When a project that needed funding was first introduced to Sony Brand Ambassador JN Silva, he came up with an interesting creative solution. Silva, who has been involved full-time in the NFT space for the past several years, had an idea to fund the film through a series of NFT drops. The project was quite the undertaking, as they created imagery for the NFTs, a documentary of the process, and a short fiction film titled, “Nea.” We connected with Silva and the film’s co-director Nelson ‘Nelo’ G. Navarrete to learn more about the project. Catch a cut of the documentary below and visit their YouTube Channel for more.

Using Creative Skills To Raise Funds For Other Creative Endeavors

The project started when Silva met Nelo to give him some advice on Web3 and the NFT space. During the meeting, Nelo mentioned he and his friend Alex Ulises had written a script for a film during the pandemic and tried to go the traditional fundraising route but it wasn’t working and they would lose a lot of creative control. After reading the script, Silva said he could help and joined as the executive producer to help the two co-directors. Using his expertise in the NFT space, Silva made a plan to create NFTs that could be sold to help fund the creation of the film.

“The idea was basically to create this ecosystem that would enable us to raise funds to make this full length feature film via NFTs,” explains Silva. “We spent three weeks in Medellin canvasing the whole city with our cameras, and the result was a photography collection of 2,500 that we will sell as NFTs, and we also created a short documentary of our process.”

The Documentary & Short Film

While capturing all aspects of the city, the short documentary film they created of the process was called, “Idiosincrasia.” The purpose of the film is to question how Colombia is perceived and to give a real glimpse into the second largest city in Colombia – Medellín. Many stereotypes of drug trafficking have grown through music and are reflected in television series’ like Narcos. Nelo and Alex felt everything out there currently seemed forced and lacked the real anthropological research the area deserved. In the documentary about the film, Alex states the importance of the film to be accepted from within. “As long as the idiosyncratic codes of the city are displayed in a real, genuine way, it will generate real results.”

Behind-the-scenes from JN Silva's film, "Nea"

Using a wide range of Sony lenses paired with Sony Alpha cameras like the Sony Alpha 1 and Sony Alpha 7S III, their dynamic imagery and video of the city helped set the scene for the film. They documented everything from location scouting to character scouting – giving viewers a raw glimpse into the real lives of those in the city, not the fictional ones you see on TV. In addition to the documentary, they’ve been able to put together a short fiction film in Medellín titled, “Nea.” The documentary was created using funds from the NFT drops and they have hopes to hit the film festival circuit with it.

Learn more about the films on their YouTube Channel and on Instagram @buscandoam3rica.