TV Series ft. Cardano: awo.AI

[IMPACT] Please describe your proposed solution.

Reaching a Bigger Demographic via Edu-tainment 

If Cardano is to realize the vision of becoming a financial operating system that’s widely used across the African continent, then many more people in Africa eventually need to learn about the value of Cardano and project Catalyst.

Currently though, the vast majority of media featuring Cardano targets two demographics – cryptocurrency investors and technology enthusiasts – while many other groups are needed to grow use of the blockchain.

The development of key scaling upgrades to the Cardano network, including diffusion pipelining, asynchronous validation, input endorsers and Hydra are all likely to be deployed by mid-to-late 2023, if not sooner - enabling the network to remain performant and secure for many more projects and users. And the rapid debasement of fiat currencies globally, which could result in extreme, economic instability across parts of Africa over the next 1 - 2 years, could create much near-to-mid-term demand for a sound, inclusive financial system across the continent.

For these reasons, our team believes the time is now to start work on a media project that in the next 6 - 18 months can start educating a broader demographic of Africans about the potential of Cardano and Project Catalyst.

The Solution

Bringing entertainment to education, we propose the creation of a TV series about a young software developer whose adventure of self-discovery revolves around her discovery of the Cardano and Catalyst communities. 

awo.AI seamlessly integrates elements of drama, suspense, sci-fi and magical realism with an introduction into the world of dApps, NFTs, ISPOs and DAOs. And it will educate African audiences about the power and potential of Cardano and Catalyst – not only for software developers, but for all kinds of people – especially young people in Africa.

What’s more, our approach to community building, development and production will embody the ethos of Catalyst and the potential of Cardano: We aim to fund the project via a combination of Catalyst funds, stakepool-based crowdfunding made possible by African SPO partners, and Cardano NFT collections inspired by, and integrated into, the series itself. Finally, we’ll endeavor to connect audiences in Africa with the global Cardano community by holding online events and documenting the making of the series on social media.

The Story

awo.AI is a cross-cultural series about Leylani Oweye-Smith, a programmer developing divination software based on AI, machine learning, and an African religion brought to the Americas in the form of Voodoo and Santería. Its practitioners are known as awos.

A college dropout living in the American midwest, securing a pitch with venture capitalists seems like a longshot for Leylani. Convincing them of her and her product’s potential seems impossible.

Searching for funding, she stumbles down the Web3 rabbit hole, which eventually leads her to Project Catalyst. This is where her real journey begins.

Tech Integration: NFTs

The series will include NFTs integrated into the storyline. Bringing our main character’s project to life, Cardano NFTs created within the series will be available to audiences.

These cNFT holders will gain access to special features and experiences like Q&A’s with the cast and creative team, and whitelist holders for a more innovative NFT drop to follow the conclusion of the first major part of the series.

Community Integration

The series will include references to and appearances of real-world Cardano projects (with permission), and feature cameos by prominent members of the Cardano community.

We’ll also explore partnerships with leaders from the Cardano community, Catalyst working groups, and projects that could foster Cardano adoption among audience members – with a focus on projects, platforms and initiatives that are well-positioned to create economic opportunities for African users in the short-to-mid-term.

[IMPACT] Please describe how your proposed solution will address the Challenge that you have submitted it in.

Education Aligns with Challenge KPIs

Through our educational and entertaining series, we will grow the number of:

• Africa-based users on-boarded onto Cardano
• Africa-based Catalyst members

Marketing Plan

Our marketing plan isn’t an afterthought but an essential part of our project, commanding 45% of our project’s budget.

It social media strategy includes:

• Experienced social media lead (English language)
• French language social media outreach
• Kiswahili language social media outreach
• A Discord Server to include audience participation in storytelling process
• Gathering social media assets from cross-cultural team meetings, moodboard, and concept trailer.
• Highlighting Catalyst projects and Cardano influencers

[IMPACT] What are the main risks that could prevent you from delivering the project successfully and please explain how you will mitigate each risk?

Challenge: Boring content

Mitigation: Dynamic, professional storytelling team 

Challenge: Unsuccessful social media campaign

Mitigation: Social media team with experienced lead

Challenge: High cost production for trailer

Mitigation: Stock photos and footage

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed plan, including timeline and key milestones for delivering your proposal.

Month 1-2

• Milestone: Series Treatment (project background, logline, character descriptions, pilot episode outline, Season 1 outline, Season 2 story arc)
• Deliverable: link to Series Treatment document

Month 3

• Milestone: Moodboard production
• Deliverable: link to Moodboard

Month 4

• Milestone: Begin social media campaign
• Deliverable: social media handles

• Milestone: Concept trailer production
• Deliverable: link to video

Month 5-9  

• Milestone: Social media campaign
• Deliverable: analytics, including answer to polls

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed budget breakdown.

Budget

Series Treatment

Producer: $1,250

Writer: $1,875

Story Consultant: $1,000

Cultural Consultant: $1,000

Moodboard

Producer / Editor: $1,400

Story Editor: $250

Artist: $500

Stock Photos: $1,200

Drives: $255

Concept Trailer

Director / Sound / Editor: $3,000

Story Editor: $500

Voiceover Talent: $240

Music: $400

Drives: $255

Stock Footage: $1,200

Administrative

Admin / Legal: $1,500

Social Media

Social media marketing lead: $6,000

Social media (French): $3,000

Social media (Kiswahili): $3,000

Social media asset editor: $500

Discord server developer: $350

TOTAL $28,675

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide details of the people who will work on the project.

An Experienced Team

Shirah Dedman - @shirah

Producer / Director

Shirah started her film career as a child actor, and later worked on the business side of the industry before becoming a filmmaker. Her films have shown at domestic and international film festivals and broadcasted on TV. Follow the Drinking Gourd, is currently streaming on kweliTV.

shirahdedman.com

IMDB

Oluwapelumi Dada - @marvy101

Cultural Consultant

Oluwapelumi is a Nigerian native studying computer engineering at Huston-Tillotson University in Austin, Texas. He has interned as a computer technician, taught in a high school, and freelanced as a website designer with one goal: to learn as much as he can in order to make an impact.

Linkedin

Mildred Achoch

Writer

Mildred is a professional screenwriter, published poet, founder of ROFFEKE (Rock ‘n’ Roll Film Festival, Kenya) and creator of The Shenganiguns - a dysfuctional rock band from near-future Kenya.

IMDB

Anthony Capitan - @brerrabbit3

Story Editor

Anthony is the story editor of the award-winning documentary, Carving the Divine, which screened at Raindance Film Festival. He is also the co-founder of NFT infrastructure project, Argus NFT.

carvingthedivine.com

argusnft.com

Natasha Younge

Social Media Lead

Natasha is an authentic connector, content creator, and award-winning digital journalist. She currently serves as a social media marketing consultant for various Web3 projects. She also specializes in Twitter Spaces producer and outreach.

linkedin.com/in/natashayounge/

Kristin Layne Tucker 

Advisor

Kristin is an Emmy™ nominated TV writer. She is currently working on a Netflix production starring Jada Pinkett Smith.

IMDB

[FEASIBILITY] If you are funded, will you return to Catalyst in a later round for further funding? Please explain why / why not.

Ideally we would not return for repeat funding to Catalyst because we are working to have the project picked up by a studio (such as Netflix), or receive production funding by investors.

[FEASIBILITY] Are you or any member of your team working on any other proposals in this Fund9?

[FEASIBILITY] Are you or your team working on any other proposals from previous Funds?

[AUDITABILITY] Please describe what you will measure to track your project's progress, and how will you measure these?

Measuring Progress

• Number of social media followers
• Number of people engaged on Discord
• Number of Project Catalyst referrals
• Polls indicating people have become ada-holders

[AUDITABILITY] What does success for this project look like?

Measuring Success

• Completed series treatment
• Completed moodboard
• Completed concept trailer
• Comments on concept trailer video
• Week-over-week gains in social media followers
• Daily engagement on Discord server

[AUDITABILITY] Please provide information on whether this proposal is a continuation of a previously funded project in Catalyst or an entirely new one.

This is a new proposal.

Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Rating

SDG Goal 5: Our project address gender equality by being a woman-led project and and women-majority project team.

SDG Goal 9: Our project promotes inclusive technology development in Africa.

SDG Goal 10: Our project seeks to reduce inequalities by empowering all women and girls through our main character who is A.I. developer -- a technical position in which women are severely underrepresented.