The Big Dark – A Playbook for Web3 Indies, Part 1
A director's case study in building immersive films. Charting the journey of one test pilot into a Web3 filmic storyworld.
The Big Dark’s first drop is live. The screening is on 3.12.25. Visit Metalabel to grab a ticket:
What you should know off the bat is I cut my teeth shooting these narrative films on the streets of LA and NYC—penny budgets, zero crew and always under the radar. Just instinct, a script, a camera, a microphone, a handful of actors, and the hustling, bustling real world to contend with in every shoot. This is how I’ve made my films for two decades—and I kind of still love it.
The focus of these articles is to document one take on a contemporary approach to guerrilla filmmaking—one that sharpens the craft, raises the bar, but never loses its punk roots. With The Big Dark, I specifically wrote the test pilot for the actors I cast and produced it on a shoestring budget—12 shooting days spread over five months.
First and foremost, this is what The Big Dark pilot is about: A Pacific Northwest park ranger is torn between searching for his runaway stepdaughter in the city and investigating a dark, unexplainable presence in the forest. He crosses a point of no return—where what he finds can’t be unseen, and every step forward risks not only his life but the lives of others.
Pursuing an Immersive Framework for Indies
With the Big Dark, we’re embracing Web3 to redefine how films are made, owned, and distributed—prioritizing creators, audiences, and exploring sustainable revenue models over platform-driven control. Here’s how:
Blockchain-Based Rights & Ownership
Web3 eliminates middlemen. By leveraging blockchain, Filmworks Release ensures that rights, revenue, and ownership are transparent, automated, and locked in through smart contracts. This means creators and collaborators get paid directly—no studios, distributors, or streaming platforms holding the purse strings.
Community-Driven Funding & Participation
Filmmaking isn’t just about consumption—it’s about connection. Web3 allows audiences to be more than passive viewers; they can back projects, participate in their development, and have a real stake in the films they support. This shifts power away from centralized institutions and into the hands of the people who care most.
Decentralized Ownership & Revenue Sharing
Traditional film distribution leaves creators with little control over their work’s financial future. Web3 changes that. Tokenized ownership and direct revenue-sharing models ensure that filmmakers, backers, and supporters benefit from a film’s success—not just a handful of executives. By decentralizing control, Filmworks Release keeps decision-making where it belongs: with the creators and their community.
The Plan is to Run Towards the Risk
The Big Dark isn’t just using Web3 technology—it’s wire-framing a micro ecosystem where indie creators own their work, audiences are active participants, and revenue flows fairly. The goal? A sustainable, creator-first film economy that doesn’t rely on corporate gatekeepers or investors only interested in bank to survive.
The problem with most film properties that go through the process of raising capital is that they are completely risk-averse to trying new, unproven ways to get the film made and put out there. So, they take the common paths because someone or some group expects to recoup their investment and it’s easier to blame a broken distribution model than say the film maybe just sucked - I mean didn’t connect with an audience. And yet, these same paths have proven time and time again to be unreliable. Strange, isn’t it?
The Big Dark, although micro film, is a work designed to road-test unconventional production and distribution strategies. Initially structured like a test pilot, there is no set plan to extend beyond this first installment in any predictable fashion. The immediate goal is to release the pilot, employ a transmedia approach in the next phase of storytelling and chart it along the way. This experiment embraces risk and the possibility of failing fast to learn quickly.
Designing a Hyper-Local Film Ecosystem
So here’s the question: What makes The Big Dark a Web3 experiment? Does form follow function, or is it the other way around? Hell if we know. But like any good movie, the questions are always better than the answers. And if a vision is gonna stick—really stick—it’s gotta be something you can grab onto and run with.
Forget cookie-cutter productions. Forget setting fire to a pile of cash for marketing.
Here’s a handful of “what ifs” we’re kicking around to make The Big Dark a Web3 case study worth talking about:
Build the Film Around People and Locations
The film has a clear sense of place. Location access influences the scenes, and characters are shaped with the actors cast. The circumstances of the story are mined through collaborative workshops in the Actors Tank, which help inform the shooting script.
The Neighborhood is the Star
A Filmworks Release celebrates the town where the movie was made—the people, the businesses, the places. These aren’t just backdrops; they’re part of the story
Hyper-Local Circular Economy
Every dollar spent on cast, crew, or production stays in the community. The films don’t just look local—they benefit local.
A True Sense of Place
The café in the movie? It’s real. You can visit. Order the hat the lead character got from the neighborhood hat maker. Call the same local window-washing company in the scene. Grab a bottle of the same craft whiskey made in a distillery a bike ride away. This isn’t just storytelling—it’s living.
Royalty Drip— a cool phrase I heard from
Not everyone is content living through a screen. Some people want more. Stories that don’t just distract but push them—to step outside, to connect, to engage with the world beyond their front door and inspire people to try new stuff - with others.
And creators feel it too. They’re done chasing algorithms. Done fighting for scraps in a system that chews up their work and spits it out as “content.” The old model? Content farms, ad revenue splits, endless IP recycling. Built to keep audiences glued to screens, not to create anything that lasts.
But the shift is happening. Platforms like Substack, Metalabel, and Decentralized Pictures are carving a different path. A direct line between filmmaker and audience. No gatekeepers. No middlemen. No chasing trends to stay afloat. These models aren’t about feeding the machine. They’re about building a community. A place where a film isn’t just something you watch—it’s something you take part in.
And that’s where royalty drips come in.
Instead of waiting for a system designed to shortchange them, filmmakers can set up continuous revenue flows for their collaborators—writers, cinematographers, editors, actors—anyone who put in the work. No more one-time payouts and walking away. Everyone involved gets a stake, not just a paycheck. And the more the work grows, the more they all see from it.
This is the first in a series on breaking away from the old system and exporing Web3 solutions. Filmworks recently dropped it’s first release—tickets to The Big Dark screening in North Portland’s Slabtown. Next up? A limited final cut of The Big Dark test pilot—yours for $10. And in the next article, I’ll break down the steps and experience of releasing a film works on
This is how it starts. You make a small project that isn’t risk-averse, you go all in, and you find a path that puts faces behind the work—both the ones making it and the ones watching it. And what I’d really like to take away from all this? That when you can measure this kind of engagement, it’s not just a passion project—it’s a stepping stone.
A way to learn, to adjust, and maybe, just maybe, to discover fresh ideas to fund and distribute future film works in a way that opens up new possibilities and gives rise to all my collaborators and participants enrolled in that sexy royalty drip plan.
Hit subscribe. Stay tune for the next article. Grab a ticket: www.thebigdark.xyz