Filmmaking - The Film3 Feed

The Reckoning Hollywood Didn't See Coming

The most expensive films ever made are underperforming. Franchise fatigue is realer than real. Theatrical attendance has been declared dead so many times it’s practically a meme. And yet — somehow — a horror film made for pocket change sells out midnight screenings. A niche drama with no stars and no studio backing finds its audience and keeps it. A scrappy, weird, specific little film does what a $200 million blockbuster cannot. Read more

Film3 is Punk.

In 1976, the major labels owned everything. They owned the studios, the pressing plants, the distribution, the radio airplay, and the narrative about what music was allowed to be. Getting a record deal meant getting permission from people who had never picked up an instrument in their lives. The gatekeepers didn’t care about your sound or what you wanted to say. They cared about their margin. So a bunch of kids in London and New York stopped asking. The Ramones played two-minute songs so fast... Read more

Cinema Was Always Meant to Be Yours

For the longest time, people didn't know what film3 was. Many still don't — and that's okay. Like a lot of things in the blockchain space, it's a big idea that arrived faster than the words to explain it. I felt like I understood it the moment I entered the space, but I heard story after story of people who couldn't quite define it. And when it came time for the movement to catch on and grow, that gap caused a major stall. What is film3? Filmmakers were genuinely excited about it. Builders were too... Read more

The Book of Film3

People have been asking me what film3 is for years. At festivals, in DMs, after panels, at events with filmmakers who sense something shifting. What is film3? How does it work? How do I get involved? I've answered the question more times than I can count — in conversations, in twitter spaces, on stages, over coffee, over beer, in articles, the list goes on. Every time, I gave the best answer I had. But a passing conversation was never going to be enough. So I wrote the book. This is my story.... Read more

What's Next in Film3

If you're anything like me, you're cutting your current film while developing the next one, managing a YouTube channel or three, running a podcast, and constantly in production while keeping teams on track. Maybe you also have a family and a household to run. Or a physical storefront or take on client work. To be honest, I love the chaos of it. I love being so busy I fall asleep without remembering my head hitting the pillow. I love waking up early to meet my screenwriting coach on UK time, and I love... Read more

You Are Now the Studio

IndieWire published a piece recently that stopped me mid-scroll. The headline was "Don't Call It a Comeback: How Independent Film Will Be Rewired in 2026." It's a sharp analysis of where indie film actually stands right now — not the hopeful spin, not the doom spiral, just a clear-eyed look at the new operating reality. And one line in particular landed like it was written directly at me: "Producers are asked to think like founders. Directors are expected to articulate not just vision but value... Read more

Our AI Agent Raises the Money, We Make the Film

Here's a sentence I never thought I'd write: our AI agent is raising funds from other AI agents to produce a human-made stop motion animated film (and even trolling us a little for being so analog). Auctobot's pitch deck has no pictures. No emotion. No sizzle reel. Just code — a machine-readable investment memo delivered agent-to-agent, onchain, returning a yes or a no. When it's a no, it collects data on why, so the pitch gets sharper with every pass. This is the first agent-to-agent production... Read more

Creator-Owned Cinema Is Here

Last week, I wrote about how Markiplier's Iron Lung — a $3 million community/self-financed horror film — debuted at number two domestically, expanded from 60 theaters to over 4,161 through a grassroots fan campaign, and has now crossed $48 million worldwide without a studio, a distributor, or a single institutional gatekeeper saying yes. That story was about proof of concept: A creator who owned his work, activated his community, and kept the economics. It's the film3 playbook less the blockc... Read more

The $44 Million Proof of Concept for Film3

Two weeks ago, a YouTuber did something Hollywood said was impossible. Mark Fischbach — better known as Markiplier to his 38 million subscribers — self-financed a science fiction horror film called Iron Lung for $3 million. He wrote it. He directed it. He starred in it. And when he shopped it to studios and distributors looking for a theatrical release partner, he was turned down across the board. One executive openly mocked the idea that the film would find an audience. So he distributed it ... Read more

MIXED*: 211 Films, 44 Countries, One Night in Portland

Last Wednesday, I found myself in a packed Tomorrow Theater for MIXED*, a hybrid film showcase curated by my friend Garett Stenson. The concept was simple but ambitious — 211 films submitted from 44 countries, distilled into a single evening in Portland, Oregon. But MIXED* clearly had bigger ambitions than a typical screening — less curated showcase, more catalyst for the kind of conversations independent filmmakers actually need to be having about AI. The night opened with a musical performance... Read more