It's time for declare your independence with Ernest Hancock believe me when I say we have a
Difficult time ahead of us, but if we are to be prepared for it, we must first shed our fear of it
I stand here without fear because I remember
I remember that I am here not because of the path that lies before me
But because of the path that lies behind me
I remember that for 100 years we have fought these machines and
After a century of war, I remember that which matters most
We are still here
Declare your independence of me Ernest Hancock from the sun
Desert well, we're talking our good friend
Mr. Jordan page now Jordan page has been working on
You know a lot of things the boys always busy and one of the things that he's doing now the book of Atlas now a couple of years ago
I was up in Washington state where he's at now
We're visiting up there on regular basis and I saw his studio there. It's looking pimp looking pimp
You know he's got his studio that he's going to be a recording studio for himself and big giant rock bands
It looks like but a lot of this studio equipment is for video editing and he is embraced AI
What fun can we have you get a creative mind and you know the diligence?
He can put towards this stuff in the hundreds of hours of a passion project that he's been building
He was showing me a lot of the things that he could do and a lot of things that I could do that
We can all could do we had anybody's tell you know idea. I call Jordan man. He's all over it
Well, what he's done is he's built a superhero movie using AI and the graphics are amazing
It's okay the story behind it
That's what we're gonna find out but the graphics had been awesome Hollywood be dead and just say it
You know when you got individuals and creative minds like Jordan can do this kind of thing, you know, what the hell you need them for so
What did he do? He created a feature film
Hours oh my god hours, but it has a story and we're gonna hear about that story
Now he has an event coming up
It's going to be a you know a live online preview thing you sign up for we'll talk about that
But the impact this will have on the community
We'll talk about it. We'll see because I want to make sure you guys understand the reasoning behind it
What the story is why how we've lived it over the decades here?
Crypto coming on and the threats to it. What the promise with the product the promise
Well, that's what this movie is about. We're gonna talk about it Jordan Page. Tell us what's up, man
Hey, Ernie good to hear your voice, buddy. We're yeah, super excited about book of Atlas been working on it for about two years and
It's it's basically finished. So we're gonna show it to the world
We have a we're planning an online
premiere screening and
You know, we've set up this beautiful website the book the book of atlas.com where people can watch the movie trailer and they can
They can just see what all the characters are and what it's all about, you know, we we decided to
To do an online premiere to give the crypto community like the first look at it
So the way that you would participate is you you would either, you know, spend Bitcoin
Ethereum or Solana because those are the three blockchains that I cover in the movie and
you would get a
You would essentially mint an NFT movie ticket
So you get it you you're paying, you know, 20 bucks for a movie ticket like you would normally at a movie theater
But you're getting an NFT
Version of your movie ticket and you're getting another NFT called a po-app a proof of attendance protocol
And it's like it's just like a little commemorative collectible that you get as a gift as well
And then if people collect all three because there's one for Bitcoin one for Ethereum and one for Solana
They collect all three they get a fourth one. That's a secret one
That's that's that's kind of a reveal in the movie, but they get an extra one as a as a as a thank you
So we're you know, like my team is working hard to get ready for the premiere
We're planning it for March 29th right now. That's a tentative date. We're gonna really start
pushing it online on social media very soon and you know, we're kind of partnering with
Crypto influencers and and just folks with big audiences to help us sell tickets and doing an affiliate thing and
But yeah, so I mean the the the movie is like you said it was it was a passion project
But I can kind of tell you the story of how this all came together if you please do okay, so
Firefly education network. This is the hat that I'm wearing
That's that is the business that we just launched in January and we've been building it and working towards it
So really since January of 20 or since it's 2021
You know, we raised some money in 2023 to create this
online homeschooling platform to help
Families get out of the public school system and the private school system for it for that matter
but particularly the public school system and
You know, my wife and I as you know
We have seven children that we've homeschooled for 14 plus years and with great success and we
We really saw the the agenda of you know, as you call them they them those
We we saw the agenda in the at work in what?
They're teaching teachers because my wife Mary was getting her master's degree in edgy in teaching and she we saw firsthand
How how this is all happening
They're indoctrinating the teachers early and then those teachers are going out and indoctrinating all the children
and that's how you get these huge populations of kids that you know hate America and hate their families and hate themselves and
Want to change their genders and all that nonsense?
so we
We just decided to to push forward and to create something that would help people get out, you know
And so we you know fast-forward a few years
We've created this this education platform for homeschool families to help them be successful
and it's called Firefly Education Network and two years ago
We were going to release this this NFT collection when NFTs were still kind of a you know a bigger thing and
It's the NFTs have kind of the fervor around them has really kind of died down
But at the time I had we I had this beautiful NFT collection of all these
Firefly NFTs this beautiful AI artwork. It was really really great, and I made six animated shorts. They were like
two to ten minutes long and I would take some of the NFTs and I would put them in
these little films as
plot devices or set pieces just like the the the films were centered around these
Fireflies to show off the artwork. That was what the purpose was and
Some of them were just really awesome. I made like three of them and
Then I you know I was like I got I got more stories. I want to tell they were all like sci-fi
Fantasy stories and then I made a fourth one. I said I want to do a character this time
They're like, you know in the first three
There's like there's a guy standing in front of this gigantic alien spaceship that shaped like one of our fireflies in the second one
it was a little boy
Standing in inside this stone
Labyrinth and this gigantic eyeball in the wall like a huge huge eyeball opens and the little boy looks into the eye and then the
Camera goes into the eye and then inside you see this flash of all of these Firefly NFTs and then
The third one there's a there's a mysterious man walking toward this monolithic structure with this giant
Firefly like like as like the symbol on on this giant tower
and and it called the Citadel and I
Wanted to make a character and so I thought it would be really fun to do like a medieval night story
And I called him sir NFT
And he fights
The night of the Red Shield and for those of you who are you know fans of history or you know
Who are any libertarians out there? You know that the Red Shield is Rothschild, right?
and I did this story where this this night fights this night of the Red Shield and
Inevitably the night morphs into this gigantic black
Kraken this like he gets into the ocean so he escapes and gets in the ocean
He becomes this huge
Octopus creature called the creature from Jekyll Island, which we all know is
Gea we're Griffin's book about the Federal Reserve because the Federal Reserve was this you know horrible
monstrosity of a bank that was conceived on Jekyll Island off the coast of Georgia and
and so sir NFT fights the
fights the creature and
retrieves the
Genesis block
Okay, and the Genesis block is this cube that has the Bitcoin symbol on it and
It is this this artifact that this creature has stolen and is and it's how it's able to morph
Into the night of the Red Shield and back and forth between that and the and the and the creature
And I love this story so much and I was like okay
the next one's gonna be a superhero and so I said okay, so we did Bitcoin
With the with the with the Genesis block now we got to do
Ethereum and so I created this superhero called Lux Ethereum, which is a
He's like a dark purple
superhero that is you know a fighting
centralization and
There's this another like one of these you know tentacled monsters in a city with TVs on the ends of its tentacles and
it's telling people to you know to vote and go to sleep and accept war and
Slavery and then one of the TVs says CBDC on it
Central bank digital currency and Lux Ethereum flies into it with his fist and destroys it and
He's just a really cool-looking superhero think like I don't know spawn meets
Superman, you know like like or like like spawn and prowler meets like Superman
He's really cool and in the movie. He's like a sarcastic guy. He's kind of dark, but he's cool
he's a good guy and
And then after that I said, you know, I always had a love of Greek mythology
so I'm gonna do a Greek a Greek hero and we did this this guy
Decentrically's instead of like Hercules. It was Decentrically's and his quest to find the Solana stone
Solana at being another blockchain one more prominent blockchains
And he has to fight his way through this ancient labyrinth to find the Solana stone
And he and he meets this ancient griffin a winged lion named
Consensus you see where this is going like I'm using all of these blockchain terms
To you know tell tell an overall story
You know mythologizing these these technologies as as ancient artifacts of mystical power
And so I had these six stories and I showed them to my my chief marketing officer Damian and he loved them
He was like no other NFT, you know group out there has anything like this
He's like you should make a seventh one to tie all of these stories together, and I was like, that's a that's a cool idea
I could do that and so I
I started thinking about how I could weave these six stories into one unified narrative and
It ended up becoming this like massive project this feature-length film because I had I realized as soon as I began
I had a larger story. I wanted to tell you know, it's it's it's like I'm I'm delivering
You know history in a in a way that you know most people like maybe that haven't learned the history
And I'll give you an example
in the movie in the sir NFT
Like segment which in the movie his name is sir Nakamoto from Trent sir NFT
And it's and it's an homage to Satoshi Nakamoto. Who's the the inventor of Bitcoin?
he he is fighting the night of the Red Shield and
the the night
Call like the night gets bested in single combat
But he refuses to yield and he and he calls for his horse to come carry him away and the horse's name is Napoleon
Okay, and he gets on his horse and rides and rides away sir NFT calls his horse
Rothbard after Murray Rothbard and
So so the night of the Red Shield is riding a what riding Napoleon all the way to the ocean
And so that he can get back into the ocean and turn into the creature from Jekyll Island. Well, that is a
symbolic representation of when Napoleon Bonaparte was defeated at the Battle of Waterloo
Baron de Rothschild sent a false
word back to London that
Napoleon had won which caused all of the the the markets plummet and he went in and bought all the banks
And that's how the Rothschild family became so powerful
Yeah, and then just became like the dominant force in Europe
And so, you know, like the night of the Red Shield is riding Napoleon to the ocean to become
This giant conglomerate monster
So as I've inserted all of these like
historical and libertarian and
Crypto Easter eggs throughout the film that anybody who has any connection to any of those spheres
Will will understand these references. I mean, they're they're they're throughout the movie
What do you get a cheat sheet like they had to do for Dune? I mean
We know all this stuff, but it is fascinating references and Easter eggs for this kind of stuff, but
Yeah, you're right. It's an educational thing. Is there a
Cheat sheet? I mean if people need to is it going to be revealed in the movie or after or before or some people
Understand what you're referencing and all this this battle between peer-to-peer and the creature from Jekyll Island
You know or they just got to figure it out later. I
Think that I mean we're our hope with this is to build community around it with with this first showing
You know our goal is to sell about 10,000 tickets and have they have you know, just just to start building
You know an audience for it
You know there's 450 million crypto users in the world and I felt that they needed to have their own superheroes and so I
You know, I was I became aware of Bitcoin in 2010 Ernie when it was still 33 cents
So I would consider myself an early adopter and I've seen that you know the entire
Journey that it's taken, you know for for better or worse and something. I really want to remind people about is
It is it began as
a
Movement to subvert the Federal Reserve system, right?
It was a freedom movement and the Ron Paul movement was was really the the driving force behind all of the early
transactions like like, you know like in a major way now I would credit Ross Ulbricht with
Creating the marketplace that gave Bitcoin. It's like it's it's it's huge boost
Which is why he had to go down
Exactly that's exactly why you know and
But but the people that were pushing it originally
I mean, I remember spending Bitcoin at pork fest when it was only like, you know
Gosh, you know, like it was like less than less than 20 bucks or something, you know, it was a smoothie
It was $6. I remember Doug smoothie came out and how he became a gazillionaire
He was sitting there with his smoothie cart, you know, selling smoothies. You want to get Bitcoin?
I'll show you how to get point get Bitcoin. Yeah, it's a
$6
Bitcoin gets you a lot. That's a lot of Bitcoin man, you know, I also have have about, you know
50 t-shirts in my closet that's
$100,000 each. Oh, yeah, about $100,000 each like I had the most expensive, you know
Louis the 14th got nothing on my on my t-shirt collection
So but you know without people like us doing that Ernie like does Bitcoin take off, you know, I don't know
I mean, I feel like we were part of a no
We had this you had to spend you had to make it a market
You had to you know because of the speed of it. It was easy. It was cheap to transact
it was supposed to be anonymous and
It was all the features that we were looking for and certainly an online money and
We were spending it like now here. We're promoting a Zano in our
You know community out here, but you have to spend it you get a bunch so that you can share it
We're doing the same thing. We were with Bitcoin. Oh, I get this wallet here
I'll pay you give you some of this and do that then it goes up and they're like whoa
what the hell man that that was cool and
The promise of crypto is what I'm hoping that this movie is about, you know
It is you know who the enemies are the superheroes going up against them with the technology to be able to do it
But as time has gone on you can see how Bitcoin got hijacked
But the concept didn't you know the idea the promise and the technology in the hands of people
You know that are creative and understand what it was really about it continues and I'm
We're still up against the same guys regardless of you know how they co-opt a lot of this stuff
But because you got the Trump administration wrapping arms and legs around crypto and you know what that means so this is
Coming away from this is just a revisit to the concept to the promise to what can be
Or is it you know
You know an homage to what's happening. I mean, where's the time frame of this?
This is for sure an homage to what it was and and how it began and what it's supposed to be and
You know, we're planning this as part of a larger cinematic universe and like the story will can continue
You know to be depending on if you know how successful we are with it
I'm you know, I'm hoping to license the film
Later this year and you know to markets around the world like that's part of our of our roadmap
But right like right now we're just trying to get it out to the crypto community and let them see it
You know and remind them what this was all supposed to be about
I mean at one point in the story the the crypto
Avengers if you will because like the main character it goes on a quest to retrieve all these artifacts the Genesis block
the ethereum diamond and the Solana stone and he needs those
In order to open a portal to the firefly realm where he goes to get the this power called the deepest light and
And that power is how he's he's going to defeat the main enemy
Which is this sentient alien AI that's come to earth to subjugate humanity and
He and this this this AI has destroyed worlds before it destroyed the planet that it was from and it came here
Through like a quantum gate and and now it's here to do the same thing to us
And so so but but what this AI really represents it and and it's in its robot army and all of it
And it has these giant robotic octopuses that are its generals
What it represents is
Totalitarianism and state and like the force of the state and a monopolies on violence and and that it's doing it for
It's for our our own good
It sees itself as as righteous and it sees itself as the answer to all the problems with humanity
And so on one side of the battle you have this this this you know giant AI that that's that wants to destroy everything on the
Other side you have the creature from Jekyll Island
Who's this gigantic Kraken that represents the banking cartels and you have the crypto?
Team it like pitted between these two forces that are in cahoots with one another because in reality they are you know and
And so it's up to these crypto these crypto heroes to defeat them both which you know
I'll I'll I'll save the ending but at what?
I'll say this there is a there's a ton of libertarian philosophy in this movie too. It's yes
It's about crypto. It's about the history of crypto done symbolically through through mythology and myth mythological storytelling
Yes, but there's tons of history in it. There's tons of libertarian philosophy
You know all all of the characters if you look at the screen right now like Atlas's love interest
Her name is Hashima right here is and she is one of the daughters of Cypher Cypher
Is the Greek island where Decentre Cleese is from and you see his story and Hashima right here is his hash rate
You know and then you know that one of Atlas's guides and mentors is general Vitalik
You know which is named after Vitalik buterin and then Satoshi is a character and he is an ancient
Samurai
Warrior who was the guardian of Atlantis my son Andrew is in this movie
He is Andres which is named after Andres Antonopoulos who was a major major voice in in Bitcoin and blockchain
and
Yes, so there's all these characters that that that are played completely into the the crypto culture and and just all the
all the different technological terms
and the Demiurge is the is the main the main villain and
Yeah, it's and then you can see the creature from Jekyll Island on screen
Then that little in that that thumbnail there that animated thumbnail, so it's it's a really fun movie. It's a it's dark and gritty
It's not super campy even though some like some of the puns in that themselves might be a little campy
That the story is is pretty intense and it covers a lot of things like like fatherlessness
the main character grew up without his father and
So he suffers with a lot of the things that people without fathers or bad fathers suffer with like, you know
like not like like imposter syndrome and and not feeling like they're
Qualified to to fight this battle even though they've been chosen, you know
I mean like for such a you were born for such a time as this and
That's one of the lines in the movie that the the Griffin tells him
You were born for such a time as this and this is a task that's been appointed to you
And so it's it's the main character Atlas really kind of becomes a man
You know as he goes through this very like insane journey
That starts, you know with a book that he inherits from his from his father and from his grandfather
And and the book is this ancient book and he's never actually read it
but he knows it he remembers his grandfather and his dad being obsessed with it when when he was little and
You know, he starts reading this book and realizes that all these weird things that are happening in the world
Are written in this old old book and and they're like there's correlation there and he he
It sends him on a quest to save the world. So it's just as it is now. I mean it's all that's old as new again the
Let me more than a film. Let me read this just kind of encapsulates what you're doing here
Birth from a series of animated
Short films between two and ten minutes long the book of Atlas is a celebration of crypto culture
Full of Easter eggs for the crypto enthusiasts libertarians and historians to discover
It is a hero's quest through time and space a sci-fi fantasy epic. Yeah epic man. It's it's a
Not a short movie and a commentary on the state of affairs in the world
Written and directed by a human the book of Atlas is more than a film
It is a love letter to the blockchain community
That is what I got out of it. This was you know
We're gonna, you know get everybody involved and everybody will understand the references that are in the community
And then you know the the newbies the young people the ones. What's this all about this may be a
segue
For them into the community to understand what this battle has always been about and it's been going on for ever and
Now it's manifested digitally right in front of us and we're in the book of Revelation man
You know, you're gonna get the mark of the beast or you're not are you gonna be the firefly?
Defending are you a hero in your own movie? You know or you know, are you gonna be subjugated by?
AI so this is
And at the end of it you're going to create the community around it to what what's the community for
Well, you know with any movie you want to build an audience for it, you know, this this is I would say this is gonna
Like our goals for this would be to have it become like a crypto version of Marvel
You know where all of these characters have rich backstories that are touched on but that could be expanded
You know like there we could do a sequel or a spin-off force or NFT or for Lux Ethereum and give them their own their own films
We also have plans to do sequels that are a continuation of the story where it ends
You know in this and and you know, just just just build excitement and
enthusiasm for the characters in the worlds because it really is
You know kind of a cinematic universe where you have these different worlds that are all connected and
I don't want to give too much away about the film because like like the the plot of the film is is really fun to discover as you go along
but you know, we're
There there's so much to explore in this and I found that as I was making that's why I did it so long
Like I mean we're gonna I'm gonna cut it down
There's gonna be you know a shorter version of course
But you know, we've also thought about doing it as as a series and breaking it up into 25 minute episodes and
Releasing it as a season to that is another
Another option, but for this first showing, you know, we're like for all of the like, you know early book of atlas adopters
We're gonna show them the whole film and and let them let them see the whole thing and then later on
You know, we we may break it up, you know it when it comes to distribution
It may work better as a series. I don't know, you know, let me let me
You know share some initial thoughts
When I was a kid, you know mid 60s, you know, I'm you know five years old or something like that
You know comic books was a big deal and it still is I mean it's so has such a nostalgia for a lot of people
They're comic books, you know spider-man one or something, you know worth a gazillion dollars, but the
When Marvel was adapted in the movies and they went through the Avengers series and so on they were true to the
comic books now, of course then the
Transactivist whatever gets in DC and makes, you know
Robin Gay and Superman, you know getting
Raped in prison or kryptonite bars and Batman's got to go save them and truth of justice and a better tomorrow instead of the American
Well, I mean they trash the crap out of it, but the original canon the original comic books
That was the imagination that just got the youth that you know, it's comic book, you know
It's just you know, it's a little bubble phrases of one sense what but the children
We we filled in all the blanks, you know
We became the world was created in our minds and that you know was able to be translated into film
When they did Iron Man, you know mass hook. I was like, whoa, man. Let's go get some
So what happened is they had all of this originally was from comic books from the 30s
The 40s the 50s all the Captain America, you know these Superman these DC and Marvel comics
Stan Lee was you know building this entire universe and then they make it the film you get Batman
You get Superman you get Iron Man and what happens is these competing heroes, you know
had their own characters and so on and their own mythology here in America our
Heroes our mythology our Zeus Apollo's Hercules and all that were Marvel DC comics
Well when that went the film and was CGI and so on they may
They did something but it came from an original source an original
Imagination a cartoonist a comic book guy now then they started doing graphic novels
And that's where V for Vendetta came from all of a sudden it became a larger comic, you know in a
Comic novel, you know as a you know a full series or a season or whatever and that became a very popular movie
So this is what I feel that Jordan has tapped into instead of doing a comic book
He's doing a you know AI feature film
Presentation creating and starting to fill out the heroes in the story which have as you described a future
They got their own backstories. They got their own thing. You got to do the the Aquaman, you know
You got to do you know a green lantern you got to do and then they all come together
You know later or whatever so this is has potential and it has potential of a time
Timestamping a very important
mile marker in human development evolution history that we have always been up against this
Creature from Jekyll Island and whatever form it's taken. I care not what laws are made is who controlled the money
And I'd be the money, you know, so it's still
Under attack, I mean we're in the middle of the battle right now and for this to be the promise of
What this was all about what was the goal? What do you say you're doing here? You know, so as you do that
This could be you know, I mean, I haven't seen the fun
I've watched the trailer and seen the graphics and you showed me when you were done. Oh, holy shit
I mean, this is going to be
Powerful, that's why when we started free was Phoenix, you know
96 had the concepts and I'm going not till video hits the Internet. I'll never happen
You know, I know bandwidth and dumb kid
You don't know any better and I'm going you watch when video hits the Internet all of a sudden and we start getting digital
Then I see an adobe photoshop
You could change lights and get angles and recreate photos life like what did it hit animation?
Then you're doing, you know real life
You know CGI and you get the you know jinx character from Star Wars, you know gag me
But you know this was when they had the writer actor strike here last couple of years
This is their main concern. They're going we're we're out of business
They're just going to create superheroes, you know CGI of something maybe take a picture and even the 80s
There was a movie called Looker, which was all about this this stuff. We've known is coming
Well, it's here and you put this power in the hands in the mind of somebody
creative like Jordan Page that all of a sudden he gets a you know a
Connection with the infinite and all of a sudden boom a song pops out
Well now he's got a movie popped out and this is going to be and a potential
I've seen it before when they started doing movies like iron sky
Which was totally digital and outside the studios they wouldn't touch it. No, we're not going to distribute
It's not going to film films and then now it's on every streaming platform all over
I can see that this would do the same thing, but it's not just a time stamp of what crypto and
Creature from Jekyll Island and central control and central plan and AI and all it's not just what it's going
It's the promise from the beginning how we can
Identify the good the bad who are the good guys who are the bad guys now
I want to dwell on that for a little bit is
What are the traits of the good guys and the bad guys? What is the confrontation over?
In the film the confrontation is
Well one there's a confrontation within the main character atlas
Trying to come to terms with the fact that he has been tasked with this
Monumental thing that he has to do and he doesn't believe that he can do it which in the end, you know, of course he does
And he pushes through even though he's afraid he pushes through even though
He's not he's not sure and he's all and he's all alone
But over the course of the movie he accumulates allies
But the the main conflict is that you have this totalitarian
Mind, which is the demiurge?
That believes that it has the divine right to rule it believes that it is a god and that you know
All all other beings are lesser and that it it with a we are all its children
And that it needs to you know improve us and take away
Our our freedom of independent thought that that would be a gift
you know at one point he
He does enslave someone important in the story and says you know
I've given him the ultimate gift freedom from independent thought and he now wields power that you cannot imagine and
He has this vision for all of humanity to be united in this hive mind and
You know like so that it can rule supreme
But it but it you know, of course it has no soul and it's it's this it's this you know sentient malevolence and
It wants to destroy everything, you know and and take away people's freedom
There's a great debate in this film between one of the main characters in the demiurge about the nature of freedom and about
Like like the nature of tyrants in the history of tyrants and there's a lot of famous quotes in it that are that are really great
But it's like the movie is about it's about freedom from tyranny. That's that's essentially what it's about and
You know, I've used symbolically, you know blockchains
Because they held and hold promise of you know the decentralizing the the public from central banking
Which is you know the bane of human existence
I mean all of our wars that that that are being fought are all paid for through you know
Like like the Department of War is entirely and is financed by the Federal Reserve system, you know
like like they we are paying for our own enslavement through taxation and
So, you know blockchain technology and these cryptocurrencies that that resulted from it are and have always been a promise of
Freedom from that centralized system centralized financing
Has has caused, you know more more bloodshed than just about anything in history
So I really am taking on the central banks in this in this film
And centralized power
And you know the main character is presented with a choice at some at one point in the film
you know to be able to essentially rule the world he's given he's given this option and
He you know is he makes the right choice, you know
It's it's like the libertarian philosophy of you know, we want to take take over so we can leave you alone
You know, like we're free. I'm going golfing. Yeah, like like, you know, it's it's not my job to
To govern you, you know, you need to govern yourself and and and so the main character has has very you know libertarian
Beliefs and my son Andrew's character is extremely libertarian
He I would consider him a radical libertarian in this film and and you know, he zero F's given by this by this guy
He's really really great. So it's it's it's a lot of fun
But it is it takes on some pretty heavy subject matter, you know, symbolically and
And the but but the world there is is open to where we can like in the next one
I can incorporate a bunch of other blockchains, you know and and and
Mythologize them or or give them, you know character like like create artifacts
What's that a new one the new superhero
Here I am to save today. Whatever it is. Well, you know, it's not again
It's not campy like it's pretty dark like there at one point
There's a nuclear war on on this on another planet like you're you're you're you're watching a story from the past
Unfold and you know that the Demiurge, you know unleashed a nuclear holocaust on his planet. It's it's intense
It's wild, you know, I mean, I'm not saying it's it's not suitable for kids
I mean my kids think it's awesome, but I wouldn't show it to kids younger than seven probably, you know
I mean, it's it's much more for like teenagers young adults and adults
You know just because some and some of the references are going to be over their heads
But but it's still visually it's really appealing. It's really really fun
I mean the technology blows my mind like what you say. Yes. Yes. I'm a creative mind
Yes, I always have been and you put tools in my hands. I'm gonna do something wild with it
I mean John Lennon said I'm an artist, you know, give me a tuba. I'll get you something out of it
I'm saying so like they did I I essentially got that the power to to create movie clips
That we talked yeah, like this is what happened
We were up there and I go over to Jordan's and he shows me his studio here
He has a barn next to his home when he built, you know, they have classrooms in there
They got bunch of kids, you know, and he has his own studio that's getting pimp by the way
You know, I mean, you know, it's keeps expanding getting more and more capabilities, but he like
You watch this and he was showing me segments of this movie and the animation and the capability that he had doing this
And there was a there's a story. I tell my grandkids. You know, it's the purple gorilla song story, but I remember the purple gorilla
You know, that's a cool story. I mean, you know, like kids they all they they love it
No young ones that haven't heard it yet and you animate it whatever
But it's don't touch the purple gorilla that chases you down and wants to play tag tag
You're it and I was like, you know, kind of the end thing of it skipped to the end
But there are scenes in a cave and I go I need a purple gorilla in a cave
Well, little kids kind of but boom within a minute or two. It was Diego. Well, there's the book
I could do this illustrated book. I could do an animation
I could and it take me freakin, you know a year to figure out how to do it
Jordan did that Jordan went through all of this on forums different code different styles different looks different
Shading different different different different to be able to make this film and by the time that he was showing me what he had done
You know, he'd already spent gazillion hours on doing this
When you do that and you get into something like this you get in a zone and you start
Developing and building and so on you kind of remove yourself from the mass population
It's in your this whole story in your head and you want to express it. Well, there's a reason
Why?
Why did you get so enraptured with this not just a technology, but the capability of telling the story?
What was your motivation for doing it?
I
Think it's multifaceted. I think one part of it was I was making a tool to market firefly
You know like like ultimately like it began as as a
Way to market this NFT collection to raise money and awareness for firefly
And we still have it released the NFT collection, but it exists
And we'll probably release it after the film if the film gets some traction
We'll release the the NFT collection because it was like the genesis of it
But what drove me to keep doing it is I'm a storyteller Ernie
I mean if you've ever seen me perform live as a singer singer songwriter
I tell stories in every song has a story and and I love telling stories and this gave me the ultimate
storytelling capability like I've always been a fan of
Films and particularly like directors. I always loved Oliver Stone and you know Martin Scorsese
You know there's there's a there's a lot of directors that I've
Like Terry Gilliam
I mean there's so many directors that I've like just loved through the years and watch all of their films it to me
It isn't about the actors. It's about the directors and and and their style and
And I and I have there's all these genres that I've like loved growing up that had like this impact on me and
you know, I've kind of like
Amalgamated them all and like, you know put them into this movie. I mean it was a story
I wanted to tell I like like I I have I mean, you know
Crypto's really getting his teeth kicked in right now in the culture
was just with all with all the all the nonsense going on and I I
I'm telling a story about what it what what it what it was supposed to be and why we got into it in the first place
It was a it was a method for us to get out under the thumb of the central banking system
And and I wanted to I wanted to you know really like like you
Read earlier like write a love letter to the blockchain community and to the libertarian community to actually if I'm really being being truthful
It's it's because it's full of of libertarian references and and I mean Ernie if you watch this movie
You're gonna you're gonna get about a hundred references out of this thing
You're gonna be like, oh, I totally get that I know what he's talking about, you know, and I mean
I even quote Kamala Harris in this movie or I say the Demiurge quotes Kamala Harris at one point in the film
Which is really it's really funny if you if you know, you know, there's a lot of if you know, you knows in this
But it was it was a story. I wanted to tell, you know
I could have made this thing 15 minutes long and and just you know, phoned it in but I
Wouldn't have this opportunity like now like now
this is a thing where we're getting interests from distributors and and
We're you know, we're gonna be marketing this thing to you know to to to film buyers
You know, I mean, it's and we can we can expand it. I mean comic books
I'm kind of doing it differently
I love that you brought the comic books, you know, because I loved comic books as a kid my kids love comic books and
But I see, you know book of atlas
It's like I started with the Avengers and then we'll go out and and do the individual stories and make comic books
And make video games and action figures and all that once it's got traction
But that all of that is is for sure possible, but it's all centered around, you know
This idea of
Freedom from the freedom community like that's where that's where I'm from, you know
That's where I got my my start and my roots. That's who I am at my you know
part of my course is I'm a freedom person
I'm a Liberty person and and
You're a creative person and I want to share we've done you know shows before promoting firefly and so on
I remember before he got into really doing the animation part AI was able to help
Manifest graphics for a children's book. That was for his children. Yeah, because each one of his gazillion kids has their own
origination story
you know you you now we found you and
You know a flower petals, you know kind of you were you know a hot dog
I mean, whatever the hell it was. I mean you come up with all these creative things. Yes. Well, there was
There was a book that had the graphics of their origination story, you know, where do I come from that?
Well, let me tell you we found you on a you know heap of something, you know
And I can't remember all of the stories, but they had graphics and Jordan having these technologies available to him
We're able to put it into a book, which is why I knew he could do my purple gorilla thing
I didn't know he could do it in a minute and a half, but you know this is
Tools for a creative artistic mind that you put them in his hands and give him the time to do it all of a sudden boom
you get you know the book of Alice and
What's going to happen from there and how many people did it take?
I mean I got the impression you were doing this on your lonesome
This was this was Jordan sitting in front of a computer every day, you know
Piecing this together, you know what what other tools other than the software did you have?
Available what forums what amount of effort what research did you have to do to get the capabilities?
That's manifested in just a trailer. I mean holy crap, you know
I don't know how much it took you know three years and ten minutes to be able to do that
You know kind of thing so tell us about the process you came to get up the speed to be able to produce this quality of a film
Well, I was very much on my own for at least a you know year and a half
You know into this process
I ended up getting you know really getting some great advisors who are also working in AI animation
To turn me on to some some better tools, you know
I mean I thought that I had all the greatest tools and
What I what I ended up really with was an animated storyboard, you know
the film was like a storyboard that that that moved and
But then you know, I would get turned on these new tools and and then I would be able to recreate scenes
I mean I've remade this movie probably four times and
As the tools have improved to make it more and more realistic
I mean the graphics that I've achieved with this film would have cost, you know
It like traditionally with CGI and live-action a movie like this would would be in probably, you know
Dollars yeah to create it, but I'm doing it, you know at home with my with my computer
Because the tools have just improved so much. It's it's staggering
I mean a buddy of mine who's in the film industry said that special effects are
generally, you know
Categorized by decades like the 80s, you know, the the special effects were what they were in the 80s
Then the 90s the 2000s and so on and so forth and how they've improved and he said but but AI
Animation and AI graphics it's judged by months
You know like like from this past December
From then till now it's improved
Exponentially and I'm actually going back and recutting certain scenes because I can make them look let like far less
Cartooning and more like real people and and that is really really, you know wild what you can do
I mean, but I mean that that's actually been true for for quite a while
But even since December it has improved dramatically
so I've had a lot of help in terms of people giving me feedback and and telling me, you know, this is
This is confusing or or you know, actually, I mean when I when I first set the shorts to
To to someone, you know, like they they just didn't get it at all and they gave me some pretty harsh feedback
But that feedback really helped me to really create this cohesive storyline
My wife has been, you know, a great sounding board
My son Andrew has played a huge part in in helping me craft the story and my CMO Damian
You know was was a colossal, you know force in terms of being my sounding board and and giving me ideas for
for, you know, how to take it in this direction or that direction and and you know
And he was really the inspiration for the whole thing because he's the one that told me to to combine all of these stories together
And and but then, you know, but I really I ran with it
I had I had so many so many things that I wanted to say and and I'm doing it, you know
Like the same way that I would write a song and use poetry to be the delivery method for the meaning
Even though it's sort of veiled. It's like, you know, you know what I'm talking about what I'm
The same way I'm using mythology to tell a story about about, you know, like a
History the real history, you know, as well as the as the ideals that that I that I hold and things that I
You know, learn from you and from Ron Paul and from
Geaward Griffin and all the all these people that were these huge influences in my life, you know
I'm telling that story using mythological characters and superheroes and you know in in a way
That's that's palatable to to the general public and I'm also hoping that this movie will get people interested in crypto
You know and and and continue to build that out
But like the next movie I may introduce, you know, Monero and Cardano and litecoin and all these different things and
Create characters or or scenes around them or like plot lines around them
And they're like there's thousands of crypto of crypto chains of block chains
Like I and they are most of that many of them have their own unique
characteristics and their own unique story and I can build that and bake that into the plot and
And and continue to build this world and one idea I recently had
Because the character has the the main character has the ability to go between into like a multiverse with you know
And I won't give all of that away is
maybe at some point Atlas comes to
our
Earth Earth like, you know, he may be where he lives is one version of earth
But he comes here
I
Think I hit something
And and Atlas would come to come to earth our earth and where where like the Genesis block is this thing called called Bitcoin
You know cuz like in the movie. It's not called Bitcoin
It's the Genesis block and this is it's this, you know powerful artifact that he has if you want to yeah
Go and play the trailer if you I don't hear the audio. Well, I did want to I just you know
Haven't watched the graphics, you know while you talk, you know
one of the things was
When you have the launch and people you're gonna get a lot of criticism you're gonna get feedback
That's just you know part of the beast and are you
from the
Original pre premiere of it. Are you willing to make changes? Are you like screw you? This is it?
I've changed enough or you know show me some money and I'll make changes. I mean, you know
What are you expecting from the premiere? I
Expect people are gonna love it. They're gonna hate it and or they're not gonna care, you know, and and that's okay
I mean, that's with anything. I think there will be a lot. There'll be criticism
There'll be people there be like, why didn't you include this? Why didn't you do that and all my response to anything like that
Would be like well, there's always that you know the sequels, you know and spin-offs
I mean, you know there who says I'm not gonna include those things that this is just this is the first
chapter, you know, I really I don't care
You know, I mean if people like if people don't like it, they don't like it, you know
I made this movie for me. I mean like like this is a movie
I wanted to make and but but I I know there's an audience for it
because there's a lot of people out there that feel the way that I do and
and know the things that I know and
And I think people are gonna enjoy it. I mean, it's it's a fun ride
so if they an inspiration to anyone that wants to tell a story and you have a
good
Relevant mile marker human history needs to be shared story, you know, that that's one of the first things what make these
Mythological tales popular is that they're relevant, you know, they they they tell a story
They're set in a standard for people behavior. What is virtuous and is not, you know these and that's one of the things
What's the virtues? I mean, what is it that you're emphasizing in character here?
I'm sorry say that again
Well, you know, you have you know, it's courage, you know, it's never quit
It's Frodo, you know freaking you go to Mount doom and you're just gonna, you know throw the ring in
The fires of Mordor you're going to be
You know truth justice American way. I mean, what are their virtues that are here?
You know, it's like it's not just freedom. It's you know autonomy or it's
Being able to share without controls. What are the virtues that you're emphasizing? Oh
I see what you're saying. It's a great question actually. I
think well, the main character has a lot of internal struggle to overcome in order to to
Be successful in what he's trying to do and what he's been called to do
And and he has to overcome this imposter syndrome that he can't you know, like he can't do this
One of the other characters, you know, this really stands
He stands very much, you know convicted in his beliefs and even facing, you know, possibly, you know death
He is basically spitting in the face of this, you know, horrific tyrant
He's bold and daring
and
There is like there's there's loyalty like, you know, I would say Hashima his love interest
She's an you know, she's very she's she's very smart. She's very powerful, but she's extremely loyal
To him, you know, even even in the in the face of of, you know, danger. She's she's extremely loyal to him
I think it's like overcoming
Insurmountable odds overcoming adversity
And finding the strength to keep going, you know, which is really like, you know, the story of
Of the average human being these days. I mean, you know, there's there's so many things that we have to overcome on a daily basis
Just to keep going we I woke up. I'm still breathing. Yeah, you know, it's another another day
But but I I don't know. I mean that there's
Gosh you this is a really great question. I'm really thinking about this now, you know
Well the virtue, you know, there's always a reason behind mythology, you know when you do, you know, they you know, they
The lesson learned for telling the entire story was the point, you know, like you're you know
The point is you want to tell a story give your perspective on whatever. I just wonder
What is that, you know, and that's what makes these stories?
Endure because yeah, there's a basic fundamental
Lesson to be learned in all of them. You know, it's like you watch the princess bride
You think this happens every day. This is true love. We're gonna go through all this stuff and in the end, you know
We kiss in the sunset. I mean, you know, there's there's always an overriding something and
This is and probably it's not even really fully flushed out yet because you have such an
Imagination and each one of these characters and new characters and new chains and new goals and new new new new new
This is you know for the layman the next generation next to be able to decipher and
Understand and be inspired not just by the story
But by the capability to tell their own story and you have always been an inspiration to people
So this is I'm just inspired to what?
You know, I would say I would say I think I think I I understand it
What you're asking and it's definitely courage and I I've always defined courage for my children as not being
Not afraid
Right. It's like it's being afraid
But still doing what needs to be done even though you're afraid
But the definition of courage and the and the and the main character Atlas is definitely, you know
He definitely has has some apprehensions about what he has to do and he talks about it
But he still pushes through even though, you know
He's in this incredibly unreasonable situation and the most insane stuff keeps happening to him
You know left and right and left and right, but he but he pushes on even though he's
Exhausted even though he's he's like, oh my god. I can't believe I have to fight this giant thing
You know like he pushes forward and he and again. He is given this choice
toward the end of the movie
That that where he is given basically the ring of power and said, you know, you can do whatever you want
And he's like I want to leave people alone
You know, I mean like and that I think is his most heroic moment
Well, because everyone's looking at him everyone's wondering what he's what's he gonna do and he makes the right choice
And I and I really wanted people to see
You know a man in that situation where he is given the opportunity to be completely corrupted and to take the power all for himself
And instead he gives it to the whole world rather than keep it for himself
You know, I think that like that was something I really really wanted to show on film was that you know?
One thing that I wanted to share that I did years ago. I had a
set show that had all the IMDB, you know information on each of these movies and it was
Braveheart gladiator lord of the rings V for Vendetta
Some others and so on and the point that I was making is
Matrix what made these blockbusters? Why were they blockbusters? And I was at Air America, you know
Communist radio and token libertarian kind of thing and I go look we see this stuff differently
We're looking at different things. Why are these you want to look at?
The blockbusters you want to look at where people voted with their money they while it voted they went to the theater
They why why did they do what did they see what did they identify with this movie and each one of those had one?
Common thread it was the individual versus the collective
Against the Empire against the Empire of the Empire some Empire and it was the individual it was you know Maximus, you know
The general and gladiator and Patriot it was the Mel Gibson character and Lord of the Rings
It's Frodo with the ring put it in the fires of Mordor and
Braveheart versus you know long shanks the king of whatever you have
You know the Matrix the individual versus architect and the program you had every single one of these blockbusters
Was always about the individual struggle they the protagonist a hero of the movie going through the same thing
You just described you just keep going on because it's the right thing to do you can't not you can't live with yourself
Or you know, but you know will you die on your deathbed wishing that you had one chance?
One chance to say they'll not take your freedom
I mean that kind of thing so this is we see this manifested at the box office
There were and I said that's why these movies are such blockbusters is so popular because you have American people
And probably people around the world still identify with the courage to do the right thing against insurmountable odds and then
A lot of people do that they're trying to beat that out of us chemical that out of us MRNA is out of us
You know that there would even be one person, but there's always the neo. There's always some there's always a Jordan page
Okay, that will take and do this kind of work up against insurmountable
I because just I'm just doing it because I'm doing it get over it and a lot of us in the Liberty community
That we're like that and so many people go to jail so many people die
So many people are discouraged so many people but there's always a neo
There's always that one. There's always the few. There's always the mythology. There's always the heroes
There's always a comic book the animation the movie that's inspiring for other people when the time is right
You can't stop it
That is what we're celebrating that humanity keeps on keeping on and the reason is is because there are in
Di-vigils that refuse to be collectivized into the hive mind of a I tell you what's up
That would just say it that's the heroes. That's the blockbusters
So the real movie, you know, maybe book of atlas
But it's the real movie. It's going to be the book of why jordan page made atlas
I mean, you know, that's you know, this is the the courage. It's demonstrated in this stuff
So for people that wants to support this
Overall concept of courage in the face of the kraken, you know
Or in the face of the you know, the creature from jackal island
Mix up our heroes here, right? You know, we got the um
That right there
Is to be supported you support that what you want to see more of I want to see more of this
How do we support it? How do we get the tickets?
How do we you know, be part of the origination of this so that we can get on the forum and email jordan man
I was awesome
But you did it wrong on this part. You need to have the different color suit hair
Whatever I mean, you know, so what you're gonna get
Just say it but the um
And you got to be ready for that you got to have the confidence in fact
They'll implant trolls to do that whether it's justified or not
So they need to sap the energy the passion behind this out of it
That is what I see happen all the time and it was those were the participation of the community and your willingness to you know, just
Persevere is what's going to make you the hero the mythology of jordan, you know, mr. Alice. So let's go ahead and
Um talk about in detail what people need to do to support this. Where do we go?
How do we get tickets? What do we and forget? I don't even care about all that
NFT brand and I get kind of I got a
Sounds like paperwork or I got push buttons or something, you know, but go ahead and you know
What's the simplest way for us to support this and go watch it?
I love listening to you ask a question Ernie. There's just so much that goes into
I don't understand
Right
All right, all right, so
The website is the book of atlas.com and you can go there now and watch the trailer and learn about the characters and learn
Learn what this is that we're doing and Ernie's, you know, you're seeing some of it here on the show and you can go and look yourself
We're going to be opening this up very soon. I mean the website's there. You can you can go there now
We're going to be putting a counter on when tickets are going to go on sale
We're aiming for march 29th to do this global premiere
When you purchase a ticket you purchase it with solana ethereum or bitcoin
and when you do that you can
Um, what you will be minting
Yourself and an nft movie ticket. It doesn't require any extra effort
You're just you know, you you connect your wallet
Your your crypto wallet, whether it's big whether you're using bitcoin ethereum or solana
And there's a there's a there's a ton of of
Compatible wallets out there that will work and you know my my cmo. Damian built this beautiful website
that's fully blockchain functional fully web 3, you know connected and
Depending on which artifact you or which which currency you use you get an nft of of
You're you're getting an nft on that chain, right?
So if you play with ethereum you're getting an ethereum based nft
And that is your movie ticket and the website when you connect your wallet
With you when you come back to the site
You connect your wallet and the and the site knows that you purchased a ticket
Because it knows your because it connected to your wallet and you bought a ticket through the site
And then you get through the through the gate and you watch the film
So we're gonna do this as a live thing. We are taking on sponsors right now. You're doing it on your phone or your
Laptop or you can watch it on your computer on your phone on your laptop on your tablet
However, whatever device you're using. Okay, now you gotta you gotta clarify this connect to my device thing
You know to the wallet kind of deal. What are you talking about?
When you have a crypto wallet you can't you like when you when you make crypto purchases on a website
You connect your wallet, you know, I mean, it's like it's a secure connection and it doesn't know
You know who you are, but you just connect your wallet so that you can make the payment
It there's like a qr code type thing
And you make the payment it's it's actually a very simple process doing a a crypto transaction. It's on my
Okay, so
You know when you say connect, you know, I don't know what you mean by connect
Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry for not clarifying
I don't need to be connected. You know, I don't want to be connected. No, no, no, no. I'm out. I'm out
Well, I mean, I don't want the creature from jacko island tentacle coming in grabbing my phone
I mean, you know, I was like, you know, how connected are we here?
Well, he's already done that Ernie the creature jacko island's already got his tentacles around your throat
You know, so we you know, but but this this is a way
Trying to disovert all of that, you know
So you pay with crypto and you get to watch this movie you get to become part of a community
And you know, there's all this tribalism in crypto and and you know, I'm a bitcoin person
I'm an ethereum person
Oh, no, no, I like salana and this is really about bringing all of these groups together in unity
You know under what this technology really means and what it was all supposed to be about right and and so we're
But we are also playing on that tribalism and saying hey
You know, let let let let's sell each one of these things out
In terms of how many how many tickets there are for each chain and
Yeah, so it's it's a lot of fun. I think people are I think people who are in the crypto space are going to love it
Uh, I think I think libertarians and and historians and people that that that know what's going on
Anybody from the wrong palm movement. I think they're going to love it
They're going to hear a lot of the language that they've you know used over the years
Um, yeah, you got to buy a ticket first or any you you can't uh, you can't
Click it like five times. Maybe it'll let me in
Doesn't work that way
Five I guess not all right get your ticket
But and people can watch the trailer and they can listen to the to the audio of the trailer and you know
And really get a sense of what what's going on here
Um, but you know again our our long-term goals with this would be to develop it into into a live action thing
You know, you know, if we get enough traction we could develop it into into a live action series
You know or or or or maybe a live action film see what happens. I don't I don't know
I don't know what's gonna happen. I don't know what the what the what the road ahead is gonna is gonna entail
But you know, I want to share I want to share this one story and I kind of add to my view on this
On freedoms phoenix. We had um
It's called quantum vibe and it was um, uh, Scott
Beezer Scott Beezer did some of the covers, you know for our freedoms phoenix easy
And he's a graphic artist that does novel covers and he did a lot of it for el nil smith and and different
sci-fi stuff and so on so he's like, you know
The original AI animation of I get a graphic kind of guy
Well, this is back when graphic artists used to be a a growing career
Now AI has you know blown that out, but um, uh, he did a comic series called quantum vibe
And we just go yeah, we'll put it up, you know, what I had no I didn't pay attention to it
You just click on the banner ad on freedoms phoenix and you went to the regular and when he stopped doing it
I got a flood of emails. They were like
Hey, man, what the hell I was watching you. I had no idea how popular it was
And this is you you do this kind of stuff
You make it available for the series on your web pages or you have you know
You get your tokens to be able to get it and you're reminded because it's on some page or whatever
Um, this could have legs and I saw and I realized that from quantum vibe
How popular that was and didn't even realize it
We just had it up on the site and you click the banner and that's where people accessed it
And when he stopped doing it, they were like what the crap
So I could see there being a community culture around this certainly in the
All the crap that's going on in crypto now and it's all the same battle
You know, it's just to say we're trying to you know, save the the message the goal the original
Original peer-to-peer digital cash thing
But you you can you know a lot of these characters you may have oh that turned bad or it went
You know bitcoin communist, you know or goldman sucks. Go coin and you know the infiltration of and then the hero changes and gets
I mean this could be there's news every freaking day
How fast can you keep up with this stuff? I mean, you know a lot of times this stuff gets dated if you're
The speed of which you can do production. What's your speed on keeping up with the news?
Well, this this film is really like
kind of
It's been what 16 17 years
Yeah, since uh since bitcoin first came on the scene and you're telling the origination story the promise of what it was
But as you do as you do, you know more episodes you can create
You know the news kind of like South Park
Man, you know two weeks later move there's a South Park. You know, of course, they're not doing as good of graphics
But you know, you understand my point
I do understand your point and and I would say like
There's still a lot of story that's even left to cover that I didn't even cover
There's there's a ton
To cover and and there and there's so many other innovations in blockchain that that I haven't covered
I you know, I really just grabbed the like like the three
Most prevalent for you that you know bitcoin salana and ethereum
You know who all have their own unique characteristics
But there's so many out there that that have have made particular innovations that I think would be great characters
Or they would be great, you know artifacts or plot points
Um, and there there's just all this mythology to unravel that I that I I purposefully didn't unravel
I hint at it and I show it that it's there
But I haven't unraveled it because I want to cover those things in the next one
So we really need support. I guess like like how I would keep up with it is, you know
One we we've we've got to we've got to be successful with it
So we need to build community and we need to make some money to be able to invest in the next one
You know, I mean we we bootstrap this one
Entirely, you know, it was it was it's it's for sure a firefly, you know animation studios production
That's a you know company that we started
Uh firefly animation studios and and you know book of atlas is our first, you know, uh our first feature
So we're we're hoping that that it will it will click it will catch on and people will will like it and want more of it
And then we'll make more. I mean there's so many stories to tell
Well, this is a passion thing for you and you're you're into it. You understand it
You've been part of you know all the people involved and um
But you've demonstrated your movie making capability
So somebody's going to go to firefly animations to say hey, you know, here's some money make me a whatever
Absolutely. The answer is always yes. It's just how much, you know, so it's um, uh
Are you starting to see this evolve?
You know as your music career has, you know, you you I'm sure you still get epiphanies for a song, you know, but
You know epiphany for animation or tools. Are you doing
Other things is there other projects that's got you passionate for the future?
You know, that's a good question. I I don't know. I'm so embroiled with this project right now
Just trying to get it launched that like I don't have it. I don't have other plans
But I have a lot of I have a lot of ideas for how to expand this
I got plans. I got plans for Jordan plan. I got you you need some plans. I got some plans
And I know there's a bunch of other people do too. You want up. You want a purple gorilla show that's what you want
I know what you want. I know what you want
You know
Purple gorilla, you know, I should fill me doing it with grandkids and then you'll get it but the um
Well, it's not just that I just see when you have this kind of talent and you can demonstrate it
It becomes a career. It becomes in demand
It becomes and I'm wondering how that would distract you
Or if it could or do you need to build out the your animation studios, but it's really
How much of team members do you need what you get this kind of technology down?
I I saw you work. I was going a whole
Lee crap now that you see what you're saying
It always takes like, you know, three years to be able to do it in 15 minutes, you know, kind of thing
so
Ernie, I think if I had a team of 10 animators
I I could turn something like this out now with the tools that exist now with 10 animators working
We could turn something like this out in in a few months
You know, I mean it's it's crazy what you can do and I don't want to cheapen the filmmaking process at all
it's like
Yeah, I mean like this this this took a long time and because you're piecing the things together
Five to 10 to 15 seconds of footage at a time and then weaving it all together
In different shots and it's I mean it's it's not as I don't want to make it sound like it's very simple to do
But if I had 10 more of me, I could have gotten this done a lot sooner
But at the same time the tools have improved so dramatically since I started again
I said earlier. I've remade this film probably three to four times now
I don't think I don't know if there's any original shots in it from when I first began
because
I just I've I've used the same source images
But I've reshot these scenes because they look so much better than they used to you know
Some some shots were were cartoony or some shots even looked more almost like
Claimation at some point and now they look like like they're real actors actually doing these action shots. It's crazy
Well, this is the point that I'm
Hopefully I can articulate it
If I took a table saw
Chop saw some hammers and drills and stuff and put it in the center of the small town square, you know
How many people are going to take it up and build me a cathedral?
I mean, you know, it doesn't matter the tools that you have. It's the mind the imagination behind it
So there may be one 13 year old kid all of a sudden make the Taj Mahal, you know, but
You can't always count on that kid. Well, you can you know be given a large enough
Demographic but I'm looking at these tools are available now that we're going to be getting some amazing things
I've seen it already happened. You know, it was a deck
You may remember him
There was one love illusionary that was you got to see this movie you got to see and the reason was not because
It was quality, you know, it had a great storyline
It was that it was done on somebody's home computer and it was like, you know
Freakin hollywood quality of beat the crap out of them and it it doesn't matter
That it was one person that did it. It's always one person that does it
There's always the author of the book. There's always a screenwriter
There's always the vision of the director
There's always it, you know, all these other tools being actors or ai
You know, be it, you know scenery or CGI being, you know, green screen or live action or whatever
It tells the story that's in the mind of someone and these came from comic books
It came from the imagination of individuals and teams
It came from what the tools to do it all of a sudden that 300 million dollar film that went broke
Because it only made 200 million is done for 10 million or 10
Thousand dollars and then all of a sudden it influences the world
And this is that and it's going to come from everywhere
It's going to be some kid in the you know barrio of Mexico or india or bangladesh or
Siberia mongolian hills of afghanistan of whatever the hell because the imagination
Is in the minds of an individual or a couple or some friends and then what happens
You get book of atlas and i am looking forward to what not just what you've accomplished
But what you could accomplish what you can accomplish in the hands of an artist these tools
This is why i feel the man's so toast. They can't keep up
You know, they well we have to say i we're going to control you
Damn it. They did a revolution. Damn it. They did the book of atlas. Damn it. They did some crypto
Damn it. They did man his freaking libertarians out there mucking up our shit, you know, and we got a stop up. Damn it
Drake more fluoride. I mean, you know something
I'm telling you that's what it is. It's a dial and the switches and if we can add a little m r a
Mnr a rna to our lettuce if we give a little shot here
We deal with just dial humanity down a little bit
So when they're given these tools they go
Uh, have what this for, you know, so this is
As long as we can maintain
Humanities purity in our blood our dna. All right, which is what we really need to protect
And as long as humanity is there to keep marching on it will and these tools in the hands of people like jordan
It will demonstrate the inspiration for generation next
That's why the quality of the animation and the story and the creation of a mythology that what this mile marker in history
Was all about what the what do you say your mission is?
Well, jordan's doing that
This is why i'm supportive one of anything jordan does and just tell you that but you know the this particular
Mission to be part of this and i gotta have to push buttons and do stuff on my whatever
But you know we go to the premiere of this and you need to get your buckets of popcorn because this thing isn't short now
Of course with the criticism. Oh my god. I had the oh, yeah
Is it possible or is it just going to be alive this it starts and you better freaking get your urinal next to the couch
Because you know you're going to watch it or do you get the rewind pause? How does that work?
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, you can you can pause and rewind we're going to show it
We're going to stream it live
So that we're going to release it at a at a certain time that you know you open it up and and it's going to
It's going to play
But then any time you come back to the site if you bought a ticket you can watch it at your leisure for sure
Yeah, okay. I'm a leisure guy. Yeah, you know i'm an old man. I got small pristine
But you know that the the one thing that I wanted to make sure that people understood is that
This is more than just a premiere of
Jordan's vision
It is a premiere of people like jordan being able to share a vision
This is what that's why we waited until video hit the internet before we launched freems phoenix because I knew
That when that happened we had parody with the
Broadcast news we can show images real images not made up images not bullshit images that you know
13 year old kid with an iphone standing next to the suicide bomber crater, you know is
What really happened and then three minutes after that
It's all bs until three weeks when you find out three weeks three weeks
Then you find out what really happened
Well, this technology is now in the hands of people like jordan that is going to
demonstrate
How to tell a story how to create a mythology how to create heroes how to create what this is all about
What is the mission? How is this being accomplished?
What's the technology and the technology to demonstrate the technology and inspire
Firefly kids because this is all generated from the promotion of firefly home education curriculum
A home education platform the interaction of a community. This is you know
You think there's not going to be some, you know, nine to 13 year old that sees with firefly
Animation what they did and the message and mythology behind it
They might be inspired just a little little little bit, you know, this is not about
It's not about just finding
You know your tribe out there which you go into crypto libertarian thing you find a tribe
You know people that are of like mind to understand the power of what you're doing
But then with that you expand into generation next
That's what I look at. That's what I you know
I want my grandkids, you know, maybe I'll get a whole bunch of it's going to be, you know
Book a Alice watching party, you know, but the uh, it's
I can see where these things this is one thing that I've always been able to kind of
Visualize is down the road now. I criticize a lot of people call them 2020
You know, they had 2020 vision. Yeah 20 miles away and 20 minutes in the future
I mean, you know, they they don't they're not seeing it
They see all these little things and I go I know where this goes
They have you know against the man
Of course the man has a you know vision for us, but Jordan has taken
not just
The capability of sharing a story a common mythology a common view a common because it's already happened
We've went through this with crypto
We've went through the promise the betrayal the deception the you know attrition the
integration into the whatever the hell and
But there's still
The Jordans and the Ernie's and the rogers and the errands and the satoshis or whatever out there going
This was the promise. How do we ignite it?
Give the understanding
Provide the narrative because it's always about it's about narrative
It's about the you know, this be the truth of kind of the reason for America
You know and I pledge allegiance, but what happens if you use principle
and history
And the promise of individual human freedom flourishing outside of control
That's the kind of thing that this is about it demonstrates how you can do it
It gives an inspiration and oh my god
Jordan and Mary have what they have
Firefly educational homeschool curriculum behind all of this with this as credibility that feeds on each other
So that's why I think you should participate in the premiere
It is support
That which you want to see more of I want to see more of this
This effort this courage this capability
That's why we're going to be watching
You know, well, how's it would you like that? I don't care. I don't care. I already like the trailer
You know, I already like demonstration of what could be done, but you know, how long is it jordan?
How long come on say it there's the question
the full the full
Director's cut is about three and a half hours
And I know I get I got you movies that had intermissions for that
Are you gonna have an intermission and there will be an intermission? Yes, there will go and yeah, we will
but but the you know
If if and when we we you know license it as a you know kind of an international
Property to other other like to markets, you know, we domestically and internationally
We'll probably cut it down to about two hours. We'll probably do a two-hour cut
And the the the three and a half hour version will be, you know, like like the director's cut
We also could could very conceivably cut this up into 25 minute
episodes and do as as a season and then book of atlas season two and book of atlas season three and
And then it doesn't matter like if you you know, I mean if you have like eight episodes at 25 minutes
There's your three and a half hours
that's that's
That's doable. That's cool. But you you want to see the whole vision
You want to experience it you want to go begin the end you want to get
Jordan because director's cut, you know what director's cut
It's what they want you to see you or watch my director's cut get over it
You know, that's what it is
But usually they're an extra 12 and a half minutes not an extra an hour and a half. I mean, oh my god
But the uh, this is we're going to get because he's so passionate about this
He's been working on this for freaking every years
You've been what did you start this? It's been to it's been two years like this month. It's been two years
And uh, you know
But in the same time, I've been building this business. I've been building firefly, you know, we just launched in january
and you know, we're building a customer base and
Bringing in affiliate partners. It and it's just it's really kind of amazing
And book of atlas has been growing in tandem with firefly and now they're both essentially launching around the same time
And we're you know one like like they're they're connected
I mean all of our branding and all of our like our our artwork and like our logo
Which is this inverted firefly with the light bulb pointing up
I mean that is what the nfts are that the that concept is what the nfts were based on and where you know some of the um
Like like a lot of the the the movie has like this this beautiful artwork in it
Um, I mean, do you want me to show you some of it?
I don't like I could show you like the first like two minutes of it or something
Would that be something you want to see or no no no no they gotta buy the ticket damn
Okay, we showed we showed enough here to see the quality of it. Okay, you know leave leave
Leave one more, you know the I'm really
Happy to see that this came to fruition
And that you're behind it, you know, but it's it's way more than people
Realize it is a mythology that you've been able to accomplish at this at this such a
Advanced graphic animation time
To give it meaning that use it in a freedom project that has way more
tentacles in it than people realize, you know, this is you know
Home education it's providing curriculum creating a community
And you have the talent and the imagination and the vision and the confidence to do this kind of stuff
And I always knew you're gonna once I saw the problem. I holy crap they gave
They
You know, they they gave Jordan the wheel. Oh my god. What's he gonna do with it? You know
That's how I see it. Hey, thanks for coming on. You know go ahead and you know, I just want people to know the uh the um
Main thing that they need to do and it's go to
The book of atlas you go to the book of atlas the page here and you can see
Yeah, we do up there url there the book of atlas dot com
You go to you know purchase ticket and it'll walk you through it, right? I mean I don't need to be
It's very easy. You just click purchase ticket. It will prompt you to connect whichever wallet you want to connect to
I'm sorry. Not connect not connect
Transact with
And then definitely definitely change that word
You're so funny. All right. I'm not funny. I'm scared. No, I don't want to be connected
No, you you do it. You do it. It's a it's a it's a quick transaction
It's it's 20 bucks to to watch the film and you you mint
When you when you buy your ticket you are in effect minting your ticket as an nft
And so you get this collectible movie ticket and then you also get a bonus nft
as a proof that about participation that you were there and
You know it's it's it's like we're we're giving you two nfts
And a feature length movie and a community for the price of a normal movie ticket
Right, so it's you know, we're not we're not selling these tickets for like hundreds of dollars. It's like 20 bucks
You know and but but this is really it is a love letter to the crypto community and the libertarian community and
We just hope people like it. I mean, you know, and if they don't they don't but my my my hope
I put a lot of love into this and a lot of vision and and a lot of time
But it was something I wanted to do so don't cry for me, argentina
You know, I wanted I wanted to do this and it was something that that I I poured a lot of passion into
and and and a lot of history and and um
And there were so many really interesting coincidences that happened as I was making this I would like have this idea to
You know like for the first part of the plot
I would do it and then I would find out later that this thing that I've created this or like this character
I created was actually a real person that I never even knew existed
You know or there would be these connections like I I I would I would I would have all these different pieces
And I would tie them together and like not realizing that, you know
This one's actually related to this one and this ties up this plot hole over here
And it was like I didn't even plan that it just happened
So there were all these really really neat things that that that went down
You know in in the crafting of the story and putting it all together to be this one cohesive thing
That that that really kind of blew my mind, you know over the course of the time that I've been making it
So I I want to share this the power of this kind of stuff. I give you an example
um
While we were traveling and so on you go on youtube and you got you know that people's homes or at the hotel
Whatever and you just log in as guest. Okay
I click on guest and one of the suggested videos up there was jordan page pendulum
Where the shit did that come from, you know on the
YouTube loving you again or something. I don't know what the hell this is his video pendulum is my favorite song
That it brings tears to my eyes every time that one line and I'm just you know, I
I um I met a young girl with a baby insider, you know or young woman or whatever
And uh, I looked but there was no safe place to hide her when that came out was when my first grandchild
Was in my daughter-in-law's womb and that was motivated. God just talking about it here. I I that and then that song
Comes up on youtube
How the shit did that happen? What's it your your thing with youtube now?
Oh, they still don't like me
They like
That was that was freaky as hell. I'm going whoa
How did that happen, you know, they're tracking you earn a sand cock. They know what they know what you like
They're like I looked at his guest. I yeah, they know they know where you are. They know
Yeah, that's true. They freak me out though
But you know the point is that that's the kind of reach this stuff has
Shooter or later. I mean it just pangs randomly. It gets to something something
I I
this is
Inspiring to me to see how this kind of effort you put into something
But I gotta warn you. I haven't seen it. I gotta warn you. You know, it's gonna happen
There's gonna be they them those trolls of it sucked. I can't believe you even wasted
Oh, well, thank you for your comment and your input. Well, you know bite me, you know
So this is a lot of the stuff certainly with your music and everything
It was panned by the bad guys, you know, they didn't like a lot of this stuff in there
But of course, we all loved it. So this is you have an audience and thank you for doing it and coming on and sharing
Now the premiere of your premiere with us and I want get the dates we haven't I don't think we've even said the date
So the tentative date that we're aiming for is march 29th
Right now we're trying to get as many
As many folks on board to help us sell tickets as possible and to get the word out
And I think if we accomplish our goals over then the course of the next week, we will be sticking to that date
I encourage you to do march 29th because because because it's my 65th birthday
Oh, okay. All right
Like I can retire now. You know, jordan's done the
It's done the movie. Hey, I retire, you know, happy birthday dirty. Yeah, okay. All right. Yeah. I mean, that's that's
That's the date that I want to do
Is march 29th and then we're really focused on that
We're also selling sponsorships to crypto companies and you know, anybody that would like to get some exposure
To this audience to a crypto centered audience
You know, we're we're you know, just email me at jordan at firefly edu.org
And I will send you a sponsorship package
But we are looking for for crypto related sponsors and we're talking to a bunch of a bunch of different platforms right now about
participating in that
Well, that's one more motivation to have all these different blockchain crypto heroes
You like you get pirate chain and r, you know, you know the pirate guys
I mean, you know, there's a lot of encouragement there
But uh, thank you for coming on jordan explaining this fully to us
And we I'm glad that we got to get your own creative history on this out a little bit and understand
That this kind of thing is in good hands and that we're going to get freedom represented
And you can be a big part of it and get your
NFTs for it, you know, so he's covered all the bases on this you go the book of atlas
Dot com
Thanks, jordan. It's always great talk to you, man. Thanks. Ernie. Love you, buddy. Love you too
Peace