Amazon Studios

[Hpinski]

Originally Posted by docgonzo

Sorry if this sounds harsh, but why is anyone bothering to wait on this? It's dead, and has been a long time. Just forget it and move on.

Because we've been told to hang tight and that if we haven't gotten a rejection we're still under consideration. I actually assumed that once June 30th rolled around that was it and to take it as an auto rejection. I followed up not expecting to hear anything. There's nothing to gain by responding to us with a lie. Easier to just to go radio silent like so many other in the industry do. Who knows if we'll hear but since others have, past the June 30th shut down, there's no reason to assume we won't at some point.

[EdFury]

Originally Posted by Hpinski

Because we've been told to hang tight and that if we haven't gotten a rejection we're still under consideration. I actually assumed that once June 30th rolled around that was it and to take it as an auto rejection. I followed up not expecting to hear anything. There's nothing to gain by responding to us with a lie. Easier to just to go radio silent like so many other in the industry do. Who knows if we'll hear but since others have, past the June 30th shut down, there's no reason to assume we won't at some point.

Move on. Amazon's new policies, and this came straight from my agent, are packaged projects from established show runners, established writers, production companies, known producers and directors, and those projects come from agencies, agents, managers, referrals from established actors, not C & D listers, successful production companies, and from name directors. They aren't going to choose anything from the open submission pile. That avenue is stone cold dead. It's a tough sled for sure, but people break in all the time, just not from that pile.

[TigerFang]

Originally Posted by EdFury

Move on. Amazon's new policies and this came straight from my agent, are packaged projects from established showrunners, established writers, production companies, known producers and directors, and those projects come from agencies, agents, managers, referrals from established actors, not C & D listers, successful production companies, and from name directors. They aren't going to choose anything from the open submission pile. That avenue is stone cold dead. It's a tough sled for sure, but people break in all the time, just not from that pile.

Yes to this.

So, this happened:

One spring day, I visited the Amazon Studios forum they called “The Commissary.” There were all of these hopeful, nail-biting neophyte screenwriters asking one another “What does it mean?” with regard to both the direct and the vague answers they would receive from the Amazon moderators as to the status of the screenwriters’ project submissions. Naturally, all of these would-be Oscar-winning writers were ‘massively talented’ undiscovered screenwriters, so their break into “the biz” was imminent. It was only a matter of time, you see.

In one sentence, I sarcastically and jokingly interjected that perhaps Amazon Studios was amassing all the submission scripts, collating their words, and would then use a newly-created Amazon algorithm to generate “the perfect screenplay.”

In so doing, Amazon Studios would thereby bypass any payment for any or all of the projects of all the hopeful newbies and sail off into an Amazon sunset with trillions of dollars gained based on scrawls from a sea of typographical twits. “Ha, ha!” said I, as I laughed at my own sarcastic remark, and thought others would laugh also.

Two weeks later, when I came back to the Amazon Studios “Commissary” forum, the hysterical hypertense screenwriting heretics had adopted my sarcastic remark as a fact. Given Amazon's vast resources, they saw it as a conspiracy theory that they held to be so possible as to be true. They adopted it as Amazon lore.

It was an eyebrow-raising lesson in the levels of misinformation to be attained when crowd psychology and desperation both are at play.

[catcon]

I see that AS is on VPF to receive pitches, but that they're only looking for: "Unscripted formats: adventure, competition, reality".

The "pro" is Alysia Russo, who's on LinkedIn as just that, an "Unscripted Creative Executive at Amazon Studios"

By the way, there are regular Creatives and Development-types on LinkedIn, but not many have the "Connect" button available. I've tried to connect to a couple that I knew from prior correspondence, who're now with Amazon, and very quickly the connection request was ignored and the button disappeared from their profile. I suspect this is what happens when they select "I don't know this person" or otherwise disable the connection feature.

They've probably had an official edict from the boss to not allow any back-door approaches for querying. Too bad. I've made many connections people in the same roles, in other companies. But yeah, I don't use LinkedIn to pitch, either.

[JRJB]

Netflix occasionally shows up at VPF, too.

[finalact4]

Originally Posted by JRJB

Netflix occasionally shows up at VPF, too.

at what level? story exec? reader? assistant?

[JRJB]

No clue. Just initials. Requested a script, but then went unlisted. Sometimes the companies come back, like Amazon Studios, or change their names, like Lionsgate.

[Julysses]

Originally Posted by EdFury

Move on. Amazon's new policies, and this came straight from my agent, are packaged projects from established show runners, established writers, production companies, known producers and directors, and those projects come from agencies, agents, managers, referrals from established actors, not C & D listers, successful production companies, and from name directors. They aren't going to choose anything from the open submission pile. That avenue is stone cold dead. It's a tough sled for sure, but people break in all the time, just not from that pile.

yeah, pretty much, you can see the credits on any of these 'Amazon Originals' and know they are not looking for any new voices...

the open submission process could have been just a bargaining chip to threaten established writers to take less money, new media deal

[StoryWriter]

Originally Posted by Julysses

the open submission process could have been just a bargaining chip to threaten established writers to take less money, new media deal

I really don't think so. Over the years, I've seen different companies try to open up to direct submissions, often with the best intentions. Making comments like: "We intend to read on comment on every submission".

Then they get buried in an avalanche of absolute crap and realize that was a dumb idea and they have no choice but to back off.

[catcon]

Originally Posted by StoryWriter

I really don't think so. Over the years, I've seen different companies try to open up to direct submissions, often with the best intentions...

There are all sorts of versions of this.

Here's one:

www.mammoth-pictures.com...under /screenplay-competition

It's a bit like Shore Script's short film fund, where they use the revenue from the 'contest' to make a film from the winning short.

In the case of Mammoth, it used to say $100,000 to make the winning feature, but now it's more open-ended in terms of budget. I believe the 'entry fee' is next to nothing. After all, it really is just another 'version' of an open submission system, except they use the contest entry fee to help raise the dough.

(Note that Shore Script doesn't claim any ownership of the produced short, beyond a simple producer credit; whereas in the case of Mammoth it's a standard option-to-buy.)

I'm not complaining. I think this is a legit way for smaller companies to do things, and it opens up a small window of opportunity for writers, though not a particularly lucrative one. I actually had a record of Mammoth's process on file, but when I checked this year I was precisely ONE DAY late for their entry so I missed out!

PS. I dug a bit further. On the FilmFreeway submission site for this 'contest', there's an expectation the screenplay can be made for $100K All the other details are there, including the entry fees of $15/20/25 for early/regular/extended deadlines. That's pretty reasonable, if you have a wee budget 100-pager for consideration. And, I do see that there is an extended deadline, to July 15/19.
https://filmfreeway.com/MammothPictu...layCompetition