Writers Room — New Opportunities and Endeavors
Gm Writers Room,
Happy 2024! A new year, brimming with fresh opportunities and untold stories. We hope it’s been off to a great start for you all. We are excited to provide you with an update regarding Writers Room and our upcoming endeavors.
WebToon Revamp
In late summer 2023, we embarked on our inaugural WebToon series. Members of the Writers Room had the chance to license their characters to either Jenkins or the Mutant. The current series spans five episodes, alternating perspectives between Jenkins and the Mutant.
While we’ve been having a lot of fun working on the WebToon, we also realized that the story got a bit complicated, partly due to the myriad of input we received from the Creative Questions.
Additionally, we delved into the prevalent style on the WebToon platform, to enhance the quality of our series (this can already be seen in the latest episodes).
Heading into 2024, we’re gearing up for a fresh start. “A Narrative Untold” will conclude, paving the way for a new WebToon series. Licensing opportunities will reopen, welcoming new Writers Room members into the fold. The goal is, and always will be, to prove that amazing content can come from a group of people coming together. Similar to the previous WebToon licensing opportunity, the primary goal of this story is to push the creative boundaries of our collective and to create something that ultimately adds value to the Writers Room through recognition and wider reach. We do not have any immediate goals with respect to revenue generation for this project, but we do believe that doors can be opened by going back to our roots to co-create fun and entertaining content.
This time, we’ll streamline the storytelling process. Rather than frequent Creative Questions, we’ll pose a series of initial questions to shape the narrative. Your Writers Room NFT will play a pivotal role:
- You need a Writers Room NFT to license your character(s).
- One character can be licensed per Writers Room NFT.
- The tier of your Writers Room NFT determines your prominence in the series, with Yacht holders enjoying a front-row seat.
We will also be focusing on increased social media promotion, amplifying the visibility of our next series, and hopefully your characters.
GIPHY
In Q4 of 2023, we launched Jenkins’ GIPHY channel, quickly accumulating 10 million views by year-end. It’s easy for us to sometimes get sucked into the echochamber of NFT Twitter (X?), but branching out to other platforms like this can really help mainstream adoption. You can find and use GIFs of Jenkins easily on your favorite platforms like X and WhatsApp. We are uploading new GIFs almost every week.
We know Jenkins loves being the star of the GIPHY show, but… this is Writers Room, and Writers Room directs! So, in 2024, Writers Room will take the reins:
- Writers Room will help decide as well as give input as to what new GIFs shall be created
- Writers Room members will get the opportunity to license their own characters to be featured in and alongside Jenkins’ GIFs.
- The same hierarchy as for the WebToon will apply here: Yacht holders go first, then Stand, then Key, and finally Ticket holders. This will let you use GIFs of your characters in your everyday communication on your favorite platforms.
You’ll have to own both the character NFT and a Writers Room NFT to participate. Character NFTs can be from any collection that gives NFT owners full IP rights.
Podcast
A couple of things happened that led the podcast to take substantially longer than expected:
- When the market crashed and a series of ‘black swan’ crypto events occurred, mainstream media decided to pile on NFTs and Crypto with many articles calling for its downfall. As a result, Hollywood took a big step back from NFTs and we noticed a visible lack of excitement from partners we had been previously speaking with. We saw this happen especially around the downfall of FTX, and a lot of conversions we’d been having with podcast distributors slowed down due to the inherent web3 nature of our idea.
- The Writers’ strike slowed down the production and scriptwriting of the podcast itself as all WGA writers stopped working. This was a downside of us sourcing such incredible and mainstream writing talent. They had to abide by the union’s collective stance.
There have been no updates, because, we’ve looked at our previous track record of communications as well as what happens in the space at large, and we’ve determined that the reason that “announcements of announcements” happen in the first place is because work takes time, and teams don’t always have something to say. We’ve determined that as a company, we are never going to say something when we don’t have something to say.
That said, we do have something to say now. We have a pilot episode that we’re super excited about. We’ve had a few great conversations with podcast distributors, and SALT Audio has provided those distributors with a budget in order to progress to a stage where they can make an offer to distribute the podcast to a wide audience outside of our little pocket of the internet. We are hopeful that one of these distributors will take a liking to the project and move forward. If not, we’ll continue to press forward and evaluate the best options for the podcast. We know this is an incredible project with a lot of potential. The writers attached and the pilot script they’ve written is truly world-class.
At the same time, we’re building an awesome platform that will integrate a special podcast experience for Writers Room holders and NFT holders from podcast communities. As more information becomes available to us, we’ll share it with you. We remain committed to bringing this podcast to market in as exciting a manner as possible.
Bored & Dangerous Hoodie Claim
Many of you elected to waive your funds prior to our announcement that we were canceling the 0.08 ETH charge to burn B&D books for Azur Roots. Once we changed that policy, we then opened a survey asking which of the following options you preferred to proceed with:
- Go back and KYC — The vast majority chose this option.
- Donate your funds to charity — Only 3 people voted for this, but none of those votes came from qualifying wallets (i.e. people that had previously waived).
- Do something else with the funds that benefit me as a Writers Room holder — Several people elected this option, but we had somewhat limited funds to work with.
We explored several options but ultimately landed on a custom/unique merch piece that is notably linked with Jenkins and the Writers Room — the iconic Bored & Dangerous hoodie (see below).
If you previously waived funds and connected your wallet to the claim site, you’ll receive a 100% discount on this hoodie (including zero shipping cost). If you claimed your funds previously, you’re still welcome to visit the site and purchase a hoodie at cost (i.e. we’re not making a profit).
We feel this is a fair way to reward those who waived funds, while still allowing all Writers Room members to participate in this limited edition hoodie drop.
The claim window is open until February 2nd, on https://hoodie.writersroom.xyz/.
Bored & Dangerous Physical Book
We’ve been wanting to make a physical version of Bored & Dangerous for a long time. Similar to the issues we’ve found with podcast distributors, we’ve faced friction with traditional publishers who are currently shying away from crypto projects. Based on all of our ongoing conversations with publishers to date, we’ve decided to take production into our own hands for now.
We will be opening up a free physical book claim for those who hold an unburned Bored & Dangerous NFT in the second quarter of 2024. One book per wallet. More information will come before the claim goes live. There will be a limited time window in which one can claim a copy. We will make sure to announce this claim window well in advance, along with all necessary details.
Website
With the revamp of Writers Room, we felt it was also time to re-do the website. This renewed website will be where we’ll keep you all up to date regarding WebToon progress, new polls, projects, and more. It’ll go live in February 2024.
Conclusion
Exciting times lie ahead for Writers Room. Keep an eye out for the new website coming soon, as well as the next WebToon series.
Writers Room, let’s continue creating together.
– Tally Labs
