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Amazon studios

studios.amazon.com

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Re: Amazon studios

#51

Post by ryanjmo »

The most innovation and the largest growth in distribution for video in the modern world has been in the many professional YouTube channels that exist. EpicMealTime, FreddieW, RealAnnoyingOrange, have literally millions or fans that watch every single one of their videos and they are currently making millions of dollars.

In fact FreddieW has raised over $270K on kick-starter for to create a movie, all donated from his fans.

Now, beyond just the individual YouTube channel owners, there are currently (start-up) studios that professionally manage and assist YouTube channels (for a cut of course). Some of these start-ups are http://machinima.com/, http://makerstudios.com/, cloudmedia, http://fullscreen.net/ http://www.thecollective-la.com/ http://break.com/

All of these companies, either have millions of dollars or have raised millions of dollars. Now they are currently in a land grab for all the top YouTube channels, because if you control the top YouTube channels you control distribution. And currently top YouTubers are some of the only people on the web, that can effectively and consistently distribute to millions of fans.

My point is this, innovative people are already challenging hollywood and are off to a great start. In my opinion, if someone is serious about killing Hollywood they need to first study whats already out there and figure out how to work with the people who have already made some serious progress!

Re: Amazon studios

#52

Post by melvinram »

Firebrand wrote: post #32
FreakLegion wrote: post #24

I'm disappointed in the shallow look people are giving this. You can't just read the marketing copy and take it at face value. Amazon Studios is actually pretty terrible for creatives, as many successful screenwriters et al. have been pointing out for over a year now: http://artfulwriter.com/?p=1103 http://www.hitfix.com/blogs/motion-captured/posts/the-mornin... Since those were written things have improved slightly,…

I'm not sure how I feel about all this spec work that is appearing in writing communities. It's one thing in fields like design or development where the IP could potentially be reused. With work like this that takes months to create, you risk never being able to use this work again once you post it up.

As a designer, I protest. It's always okay for other industries but when it hits home, people cry foul. Spec work is spec work.

Re: Amazon studios

#53

Post by firefoxman1 »

GuiA wrote: post #50
firefoxman1 wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, I'm not a Redditor, but I've seen some of the most controversial topics make it to the top page. Heck, even the whole SOPA debate, which hardly got any traditional media coverage, was king of HN and Reddit these past few weeks. And yesterday I read a great AMA from a former prostitute. Let's see that subject get any traditional media time.

The SOPA debate was hardly a controversial topic for HN/Reddit. Websites like Reddit definitely have great content, but as parent commenter pointed out, this content is necessarily the kind of content that appeals to the average user, and there is no room for outliers.

I suppose that's true, but they have liberated topics that would have otherwise been ignored by larger media companies.

I think the Amazon model for deciding is still a better sample of an audience than a bunch of grey-haired men sitting around a board-room table whose first question is "will this be profitable?"

Re: Amazon studios

#54

Post by FreakLegion »

jonnathanson wrote: post #39
zacharycohn wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it's a pretty lousy deal. The upside is there's at least a chance your script will get picked, versus Hollywood where there is virtually no chance. So it's a "shitty deal vs no deal" situation.

It's basically a tradeoff. You have a higher chance of getting picked, but a much lousier payday if you do. Nevertheless, it might actually be a decent bet for newbies to the screenwriting trade. As you've mentioned, and as I concur, your odds of getting discovered in Hollywood are somewhere just shy of your odds of getting beamed aboard the Enterprise. So Amazon's system represents a slightly better way to get a cal…

Your odds are astronomically worse with Amazon, actually, because by submitting to them you grant them an exclusive option on your work. Hollywood works in the opposite way, with studios competing (and, thus, cutting bigger checks) for good scripts. There are hundreds of ways to sell a script in Hollywood. There's only one way to sell a script on Amazon.

So, if your script's been floating around for a year or two and hasn't gotten any traction -- no agent, no options, hasn't made The Black List, hasn't placed in any notable competitions, etc. -- then sure, submit it to Amazon. But the hard truth in that case is that the script is likely just crap.

On a side note: the point of writing a spec isn't necessarily to sell it. Specs are to screenwriters as GitHub is to coders. That said, 2011 was actually a banner year for specs, with at least 109 sold.

Re: Amazon studios

#55

Post by shorttime »

pdenya wrote: post #4

Crazy timing. Could be a first step towards the things mentioned in http://ycombinator.com/rfs9.html

I thought the same thing until I read "The goal of Amazon Studios is to work with Hollywood to turn the best projects into major feature films"

Re: Amazon studios

#56

Post by Daishiman »

DrJokepu wrote: post #41

I am a little concerned that such a democratic creative process will lead to the redditification of motion picture; only kumbaya-style movies that make you warm inside, approved by the hive mind will ever be made, while controversial pieces of works that ask questions or raise issues most people are not prepared to listen to yet will never be realised. Which would be a shame because that's one of the important roles…

How is it different than it is right now? Big budget productions are notoroiously conservative in terms of script topics. The indie films which might be a million times more interesting have a fraction of those budgets, and they still get produced.

Re: Amazon studios

#57

Post by Daishiman »

DrJokepu wrote: post #41

I am a little concerned that such a democratic creative process will lead to the redditification of motion picture; only kumbaya-style movies that make you warm inside, approved by the hive mind will ever be made, while controversial pieces of works that ask questions or raise issues most people are not prepared to listen to yet will never be realised. Which would be a shame because that's one of the important roles…

How is it different than it is right now? Big budget productions are notoriously conservative in terms of script topics. The indie films which might be a million times more interesting have a fraction of those budgets, and they still get produced.

Re: Amazon studios

#58

Post by jonnathanson »

FreakLegion wrote: post #54
jonnathanson wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's basically a tradeoff. You have a higher chance of getting picked, but a much lousier payday if you do. Nevertheless, it might actually be a decent bet for newbies to the screenwriting trade. As you've mentioned, and as I concur, your odds of getting discovered in Hollywood are somewhere just shy of your odds of getting beamed aboard the Enterprise. So Amazon's system represents a slightly better way to get a cal…

Your odds are astronomically worse with Amazon, actually, because by submitting to them you grant them an exclusive option on your work. Hollywood works in the opposite way, with studios competing (and, thus, cutting bigger checks) for good scripts. There are hundreds of ways to sell a script in Hollywood. There's only one way to sell a script on Amazon. So, if your script's been floating around for a year or two and…

All good points, but as you've said -- and as I agree -- it's not like you're expecting your first screenplay to get made, one way or the other. So the exclusive option being granted to Amazon, functionally speaking, would be no different than having your debut spec bought and sent into development hell with a studio. After that point, the spec becomes your calling card and resume. You might earn more money selling the spec in a Hollywood bidding war, but only a small handful of all spec sales inspire that kind of frenzy. (I do agree, however, that if you have even the slightest suspicion that you've written a killer script, you should try Hollywood agencies first).

To your other point, I do fear that Amazon has basically engineered a system whereby the good catches swim the Hollywood, and the flotsam floats into Amazon's net. Time will tell.

Re: Amazon studios

#59

Post by FreakLegion »

jonnathanson wrote: post #58
FreakLegion wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your odds are astronomically worse with Amazon, actually, because by submitting to them you grant them an exclusive option on your work. Hollywood works in the opposite way, with studios competing (and, thus, cutting bigger checks) for good scripts. There are hundreds of ways to sell a script in Hollywood. There's only one way to sell a script on Amazon. So, if your script's been floating around for a year or two and…

All good points, but as you've said -- and as I agree -- it's not like you're expecting your first screenplay to get made, one way or the other. So the exclusive option being granted to Amazon, functionally speaking, would be no different than having your debut spec bought and sent into development hell with a studio. After that point, the spec becomes your calling card and resume. You might earn more money selling t…

Re: spec as calling card.

The thing about tying your script up with Amazon is that it handicaps you social proof-wise. If your script is in development hell, that means someone actually bought it. If your script is on Amazon, that just means you have an Internet connection.

An Amazon script won't work as a calling card because nobody wants to read a script they can't buy -- unless the reason they can't buy it is that someone else already has. When submitting scripts, you want to be able to say either "This amazing script can be yours for the low low price of 1 million dollars," or "Time Warner bought this script for 1 million dollars. I'd love to work with you on my next one."

With Amazon's current terms, there's just a much higher chance that all your work will have been for naught.

Re: Amazon studios

#60

Post by geuis »

Interesting until one reads to this part:

"To that end, we have established a first-look development deal with Warner Bros., the biggest movie studio in Hollywood."

I'll pass. No one should be making any deals with Hollywood anymore.

If this was Amazon's attempt to fund movies for its own distribution, that would be awesome. But it's not.

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