Amazon Launches Amazon Studios

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  • Amazon Launches Amazon Studios

    From the Hollywood Reporter...

    Amazon is muscling into the movie business. And the 15-year-old Seattle-based Web behemoth wants everyone to come along.

    Under a new first-look deal with Warner Bros., Amazon.com has launched Amazon Studios, a user-generated online development and production outfit built around monthly contests and community feedback. The end result, if all goes as planned, will be feature films derived from the best user submissions that Amazon Studios produces for theatrical release.

    To feed the studio’s development, filmmakers and writers around the world are invited beginning immediately to upload feature-length films and screenplays to the site, which triggers an 18-month option on the material. Each month starting in January, based on community feedback, two scripts and one test film will be designated the best of the bunch and awarded cash grants -- $20,000 for each screenplay and $100,000 for the film.

    At the end of next year, one screenplay and one film submitted by Dec. 31, 2011, will be chosen as the annual winners. That script will nab a $100,000 prize and the film a $1 million prize.

    Click here to read the full story: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/blo...s-amazon-45925
    Will
    Done Deal Pro
    www.donedealpro.com

  • #2
    Re: Amazon Launches Amazon Studios

    Wow... that seems weird. If you have something strong enough to win that contest, why on Earth would you let them lease an 18 month option on it for what will quite possibly be nothing?
    QUESTICLES -- It's about balls on a mission.

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    • #3
      Re: Amazon Launches Amazon Studios

      Originally posted by Knaight
      Wow... that seems weird. If you have something strong enough to win that contest, why on Earth would you let them lease an 18 month option on it for what will quite possibly be nothing?
      I can see why they want 18 months, given that a monthly entry also goes into the annual competition, but I suspect it's going to lower the overall standard of entries.

      I might enter one I don't plan to circulate for a while, which illustrates my point.
      TimeStorm & Blurred Vision Book info & blog: https://stormingtime.com//

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      • #4
        Re: Amazon Launches Amazon Studios

        Originally posted by Knaight
        Wow... that seems weird. If you have something strong enough to win that contest, why on Earth would you let them lease an 18 month option on it for what will quite possibly be nothing?
        exactly. if it's non-exclusive, then yeah. But an exclusive lock-away for 18 months with $0 down? hell no

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        • #5
          Re: Amazon Launches Amazon Studios

          Originally posted by Knaight
          Wow... that seems weird. If you have something strong enough to win that contest, why on Earth would you let them lease an 18 month option on it for what will quite possibly be nothing?
          It's not just 18 months. They have the option of an additional 18 months that you can't veto.
          If a woman has to choose between catching a fly ball and saving an infant's life, she will choose to save the infant's life without even considering if there are men on base.
          Dave Barry

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          • #6
            Re: Amazon Launches Amazon Studios

            I would never upload my story ideas and screenplays for anyone to see. Random people who don't have any clue about what they're doing could easily steal the idea. Certainly won't be submitting to this. I also think the odds of getting your project to win and produced are the same if you went the traditional route that we here at DDP are.

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            • #7
              Re: Amazon Launches Amazon Studios

              Originally posted by Knaight
              Wow... that seems weird. If you have something strong enough to win that contest, why on Earth would you let them lease an 18 month option on it for what will quite possibly be nothing?
              Hmmm... $20,000, $100,000...$1,000,000. Pretty enticing, no?

              Besides, you can then boast to your friends and family that your script's been optioned .

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              • #8
                Re: Amazon Launches Amazon Studios

                Damn you beat me.

                Writers beware, it seems you won't own your own script for 18 months once you've uploaded it. You give them a free 18 month EXCLUSIVE option (and even if they don't buy they say they retain the right to distribute it, not sure how the hell that would work).

                Good news (other than the SCRIPT OF THE MONTH paying $20,000 if you win) you get a bonus of $400,000 if your film makes more than $60 million at the box office and $100,000 if thy make a sequel to it which is cool.

                While this is a great chance to shift a script it's also a great way to shaft yourself too.

                Best of luck everyone.
                Co-written by myself http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnBSW...layer_embedded

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                • #9
                  Re: Amazon Launches Amazon Studios

                  it would be a great thing, if they didn't allow others to change and edit your work... that part was a "wow".

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                  • #10
                    Re: Amazon Launches Amazon Studios

                    I'd hate for my script to be edited by others...


                    And I'd be absolutely livid if the rewritten script by a bunch of fanboys turned out better than my original.

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                    • #11
                      Re: Amazon Launches Amazon Studios

                      Note the last line of the answer in Amazon's FAQ:
                      What if I don't like someone else's revision of my work? Can I veto a revision?
                      If someone revises your script or test movie in a way that you don't like, you can discuss the changes in the project forum, give substantive feedback in a review or even provide a revision based on their version, but you can't veto a revision. We believe the Amazon Studios community will embrace the good revisions. Bad contributions are sometimes just part of the creative process.

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                      • #12
                        Re: Amazon Launches Amazon Studios

                        The revision part is the biggest no-no for me. No way.

                        However, this experiment is really interesting in the sense that it democratizes the process. Not just by giving an opportunity for the writer, but because it makes every process along the way a question of majority decision.

                        How many times in HW do good scripts turn into awful movies because they get ruined along the way? How many times does HW spend millions of dollars on films that nobody wants to see? How many times does HW spend millions and millions of dollars on making films only to test them with a focus group to find out if they did the ending right?

                        With this process, the Community decides. So it should be interesting to see whether the Community makes more interesting choices than the elite private club known as Hollywood.

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                        • #13
                          Re: Amazon Launches Amazon Studios

                          Originally posted by Rantanplan View Post
                          The revision part is the biggest no-no for me. No way.

                          However, this experiment is really interesting in the sense that it democratizes the process. Not just by giving an opportunity for the writer, but because it makes every process along the way a question of majority decision.

                          How many times in HW do good scripts turn into awful movies because they get ruined along the way? How many times does HW spend millions of dollars on films that nobody wants to see? How many times does HW spend millions and millions of dollars on making films only to test them with a focus group to find out if they did the ending right?

                          With this process, the Community decides. So it should be interesting to see whether the Community makes more interesting choices than the elite private club known as Hollywood.

                          Development often turns mediocre scripts into good movies, too. It's not a one-way street.

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                          • #14
                            Re: Amazon Launches Amazon Studios

                            Originally posted by Hamboogul View Post
                            Development often turns mediocre scripts into good movies, too. It's not a one-way street.
                            True dat. Still interesting to do it the other way around. The public is ultimately responsible for a film's success or failure, it will be interesting to see what original scripts will be chosen by the public.

                            The whole movie component of the contest is less clear to me. Actually a lot of it is.

                            Too bad they couldn't just run a regular screenplay contest and add in those production / purchase bonuses, THAT would have been sweet. Even with the 18-month option, it would be worth it.

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                            • #15
                              Re: Amazon Launches Amazon Studios

                              If this experiment does eventually bear fruit, it will be interesting to see if it challenges the oft-recited notion that widespread exposure of a script before production damages the finished product.
                              "Only nothing is impossible."
                              - Grant Morrison

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