Lead Names

Gristlewhistle and Big Sauce

Project Name - StoriesByWassies

Story Title - "Future Teamwork"

It’s about change.
It’s about hopes and dreams.
It’s about taking a leap of faith by believing in your ability.
It’s about the future and creating new ways to build art communities.
And it’s about changing the way people look at the blockchain.

Elevator Pitch

A three-part story, featuring 4 primary Wassie characters who are determined to redesign their industry. They quickly get in over their heads and must pivot to designing and selling digital art. To accomplish this, two of them work together to invent the technology, but they must sway the other two Wassies who carry heavy skepticism. The result is a fun and humorous story that explains NFTs in a simple and easy way.

Project Description - Meet the Characters!

Bernard - Represents the general public/critics of NFTs.
The son of an esteemed chef, Bernard is passionate about food and restaurants but deep down he knows the industry is broken. The story starts with Bernard dropping his traditional restaurant life and going all in on a new venture, a culinary school. He hopes to reform the industry by training chefs in a brand new way. Despite his best intentions, the school quickly begins to fail. When offered a solution in the form of digital art, he is skeptical and thinks it is a scam. It will require quite the persuasive argument to convince him.

Rox - Represents the artists in the NFT space.
When we first meet Rox, he has given up on his dreams and has succumbed to the 9-5 trap, working as day-shift bartender. He was once filled with artistic ambitions, but they have been squelched by the anxieties and fear of the “real” world. He passes his time by sketching and doodling. He’s an inventor at heart, and is always thinking of the next big thing. He’s often overlooked at the school, but his moment arrives at the end of Part One, as he must deliver a compelling speech to help save the school.

Alby - Represents Satoshi and Vitalik.
He’s weird, kooky, and mysterious. Nobody knows how long Alby has been living at the school as the groundskeeper. In his time there he has built an elaborate farm and ranch that at times seems magical. He has an uncanny habit of writing down everything going on at the farm, even down to the supply of every crop and every purchase. His output is quickly outgrowing his handwritten system, so he has begun building a digital ledger to help. He’s been looking for the purpose of his newly built system, but lacks the creative talent or imagination to see its full potential...

Sasha - Represents the Founders and Core Teams.
 Half-brother of Bernard, Sasha is a master of logistics and legalities. He is constantly working behind the scenes to keep the team compliant of all regulations. He also oversees the dormitory, a job he did not sign up for. With time he unexpectedly finds a loving bond with the student body. When approached with the idea of the NFT, he sees the potential, but he is reluctant as he knows it is a logistics nightmare. At night, when he’s finally alone, his soft side comes out as he writes love letters to a distant pen pal, and we get a chance to hear his secrets…

Student Body - Represents the community in all our needy ways.
As the story progresses, we envision real community members enrolling in the student body and joining the story.

Supporting Staff

Project Description - Storyline

Part One - The story starts with the formation of the team and the launch of a school. They quickly get in over their heads and are forced to think of creative solutions, even if it means abandoning all culinary-related endeavors. Rox and Alby bring the idea of NFTs to the table, but are met with heavy resistance. In the end, Rox sways the skeptics with an inspirational speech. Part One concludes with the team pressing the button the begin the mint.
Part One Finale - Shark Tank type episode with Rox pitching the NFT idea to a skeptical Bernard.

Part Two - The story picks up 13 minutes after the start of the mint and the project has sold out. Excitement is at peak levels, but now Bernard and Rox must scramble to build out the project and support their newfound community. Sasha is off traveling to the Cayman Islands and Dubai to build the legal foundation. Despite Alby’s teachings, the community struggles to understand the technology and use MetaMask. The season ends with Sasha launching a grants program…the next morning an eager crowd shows up at the front door of the newly named academy, “24/7” which serves the purpose of housing all creative endeavors relating to the NFT.
Part Two Finale - One week after the launch of grants… It features the a member of the grants team giving a tour/orientation to a newly approved project manager. The tour showcases all the available resources of the project and community.

Part Three - Continue to build the parallel between the “24/7” and the ByWassies Discord. Part Three will expand on aspects of projects including Community, Existing Grants, Wassie Boutique, Emporium, Merchandise, and Airdrops.

Deliverables

There is a lot of flexibility and possibility within the format/presentation of this story. The following are some examples of how this story can be presented, but we are willing to adapt based on what works best for the team and project:

Script - The full story will be written as a script, including notes for illustration.
Long-Form Illustration - This format includes 100% of the script and can be an animated show, a narrated slideshow, an illustrated book, a graphic novel, or a comic strip.
Season Finales - These stand alone as complete summary of Part One and Part Two’s significant events/education. These are the most valuable deliverable from this project, as they can be viewed by anyone, even if they know nothing about the story. The format can be an animated show, a narrated slideshow, an illustrated book, or even something more innovative like a huge mural-like picture, that features all the key scenes. (we can expand further in discussions)
Short-Form Illustration - These are commercials/trailers for the main story. They stand alone, but feature Easter eggs for true fans. They contain monologues and jokes from our favorite characters. These can be presented as Instagram Slideshows/Reels, Twitter or TikTok content.

The following are four examples of short-form content:

On The Rocks with Rox - Tough love, real talk, in the way only a bartender can deliver. Every episode starts with, “Is your (insert topic) on the rocks? Then I recommend this. (Topics can include: love life, career, relationships, diet, trading portfolio, crypto.
Bernard Pep Talks - Motivational pep talks. Full on positivity, blind optimism, hope, a little bit corny at times. These are there for you when you are down and need a lift.
Sasha’s Love Letters - Late night look into Sasha’s love life, as he finally gets a moment to himself. Through his letter writing to a long distance lover, Sasha shares both his and the school’s deepest secrets and struggles.
Dorm Life - Community written content through Drink and Write events hosted by Gristle and Sauce. Real stories from the Wassie community about their younger years. This serves as the avenue for more community members to begin contributing content to the story.

Demographics

Adult centered. Target age group of 20-40. Not inappropriate or raunchy, but it will not shy away from serious or adult topics. The story will appeal to people within the ByWassies/NFT community, as well as the people who have never purchased an NFT. To appeal to the latter group, the story gives a voice to the skeptics as well as an educational rebuttal to the criticism of NFTs.

Value/Business Model

Showcase the CC0 ByWassies and the project as a whole.
Increase social media presence and draw new members into the project.
Provide fun educational content about NFTs from the perspective of a skeptic, by explaining how the blockchain enables digital art.
Increase involvement of current ByWassies community members by hosting community events to join in the process of writing/illustrating/animating the short format content; and building avenues for their Wassies to appear in the story.
Provide content to all avenues of the project:
- Content for all Social Media Platforms
- Limited Edition Wassie Boutique content featuring art from the story
- Merchandise options including: Wassie Oven Mits, Aprons, Chef Hats, etc.

Funding - $50000

$3000/mo for Big Sauce - Screenwriter and Story Creator
$2000/mo for Gristlewhistle - Story Creator / Instructional Designer
$15000 for illustrator and design budget

Estimated Timeline - 7 months (Nov 1 - May 30)

At the end of 7 months, we will deliver the following:
Part One - 9 Episodes Written and Illustrated
Part Two - 9 Episodes Written
Part Three - 9 Episodes Outlined
Short-Form Content - (Instagram Slides/Reels) 6 "episodes"/posts/examples of each of the four shows.

Current Project Status

Work began on this project in March and then accelerated starting in August. Below is a small portion of the work completed..we are happy to include more examples in another post or during the interview process.

Character Development - The four main primary characters all have in-depth bios (2000+ words) and full character arcs for the story.

Part One - Fully outlined including episode by episode breakdowns of the main events and what each character is doing during that episode. The scripts for episodes 1, 2, and 3 are in late draft stage, and will be finished by early December.
Part Two - Late outline phase.
Part Three - Concept and early outline phase.

Closing Information

The main idea behind this story is that it features and/or explains aspects of the ByWassies project. That can include, but is not limited to: minting of an NFT, formation of a core team, logistics and legalities of licenses/trusts, opening avenues to community contribution/involvement, and general web3/NFT principles. The story will showcase how NFTs provide a new framework and a new model for the future of teamwork.