I support funding this proposal fully, Zcash Media have a lot of hard work to do so let’s fund so they can continue the great work they’ve started.
I agree with the sentiments of the other posters in this thread so far and my more detailed comments on previous grant submissions by Zcash Media linked below.
As with all things done by Zcash Media, this proposal communicates its purpose and methods with a clarity rarely seen in crypto projects. I love the idea of collaborations with experts/entities overlapping with Zcash, and the diversity of formats and approaches to conveying the story and purpose of Zcash.
The past work done by Zcash Media speaks to the quality of the output we can expect.
I am fully supportive of this grant in its current form and believe is as important as any technical improvements in the pipeline.
What are the estimated staff size(s) over this 12 month period? and are there any risks to staffing retention for core contributors?
20 videos are the deliverable, but I didn’t see any specific commitment to their avg duration? (30 second clips, or 13-minute mini-docus?)
Generally, I am in favor of this proposal but considering the $900,000 funding cost, I think detailed estimates for the staffing and the deliverables should be addressed upfront.
The right way to analyze this proposal is with all available revant information. There are two important parts to this:
(A) observable results from previous zcash-specific projects
(B) observables resulting from the applicants’ other media work
For (A) please consider:
For (B):
https://www.37laines.com/about
By both of these criteria, I think these candidates have demonstrated fantastic capability and follow-through.
I am in favor of funding this proposal.
I also believe that, time is of the essence, let’s get the first payment out the door ASAP!
We can always evaluate the ROI from the initial payment in a few months. We need the content now!
I also continue to fully support Zcash Media. As some supporters here have already explained in detail, Zcash is at an important point in its lifecycle. We need to get the product out there, so to speak. High quality, educational content is necessary for this. 37L has a strong track record and has demonstrated its capabilities with previous Zcash Media content.
David and his team have proven that they work community focused and are responsive to criticisms and suggestions from the entire Zcash community. There has been an ongoing open exchange one the forum/social media and the ZM team also reached out to the community to gather feedback.
I think the idea of dividing the compensation into three parts and spreading it over the whole grant period is good and appropriate. This results in a constant motivation to produce high grade content for Zcash.
In 2023, we can look forward to very exciting Zcash Improvements. As described in the “30-year vision” blog post, the focus this year is on UX Foundations. In a best case scenario, this year we will see an ECC mobile wallet, shielded hardware wallet support and a formal proposal for the switch to PoS. This in combination with prepared ZM content, ready for release, should be quite effective “marketing” 
Why don’t you try Zingo?
The Zcash Media team and the project they propose, can become an essential part of the community for its educational vision of great impact inside and outside of Zcash.
From the perspective of the Global Ambassador Program, it can be a fundamental resource to support the educational and marketing activities that each of the ambassadors organize.
In the specific case of Zcash en Español, we have a YouTube channel with a lot of educational and informative content, but we do not have the possibility to produce videos of the quality, professionalism, and narrative that Zcash Media proposes.
That is why I support this proposal, which I believe will greatly benefit Zcash in the coming years.
This grant proposal, and the community support that I’m seeing in the thread, makes me very happy. Zcash Media @37L have shown Zcash what they can do, several times now, and I have no doubts that they will deliver top-quality work this time around, again. Working with them on the Zcon3 livestream was a pleasure and I look forward to more collaborations in the future. I vote yes!
@David_Heisenberg please join the next ZF A/V Club meetup (2023-02-23) and talk with us about your hopes and dreams for 2023!
Hi @ZcashGrants @David_Heisenberg given the overwhelming support from the community, can we expedite this grant?
In my humble opinion, the sooner ZcashMedia gets started, the better!
It’ll be nice to have some video worth watching!
I appreciate your diligence, and think your questions are reasonable, but I also think we can defer detailed audits until after the first quarter has passed?
I think the best way to answer your questions is empirically, that is, rather than setting constraints like “video length” lets get ZcashMedia rolling, and then offer suggestions to them based on how their videos are received.
Basically I just want to quit discussing… kick back… and watch some TV! ZcashMedia TV!
Bring on the popcorn! (Or keto alternative.)
It is quite dangerous to suggest setting a precedent here, that a $900,000 grant could expedited and be approved for 20 videos and 12 calendar months - without the producer giving any detailed estimates, not even napkin numbers about staffing, or content size of their deliverables.
We can watch what they’ve produced. Do we want more of this?
I do.
And given that these folks are trusted members of the community, I trust them to use their judgement to deliver.
Personally I am not in a position to recommend video lengths, content etc.
That’s what I would like the ZCG to pay them to figure out. They’re the community members that we need to perform the kind of analysis you’re requesting.
Am I advocating for a precedent here? Yes. The precedent is:
Trust the judgement of community members who’ve demonstrated their trustworthiness.
ZcashMedia has demonstrated BOTH necessary qualities for me to consider them trustworthy:
We should trust them, and give them what they need to succeed in our shared project.
Does anyone else in the community have a similar level of competence producing quality media? Then those folks should weigh in, with expert insight.
Perhaps you forget what happened with the first Zcash Media grant. They delivered ~10 months later than originally proposed, and to keep their work going they required additional tack-on proposals. Did they ultimately get the job completed up to par? Yes, but it was to the context of a significant schedule slip and required an extra $200,000 or so. The videos and content did okay but were by no common use of the word “game changing”.
The community paid about $700,000 for 3 videos and a new youtube channel with 2300 subs, and 270k views (and the corresponding twitter handle, and its tweet views. Can @David_Heisenberg provide those numbers?)
I really don’t like how some people are now falling over themselves to double down on trusting 37L for a notably larger project, where they haven’t even squared out the very basics of what the deliverables will measure to, or how they intend to staff the production across a 12-month timeline.
I think your questions are reasonable. Can we agree that it’s important to get some answers about staffing (size and retention) without slowing the effort?
Maybe we could ask for those insights to be included for the first milestone(s)?
Per video length… could we instead ask for data on how videos are received as a function of size? And/Or other metrics?
Basically I am asking, can we add asks to the results rather than making the initial payout contingent on more up-front work? My guess is that we’ll get better insight if the team has more direct observations to work with.
Is that a possible win-win? Where ZcashMedia gets to work, but concerns are also addressed?
Lol. I don’t think that’s how it works…
My questions are straight forward and should require minor effort to answer; particularly considering the context that Zcash Media has already spent about $700,000 of community funds on their first set of videos. To that completed work, it shouldn’t be a major challenge to look at how the staff (and specific roles) ebbed and flowed, and what deliverable narratives and their sizing discussions were had.
I don’t think the team would be significantly negatively impacted by waiting the 2 more days of the 7 that we normally enforce, and it seems like a reasonable policy to allow a week.
Good intention and competence aren’t the only reasons to fund a project. What about the need, impact and value?
The media videos were fun to watch but I doubt they made any significant change to the perception of zcash. Actually, now MSM associate Snowden with zcash and not in a good way of course.
I am in full support for this grant proposal. Zcash media have made the best three videos in the entire crypto and I believe that we should continue to build on this momentum. Video content has the power to spark emotion and change sentiment, thus by far the best form of media to deliver the core of what Zcash stands for.
One thing to note and probably capitalise on if possible, is the narrative (amongst the crypto community at least) of Zero Knowledge Proofs. It’s only fair that they associate ZKP with Zcash as they associate Blockchain with Bitcoin; regardless of what project they’re invested in or look up to. Zcash is the founding father of ZKP and hence she deserves the credit, glory and publicity of such an achievement. It would be a big pity if otherwise and unfulfilled potential from Zcash media. I say this as I believe that ZKPs as a point of discussion could surpass that of Blockchain, and where ZKPs go in terms of exposure, Zcash should follow.
Grayscale’s “Drop Gold” campaign is far and away the best video in all of crypto… you could also put the FTX super-bowl ad up there (in spite of the subsequent collapse and brand destruction)
Grayscale Investments - Drop Gold Commercial —NEW — - YouTube