds again :0
Dull Existence: Carlos Tragedy (Season 7, Episode 2)
Carlos's friend Hank is always bored. Not today! Avocado makes his debut.
Relevant Links http://1833marcive.com/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_Horowitz https://deboergallery.com/marchorowitz
Some Press about Marc The Aesthetics of Stability (L’Officiel) A Prankster-Turned-Painter Leaves Self-Sabotage Behind (Hyperallergic) I Wish I Could Wear These Balenciaga Paintings (The Cut) Marc Horowitz (Interview Magazine) Dumb Starbucks and the Art of the Hoax (New Yorker) Marc Horowitz Opens New Doors at Depart Foundation, Los Angeles (Huff Post) Taking The Great American Road Trip, Google-Style (NPR)