The debut documentary film from Emmy, Annie and Clio-winning animation collective Stoopid Buddy Stoodios (Robot Chicken, SuperMansion, CrossingSwords, Marvel’s M.O.D.O.K.) premieres May 29 during Consensus 2024, the world’s biggest crypto event, and then will be available for free on X beginning June 1.
SHARK, PICKLE, CONE A Nouns Documentary, produced in association with Decentral Media, is a chronicle of Stoopid Buddy’s creative journey to conceive, design and build a massive float for the Rose Parade and an introduction to the growing digital arts initiative called Nouns, which funded the project. It also explores the promise — and potential pitfalls — that blockchain technologies hold for mobilizing communities and creating new paths of financing, monetization and distribution for independent artists, filmmakers, technologists and NGOs.
The project was filmed through 2022 and 2023, following along as a team from Stoopid Buddy begins working with Nouns on creating a float for the 134th Rose Parade in a plan to bring Nouns to a worldwide television audience. Even as the film spotlights the global community that has made Nouns one of the most enduring projects to emerge from the NFT and blockchain bubble of 2021, SHARK, PICKLE, CONE also captures the drama and uncertainty that shook the digital finance world in November 2022 when cryptocurrency exchange FTX suddenly and dramatically collapsed.
In advance of its global debut at Consensus in Austin, Texas, SHARK, PICKLE, CONE has itself become an NFT in collaboration with Zora — the first full-length documentary to be minted to the blockchain. Through bonfire.xyz, SHARK, PICKLE, CONE will offer token-gated access to hours of original interviews and bonus materials archived from the making of the film.
“Nouns is a grand experiment, the Rose Parade was a grand experiment, and now creating this documentary continues that innovation — both through its subject and through the process by which it was made, which eschews all traditional methods of financing and distributing a film,” says producer and director Neil Berkeley (Beauty Is Embarrassing, Gilbert, Harmontown). “NFTs and the vision of Nouns demonstrate that there are exciting and different ways to bring a film to the screen. Old modes aren’t working. This is a new mode.”
SHARK, PICKLE, CONE A Nouns Documentary features interviews with the founders of Nouns and its most active members. The film looks at many of the real-world projects that have been brought to life with funds raised from daily auctions of digital Nouns avatars while examining the challenges and conflicts that arise within the DAO, or “decentralized autonomous organization,” which by design lacks traditional, centralized leadership hubs to guide its development.
“There are a lot of people who have no idea what an NFT is or how a DAO works, but it’s very clear that these still-unfamiliar concepts are having enormous influence around the world,” says producer Eric Towner, co-founder of Stoopid Buddy Stoodios. “Our goal was to create a film that illuminates these ideas, while still being a fun and engrossing look at the real struggles that exist on any creative project.”
SHARK, PICKLE, CONE is also produced by David Heiman, with studio co-founders Seth Green, John Harvatine IV and Matthew Senreich and Head of Development Chris Waters joining Towner as executive producers. It will premiere at 7 p.m. Central on May 29 as part of Consensus 2024; on June 1, the film will be made available for free on X at @NounsDoc.
The announcement comes on the heels of the news that Nouns Fest will hold its 2024 L.A. event in October. The screenings will include new short films from Stoopid Buddy.
leagueofbuddies.com | nounish.com
