Amazon studios

[FreakLegion]

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, but anyone thinking about participating should still have serious reservations:

http://johnaugust.com/2011/amazon-studios-now-slightly-less-...

[waterlesscloud]

Mazin's argument is that if you were good enough to write a script that grosses over $60 million you could get a better deal than $600,000 for the script. But I don't know if that's true. First time spec sales over $600k are very, very rare. A number of things have to come together in a way the resembles luck more than anything else for that to happen.

For an established screenwriter, sure, they could do better. For a first timer...I'm not so sure.

[Firebrand]

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.

[ashleyw]

So they'll pay you $200,000 for a theatrical release (but regardless of if your movie is chosen, you can't sell your work anywhere else for 18 months because they've got exclusive rights to buy it…all without giving you a penny), and you only get an extra $400,000 if it makes $60,000,000 at the box office?

It sounds like a cool concept, but sounds like a very lousy deal. Or am I missing something?

[zacharycohn]

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.

[DrJokepu]

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 of contemporary art in our society.

[Daishiman]

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.

[firefoxman1]

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.

[cschwarm]

>I am a little concerned that such a democratic creative process will lead to the redditification of motion picture;

The conflict between art and craft is present in almost every kind of media, in my opinion: Whether it's books, music, or movies. The only difference is that some media are cheaper to produce and thus more open to art.

The higher the up-front costs for a medium, the less room for art. If it isn't resolved on the script level, it will get punished at the box office.

I assume, this is what worries Amazon, too: Writers who think of themselves as artists are probably those who are unlikely to sell their script(s); but they are also the ones desperate enough to submit it to Amazon. There might be a nice idea in some of these scripts, but they probably need some additional work.

Of course, a bunch of guys who have no clue about art or craft aren't going to produce anything worthwhile, no matter how many of them participate.

[Daishiman]

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.

[pdenya]

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

[inconditus]

Amazon Studios has been out for at least 4 months previous to the writing.

[nreece]

Could be, but for now their official stand is:

  The goal of Amazon Studios is to work with Hollywood
  to turn the best projects into major feature films.

[shorttime]

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"

[EGF]

Creation (via this studios play) and distribution (via Prime) are making Amazon well positioned in the content wars.

[easp]

This is an interesting experiement.

It's been a long time since I really paid close attention to the movie industry, but I remember that one way money was raised, and risks shared, was in the divvying up of distribution rights (and or options on those rights) between domestic theatrical release, DVD sales, cable TV rights, and rights for same in overseas markets.

Amazon is in an interesting position in this regard, they are positioned to make money on physical and digital distribution to consumers through both individual sales and amazon prime subscriptions. They also make money on the home theater systems people use to consume this stuff. And, of course, they are getting into the eBook publishing business. Controlling the film rights to books gives them even more leverage over holywood.

It wasn't until now that I made the connection between the squeeze Amazon is putting on book publishers, and how much leverage that gives them over Hollywood. Good for amazon, but good for Apple too.

I also note that IMDB is an Amazon property, and that IMDB is both a way for consumers to discover media, but also it has made some headway in helpingsource the skills needed to make movies.

[trobertson]

    > What is a test movie?
    > An Amazon Studios test movie should be an inexpensive, full-length movie
    > that tells the whole story of the script in a compelling way, with very
    > good acting and sound.

Somehow, I don't think this will work. "Make a movie, to make a movie" doesn't seem like an attractive offer.

I'm not a filmmaker, but from what I understand, it is much more convenient to send out a script than it is to produce and edit a movie, and then send that out. Going by what's presented in Jordan Mechner's "The Making of Prince of Persia" [1], sending out a script sounds very easy, and very common, and it sounds like the people who receive scripts will actually read them to determine if they're good. It sounds like there is a lot of professional feedback.

I don't see how Amazon Studios is going to improve on that, or even match it. Getting feedback from professionals is very different from getting feedback from Youtube junkies.

[1] http://jordanmechner.com/category/prince-of-persia/

[easp]

There is a lot of romance surrounding the movie business. That romance is a lot of the reason there are so many good looking and or talented waiters and waitresses in LA. It may be less visible, but you can be damn sure there are lots of aspiring writers and directors who are attracted by the same romantic notions.

With such a vast oversupply, I would not be surprised if there are plenty of people who are willing to make a movie for the chance to make a Hollywood movie (indeed, a lot of indie shorts and full-length flicks are already attempts at just that).

Or, just look at it through the lens of the tech startup industry. You think people aren't doing small projects on the side, for free, with friends, in the hopes of scoring something bigger?

[alanfalcon]

Watch "I think my Facebook Friend Is Dead". I was skeptical about test movies too, but that one is watchable and entertaining enough that you can see how a little production values and more professional actors could make a good movie. It's all about mindset while watching.

[paul9290]

I've always wanted to write the following exposition and climax story.

Two strangers separately receive a note in the mail detailing how the other will die. The notes details the day and date of the strangers' deaths, an approximate location and a vague notion how it will happen. The notes provides small clues of their identities and thus both set out to id each other and prevent their deaths.

Ultimately, though, their quests to save one another ends in tragedy, as they mistakenly kill each other. Sorta you can't fight "Fate," type story.

Well if that sounds like a good idea for a movie or short-film I'd love to see it made

Edit: Offering script ideas (crowd-sourcing scripts) could possibly be a good "kill Hollywood," idea. Where the most popular crowd-sourced scripts get funded thru either KickStarter or Amazon Studios.

[gee_totes]

You might be interested in this book: http://machineofdeath.net/

[nicklovescode]

Amazon's product introductions are like a mixture of Apple's product videos and Sesame Street

[robertp]

Does anyone in the comments actually have experience in working with agencies like CAA & William Morris besides watching Entourage? It is hard to tell the full details & long term prospectives with Amazon studios but Hollywood is about 100x harder to work into compared to any online app or service. An online service you can build & market anywhere and it doesn't matter who you know. Hollywood is exact opposite, you can write it from anywhere but you need to be working in LA and be friends with plenty connected people and work with good agents, lawyers, management, etc.

[oron]

Amazon has got it's fingers in so many pies ... and they all taste so good,

[milkmiruku]

Amazon's monopsony in the e-book market scares me.

http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2011/11/cutting-...

[jenius]

I can't believe there hasn't been a single comment on how ridiculously horrible the introduction video is. I honest to god cannot figure out if this is some absurd conspiracy or joke, but that video looks like it was produced by a middle schooler with an istockphoto account using imovie.

Am I retarded? Is this really a joke? I don't get it...

[aditya]

I'm not sure if Amazon Studios represents real democratization of movie-making, or if Primer: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primer_(film) does. Of course cult classics like Primer are few and far between, just like successful startups.

[marquis]

How was Primer democratic? It was made the same way every other great low-budget film was made: a talented, single-minded and dedicated director.

[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.

[slig]

> Get your movie made. The goal of Amazon Studios is to work with Hollywood to turn the best projects into major feature films.

[jjb123]

"Work with".. then render unnecessary?

[colinm]

Hmm, concentrate power into a single company? And you thought Holywood was bad?

[richcollins]

Sounds like its designed to feed into the existing system