The Real Cannonball Run document pushes creative boundaries with blockchain | Industry trends

The now famous American car race came to global attention with the release of 1981 The cannonball racean action-comedy film that became one of the biggest box-office successes of the year.

But we have to scroll back another decade to meet the origins of the blockbuster – and the source of an upcoming documentary, The Real Cannonball Runwhich is set to exemplify the innovative capabilities of Web3 concepts, including NFTs and blockchain.

The origins of The Cannonball Run

An unofficial car race that captured the outlaw spirit of the 1970s, the Cannonball Baker Sea-to-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash – to give the event its full title – ran from New York City and Darien, Connecticut on the East Coast of the United States to the Portofino Inn in Redondo Beach, California.

The brainchild of author and racer Brock Yates and auto magazine editor Steve Smith, the race took place five times in the 1970s as a celebration of the Interstate Highway and a protest against then-incoming traffic laws. It has since inspired a number of other coast-to-coast events, including the C2C Express, the most recent of which took place in 2019.

Now this unashamedly underground tradition is to be marked with a new documentary, The Real Cannonball Run, which will be produced, curated and streamed/distributed on the blockchain directly to fans. Driven by the developer base for cloud-based media solutions on the Eluvio Content Fabric, the project is set to combine what base CEO Ben Foakes describes as “feature filmmaking, a global fan base and a whole new paradigm for film post-production and Web3 distribution.”

Blockchain as a disruptor

With major new blockchain projects now seemingly being announced on a daily basis – the David Bowie NFT series, Bowie on the blockchainwhich is a particularly tantalizing prospect – there is ample evidence that the relationship between creatives and their audiences is on the verge of a historic shake-up.

Michelle Munson, CEO and co-founder of Eluvio, indicates that until recently the disruptive potential of blockchain “wasn’t fully understood. But when people start experiencing it and see that it’s real, that’s going to change [rapidly].”

With clips, behind-the-scenes footage and exclusive content to be released to fans ahead of the full documentary release in 2023, a project that has been in the works for around ten years is coming to fruition. Foakes, filmmaker Gero Hoschek and their respective teams have been engaged “in a long process of curation, [collating sources such as] old 8mm film and material hidden in boxes under beds.”

The advantages of Web3

As the years went by, it became increasingly clear that there were alternatives to getting the film financed and completed beyond pursuing studio backing or a more conventional crowdfunding model. With the advent of Web3 – and specifically blockchain and NFTs – there is the opportunity to “create content tailored to the fans and get them involved [all the way through]. Instead of speculating about something [in the marketplace]you can fund, create, launch and distribute content directly to a niche fan base.”

Munson echoes the sentiment, saying that “the economy is perfect [for this sort of project]. With the content, it is much more efficient to distribute, while the income flow goes directly from audience engagement to the creator. Another thing I have discussed with Gero and Ben is that engagement is on a completely different level than passive engagement [familiar to existing media delivery]. There is an element of ownership that really drives this creative model.

Over the past two years, all the pieces have gradually fallen into place in the technology puzzle. With a base that provides an end-to-end online content chain, the full range of content – ​​stock footage, 4K digital camera rush and third-party contributions – is securely uploaded to the cloud and automatically transformed into viewing proxies in an Iconik Media Library. This allows the creative team to view the content from any location and start tagging and selecting clips. Editing is done using Adobe Creative Cloud and leverages BeBop Technology’s BeBop OS, enabling seamless collaboration across the globe. At the end of the production process, the finished export is uploaded onto the Eluvio Content Blockchain, using a custom integration with BeBop OS.

How NFTs add value

Focusing on experiential NFTs – as opposed to one-time transactional tokens – the project will deliver its first NFT release for fans on September 10, including free cinematic artwork and pre-release trailer access. In addition, one fan will get early access to create a one-of-a-kind, 3D-rendered Digital Twin (NFT) of the Cannonball Countach LP400S Supercar. Level Experience NFTs will then drop on September 17, to coincide with the Great Marques Conours Auto Show in Long Island, New York.

The project typifies the increasingly forensic approach being taken to all aspects of the NFT/blockchain process – but what about the actual full-length film? Hoschek confirms that an immersive experience is to be expected here as well. “I watch a lot of documentaries – 3 or 4 a week – and part of that is seeing how everyone does them. Many documents [do follow a format] of some talking heads, archive material and so on, he says. But while these elements will be present in The Real Cannonball Runthe aim will be to make “people feel part of the experience as opposed to being told the story of the experience. [One key factor] is that we have been able to track down several photographers of [the same points in specific events]so that means we’ve had maybe 4 or 5 different angles on the same moments.” Hence the increased ability to produce something that is “truly immersive”.

There will also be room for fans to explore specific phases of auto racing in the United States, which will include events held long before the actual Cannonball Run races, through the extensive archive of curated content. In fact, the entire story spans “about 100 years of daredevil racing across the country, and viewers will be able to choose to see more of one period than others if they wish,” says Hoschek.

“A new way to reach fans”

Apart from their passion for this specific project, the team behind it The Real Cannonball Run is undoubtedly excited to be involved in Web3 at precisely the time it looks set to spark a global content revolution. As Foakes notes, “It’s a new kind of value exchange, and a whole new way to engage with your favorite media.”

“This is the first of its kind Web3-native production and distribution of a film,” says Munson, adding that the various stakeholders are working “to create a dream experience for anyone who loves racing, pop culture, technology, creativity and film history. “

Ahead of an IBC that is likely to mark an industry markedly changed from the last in-person show in 2019, Munson also predicts that blockchain-based models will soon be applied more extensively to existing content as well. “There is an opportunity to take out a large number of middlemen and benefit from it [major] cost reduction, she says.

“With the characteristics of the looming recession, many people are going to be looking at cost cutting, and [already there are companies] move large amounts of content out of the cloud and aggregate to the fabric as it is so much more affordable. So that is also an area to watch.”

On September 10 at IBC at 1 p.m (8.MS4), Gero Hoschek and Ben Foakes will join others from across the industry at a global Eluvio Community Event to discuss the use of the Blockchain Content Fabric for multi-chain ownership and distribution (registration info at