Press release: Saturday, April 2, 2022, 3:00 p.m. CAT | Source: The Hedgie Fund
Artists and musicians use NFTs (non-fungible tokens) to promote their works, while collectors, enthusiasts and speculators around the world trade NFTs on the open market using blockchain technology. NFTs are all the rage right now because they allow their owners to own a small piece of the metaverse.
With this growing trend in mind, Matt Landon conceptualized the idea of The Hedgie Funda randomly generated trait-based NFT collection of “Hedgies” that uses the sets, props, and characters already created for Sam the hedgehog, an animated short about accepting autism. It is produced by MAAN Creative in Johannesburg. MAAN has algorithmically designed 8,128 Sam “Hedgies” for NFT enthusiasts and aficionados to mint for 0.05 ETH each and support a good cause. All proceeds generated from sales on The Hedgie Fund will be used to complete the film and donate to charities and autism-related causes to help foster global acceptance of autism.
“NFTs are digital representations of ownership of various items, with one of the most popular use cases being to represent art. Buyers buy, sell, and trade for a number of reasons, but NFTs fund rarely real projects with a real purpose. By purchasing a Sam “Hedgie”, collectors can be part of something meaningful that has an intention and that raises awareness and funds for Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD)”, explains Landon.
About 1 in 68 people are affected by ASD and it is a condition very dear to the creators of the film. “Sam the Hedgehog” – a beautifully rendered short film using both stop motion and 2D trans-digital animation – was conceptualized in 2014 with the aim of raising awareness about the acceptance of autism. But, due to the extremely high cost of animation, the film is only partially completed. To complete the project and showcase it at film festivals around the world, its creators spotted an opportunity upon seeing how popular NFT trading has recently become.
“We realized we could use the film’s existing assets, a mix of hand-drawn characters and practical, hand-crafted settings, and engage those interested in NFTs and wanting to support acceptance of the autism owners who hit our NFTs will not only have a great image, but they will also be connected to a real project and a cause,” says Michael Clark, co-director of MAAN Creative.
By purchasing a Sam Crypto “Hedgie” for 0.05 ETH, owners will receive a number of perks and benefits. Notwithstanding the fact that they will help finance the Sam the hedgehogshort film, they will have early access to view the film while it is submitted to independent film festivals, but before it is released to the public as a free resource. They can also choose to have their name, screen name, .eth name, twitter ID, or Ethereum public address acknowledged or thanked in the end credits of the film, and even have a chance at a cameo role in the film.
NFTs will be available to mint from 2n/a from April 2022 – World Autism Awareness Day – until April. “While only 8,128 NFTs will be available at mint, we could have had up to 1.9 million different variants. glasses, etc. and each will be mixed and matched after assigning various rarity values to each trait,” says Landon.
As the proceeds are collected, the “Hedgie” project has several financial milestones to complete in order for the film to be 100% complete by Q3 2022. For example, the first 100.35 ETH, or 25% of NFT sales will be used. to cover the costs of artists, consultants and the development of the NFT project. Once 40% sold, the film can be finished. Thereafter, all funds raised from the rest of the NFT minting will be donated to Autism South Africa and various community-nominated autism charities. Upon reaching 100% of sales, 40 ETH will be reserved for other autism-related projects such as anime series development, global distribution, and starting other projects.
“While we’re not the first to think about how to use NFTs beyond just owning a piece of art, we believe we’ll be the first to complete an actual animated short. funded by NFT minting. Of course, we’ve considered alternative forms of crowdsourcing, and even traditional funding, but that’s only one so far. Using the popularity of NFTs felt right to me, as we create unique works of art that collectors can own and trade while being part of a much larger effort to raise awareness of autism acceptance and do good says Landon.
“The film project has such a rich world with so many thoughtful details and the NFT project gives us another avenue to showcase this world that will likely get lost in the film. For example, the way Sam meticulously organizes his building blocks by color – a subtle clue to his autistic nature,” says Michael Clark.
Once fully funded, the final Sam the hedgehog The film will last approximately 12 to 14 minutes. It will first air on the international film festival circuit before being released for free online as a public resource.
To get involved, visit TheHedgie.fund or follow @Hedgie_Fund on Twitter.
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This article is a press release received from the Hedgie Fund. Global Crypto has not received any form of compensation for its publication, and as this material is deemed to be of interest to the blockchain industry in Southern Africa, it has therefore been published accordingly.
