The Jeskei journey

Back in 2015, I was asked to look at the problem of movie distribution, how to securely and efficiently take movies from the end of the editing process to the cinema including the movies premier. This simple sounding mission led me on a journey of discovery which I’ve continued to be fascinated by to this day.

The initial challenge was that film studios are extremely protective of their movie IP after decades of leaks and pirated movies eating into box office takings. So even in 2015, movies were formed into reels, now on thumb drives and were taken in person to premiers to ensure they couldn’t be intercepted. The same thumb drive reals are then dispatched to cinemas by post.

Well guess what? Sometimes reals go missing. Sometimes reals get corrupted in transit. With editing often continuing up to just a few days before the premier and with cinema releases very shortly after there is little time to respond to these times of problem and so things can and do frequently go wrong.

So the challenge was could a system be built that could take a large set of digital movie objects, transfer them to the premier and other cinemas quickly and securely, without introducing risks of piracy or other data loss and at a reasonable cost?

Well the short answer is yes, almost. I worked on the design and development of the prototype system which was used to demonstrate that technically it could be done. We transferred dozens of movies including high value IP including Star Wars and James Bond premiers. During the pilot phase we even proved the benefit of online digital transfer when incidents occurred with the physical transfer method including multiple corrupted thumb drives that almost caused high value premiers to be aborted. The online approach never failed to deliver on schedule while improving the security.

But there was a catch. Moving large movie files so quickly and securely required some innovation. As well as many technical innovations, there was the need to store these movie objects in a way that could be efficiently moved to thousands of cinemas around the world, many of which would have quite poor Internet connections. So a sort of peer-to-peer network of cloud data center’ s were created to ensure copies of assets were as close to cinemas as possible and able to be copied as quickly as possible at scale. But cloud providers like to encourage the copying of data into the cloud but not back out and so pricing models tend to be low for ingress but high for egress. Apply that to a movie and you have a single low cost ingress from the studio and then thousands of high cost egress costs to the cinemas. The pricing model just couldn’t be made to work. A technical success, a financial failure and so the pilot was wrapped up.

Even in 2015 I raised the concept with the team of looking if blockchain could unlock some of the challenges being faced. The idea was intriguing but at the time, blockchain was considered too fringe, the real of hackers and shadowy groups and not something for the film industry.

But this idea has continued to develop and with the creation and integration of distributed file systems such as IPFS, the potential for a solution has become ever closer.

A bigger challenge looms

While working on this movie distribution platform I was fortunate to get to engage with people inside the industry who highlighted many problems beyond just film distribution. I was shocked by the state of the industry and wondered how it could survive long term.

Cinemas being crushed between two hammers

In 2015, cinemas were facing a near perfect storm. Cinemas make money from popular movies but for every box office hit there are many duds that don’t bring in viewers. But studios hold all the power and so if a cinema wants to show the hits they have to agree to show the duds. This ties up screens with empty seats and lost income. To make the problem worse, most of the money made from ticket sales goes back to the studio. Cinemas make their money from the sale of food and drink, in some ways a cinema is a restaurant that happens to show movies. But with falling viewer numbers the studios are pressing to maintaining their income and so were even starting to look at the earnings from food and drinks as ways to top up falling revenues.

Falling viewer numbers, tied up screens, increasingly demanding studios. The situation looked bleak and then the knock out blow came. The pandemic closed cinemas around the world which took away any income while forcing studios to look at other ways to get content to consumers. This fueled the rise in streaming services even more putting cinemas in a dire situation.

But cinema operators are an innovate group and have been looking at other ways to increase their income. Showing sporting features and other types of popular performance on big screens. Gaming events, popular online content and other types of content. What do consumers want to watch on a big screen with surround sound? While working on the distribution project we discussed the concept of a video jukebox for cinemas to give cinemas access to popular back catalogues. Playing Star Wars or Indiana Jones still brings in the crowds, if the cinemas can get access to such movies in the correct format.

Actors and content creators

Perhaps the biggest challenge of all is the way studios provide very little opportunities for actors and content creators to revenue share. The current industry model is that the studio pays to make the film and in exchange, it keeps the fees. Those who make the film get paid an amount of money but overall the majority of money stays with the studio.

Many actors and other members of a films production have been asking for this model to change, to give them the opportunity to revenue share to a degree in the movies they love to create. They believe in the project and give so much to it that they would like to share in its success more fairly. Very few actors have the punch to demand this and so the money flows primarily in one direction.

Perhaps the move to streaming services will change this? We have many popular streaming services now as well as the titan YouTube. Unfortunately the old model remains largely unchanged. Fees flow back to the streaming service with little opportunity to revenue share while Google reports huge profits while giving YouTuber’s access to portions of advertising revenue only.

Thinking about the technology

The film industry has always been close to my heart, even more so since working on the challenge of media distribution. In March 2017, I founded a company to conduct R&D into the integration of blockchain and distributed file systems that could play a part in the web 3.0 world and for supporting activities such as movie distribution, streaming and revenue sharing for creatives.

The fruits of that R&D was the Catalyst blockchain framework, a technology stack that integrated EVM with distributed file storage, a new scalable consensus mechanism and strong support for integration into traditional systems including .NET based media systems.

By 2020 we had a public test network running and had run workshops at events including London’s Blockchain Live on how to build web 3.0 social media platforms such as Twitter on Catalyst. But then the pandemic hit and the project could no longer proceed from its offices in London and so the project was closed down and the code base open sourced. A small number of the core team remained together to work on other projects particularly in the world of DeFi but the needs of the media industry continued to call out. We had the industry experience, the technology experience, everything needed to make a dent on the movie and streaming industry.

Jeskei

Jeskei is the culmination of this history, it’s the mission to fix what’s wrong with the movie and streaming industry while helping the struggling cinema industry.

While the core Jeskei team are technologists, the mission is to remain humble and to enshrine the philosophy that Jeskei is first and foremost about the content. The technology exists to enable the content but it’s the content that is the heart and soul of Jeskei.

A great production can be watched and enjoyed without Jeskei, Jeskei has no meaning without great content.

Jeskei is the family of products and services that enable the distribution of digital media to people around the world. This includes people streaming content online as well as cinemas. The movie jukebox for cinemas ideas lives on but in an entirely re-imagined way. Media is packaged in the movie industry standard Digital Cinema Package (DCP) format, ready to play on cinemas Dolby movie systems. But home users can play content on their smart devices the same as with other streaming services.

Content creators represent their creations as NFT’s which opens up a world of earning potential. Creatives can sell what they create or can make it available to watch, either for free or for a fee. A cinema may pay a fee to play a movie, a home user may pay a different fee or could access the content for free. The creator and owner decides. Advertising revenue remains but using a very different model to preserve the privacy of end users while still supporting targeted advertising. But revenue from advertising isn’t split with a studio but is split with the users watching the video creating a real incentive to watch.

But Jeskei will continue to develop beyond its core service set. Jeskei’s model extends to create many more products and services to support the community. A digital radio station is in the works to allow creatives to discuss their projects and to engage more with their viewer base. We also envision having funds and merchandising capabilities creating even more revenue opportunities for creatives as well as fun ways to get closer for fans.

Anyone who has a love for film and media has a place within the Jeskei ecosystem. Please, if you would like to get involved then reach out and help to make this journey a world changing adventure.

Website: https://jeskei.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/jeskei

Twitter: https://twitter.com/jeskei_studio

Discord: https://discord.gg/saFxp6Qpmt

GitHub: https://github.com/JeskeiStudio/