Leveller Media today announced the launch of its digital investing platform for the entertainment industry, which facilitates storytelling from an increasingly diverse group of creators through everyday investors around the globe. Leveller matches creators with suitable investors, enabling smaller projects to receive the funding they need.
On the platform, there is no set no minimum investment threshold, and investors are given the opportunity to be rewarded both financially and with credits. Leveller will partner with distributors, studios, networks, streaming services, and social platforms to identify distribution routes for projects. To accelerate adoption and awareness of the Leveller platform, Leveller Media will incentivize early creators and help to fund initial projects.
Leveller Process
The platform harnesses the power of tokenization and cryptocurrencies; every project on the platform is initiated with an individual Token Generation Event, and all investments and returns can be issued in Level (LVL) tokens, Ether, Bitcoin, or fiat. If a project does not meet its minimum funding threshold, investors are refunded in LVL. Upon the successful release of a project, payouts are secured by smart contracts, and blockchain ensures the terms and proceeds are fairly and honestly distributed among all stakeholders.
Entertainment Industry
Entertainment is dominated by a small number of companies that earn the lion’s share of profits through a few dozen blockbuster products. Niche but commercially viable productions languish in development. In the film industry, just 4% of the 900 top-grossing projects between 1996 and 2016 were directed by women. Leveller removes the barriers that have kept underrepresented groups out of the spotlight. With Leveller, anyone in entertainment can share their vision and receive the funding it merits.
“The entertainment industry is not living up to its full potential. Gifted creators are being neglected and consumers are being denied compelling content. Leveller Media will change this, aligning incentives between creators and investors, ultimately returning diversity to storytelling by enabling consumers to invest in and consume productions they believe in. We welcome creators to partner with us and advisors who would like to help us shape the Leveller community.”
– Eric Vonfeldt, Co-Founder and Co-CEO Leveller
Leveller will allow creators to upload project details, which will then be processed by a suite of artificial intelligence tools to match the projects with interested investors based on their preferences and investment strategies. Recording all transactions involved in investment and payout for these productions on a blockchain enables greater transparency, in addition to lower costs, high-speed reconciliation, and increased security for all stakeholders.
“In my many years working in the entertainment industry as a studio executive and independent filmmaker, there is little doubt in my mind that a platform like Leveller is much-needed. It allows artists to create freely through new ways of blockchain and cryptocurrency financing providing the opportunity to make socially relevant and more diverse projects that fall outside of mainstream Hollywood.”
– Marty Katz, Leveller Media advisor, Independent Producer and former EVP of Walt Disney Studios
Investments within the Leveller platform will be memorialized in encrypted Ethereum smart contracts, meaning payouts from the investment pool to the creators will be incremental and based on the assessments of third-party auditors and Leveller’s escrow agent, Paxos. The third-party auditors will screen all projects; the auditing process will be part of a system of checks and balances. Funds raised will be held in escrow and released in phases based on milestones completed and tied to the project’s budget and shooting schedule outlined in the terms and conditions set by the creator.