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Amazon Studios

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Many readers have wanted my opinion about this:

Amazon.com Inc. is starting a Web business aimed at helping filmmakers get their movies onto the big screen.

Amazon Studios, which the online retailer announced Tuesday, is seeking full-length films and scripts from filmmakers and screenwriters that can be entered through its website, http://studios.amazon.com. It plans to distribute a total of $2.7 million to those who submit the best works by the end of next year. Amazon said this includes an annual award of $100,000 for the best script and $1 million for the best film it receives by Dec. 31, 2011, as well as monthly awards.

Amazon Studios may then produce these projects as feature films through a “first-look” agreement with Warner Bros. Pictures, which means Amazon Studios is obligated to show Warner Bros. the projects first, but if the movie studio passes Amazon Studios can take them elsewhere.

Amazon said that, in addition to the annual and monthly awards, it will pay $200,000 to the screenwriter or filmmaker behind a project that it ends up releasing as a feature film. The company will also pay an additional $400,000 if the film brings in over $60 million in U.S. box office sales.

Having been a total outsider who broke into Hollywood by writing and selling a spec script, I have always been sympathetic to people who want to work in the film and/or TV business, but don’t live inside the 405-110-10-101 bubble.  So on the face of it and without a chance to see how things play out in the actual posting / development process, Amazon Studios seems like something to consider.

Two words of caution:

(1) While those potential revenues for writers who get movies made through Amazon Studios may seem alluring — and what isn’t alluring about $200-400K — there is no way those deals fall under WGA administration.  That shouldn’t dissuade you from researching Amazon Studios and perhaps submitting something there, just be advised that if your movie gets produced, that doesn’t get you into the WGA.  As to what the WGA will think about this venture, that remains to be seen.

(2) It seems to me that despite the “Development Agreement” and various waivers they provide on the site here, the likelihood of a lawsuits, legitimate or otherwise, for any/all winning projects is considerable.  Exposing your story to the “global community of filmmakers and fans” opens it up for any Harry, Dick or Joe to claim you stole their idea, frivolous claim or otherwise.

If I was you, the only way I would consider submitting a project to Amazon Studios was if everything about the story was entirely original, that is you own the IP entirely.  No historical figures.  No adaptations from books.  No nothing to clutter rights issues.  I would write a script and copyright it.  Then pray for the best. 

What about you, GITS readers?  What’s your take on Amazon Studios?  Any more words of caution?

UPDATE: Got this email from Lee Matthias, host of the screenwriting blog The Last Reveal:

Scott,

The controversy over Amazon Studios’ script competition is already beginning:

Some have complained that Amazon gets a free option;

that it locks up the script for 18 months with a $10,000 option to extend another 18;

that they allow others to re-write the script and post their version so that the two writers now share any winnings/sale should the revision win/sell.

These are all legitimate complaints.

Here’s why I went ahead anyway:

If you’ve written a script that you know from objective comments (by industry professionals who have never met you) that your script is top-notch;

and if it has placed among the finals (or won) in several international competitions;

and if you have been unsuccessful for a few years in getting it read by agents, managers, or producers;

and you are stuck through family and day job a thousand miles from Hollywood…

…this is a deal you should consider. Eighteen months (plus another eighteen) is hardly worse than the drawer or hard drive it sits in after you’ve exhausted the usual suspects and failed even to get a read.

As for the revision by others: the original stays out there; the revision is on its own, except, if it IS better, you’re in for 50%. I wouldn’t worry too much if you know you have a great script. It’s a lot of work to re-write it with a chance to make it truly better. Those revisions will mostly stink.

Finally…

…This deal is just objectionable enough to keep out the best scripts and the best writers, so the competition will be easier to beat. Unlike other high-paying competitions, there is no charge to enter. Yes, it’s a free option, but if the thing has been languishing for years anyway, what the Hell?

Just my 2 cents worth.

Lee

More food for thought.

8 thoughts on “Amazon Studios”

  1. I would also say that this isn't a free option for a guy wearing a trench coat on Hollywood Blvd. This is, by the amounts offered, a free option with a major studio.

    Think about it this way: would you give a free option to Paramount if it were legal? If my script had been laying there without prospects, you better believe I would.

    And I have. So, come on in. The water's fine. Compete with me. I dare ya. And good luck to us.

  2. One further thing: the objections I've seen to this remind me of that old observation about the generals always fighting the last war, Westmoreland in Vietnam fighting WWII or Korea.

    This is a new era. If you haven't noticed, the web is changing the arts and the media. The music business nearly went under until iTunes rescued it from the funeral pyre. Printed newspapers and magazines are slowly but surely going down as a paper medium.

    The folks who are behind the curve on this thing are not the web companies, it's the WGA, movie studios and producers with their heads in the sand, and anyone else who doesn't see the paradigm shift.

  3. It all depends on who uses it and how it's used.

    TriggerStreet.com (the online offshoot of Kevin Spacey's production company) was launched almost a decade ago with much the same purpose and principles, and as far as I'm concerned, it's never grown into anything but a realm of amateurs. The claim is that if a script gets voted to the top of the site, Kevin Spacey himself will consider producing it, but I don't believe that's ever happened. Sadly, even the scripts that are considered the best are usually poor quality (as reflected in the professional ScriptShark reviews they receive). I don't think there was ever a critical mass of talented writers using the site, and as a result, the only people who continue to be attracted to it are newbies or hobbyists.

    Amazon Studios could end up in a similar position, especially since it's likely to be flooded initially with bad material. Everyone who's capable of getting to page 100 on Final Draft is going to be uploading scripts like crazy, and furthermore, newbie writers will be logging in constantly and voting up each other's material on a quid pro quo basis (I'm pretty sure that's what happens on TriggerStreet). Whether good writers with good material will want to trudge through all that remains to be seen.

    The most intriguing aspect, which is also likely to be the most controversial, is the open rewrite situation. I don't know how I feel about that, but it sure is a paradigm shift. (It's also an opportunity for lots of writers to waste their time redoing someone else's work rather than coming up with original material of their own.)

    I have a feeling that it will end up being a better resource for filmmakers than for writers. Directors are being hired off YouTube videos these days, while it seems like writers are still mostly getting through the old-fashioned way.

  4. Totally agree with Lee.

    I posted about it here and am trying to solicit feedback here for how people would change it to make it better.

    The world is changing. We need new ideas and innovation.

    I just don't understand the vehemence everyone seemed to react with. Could it be better? Of course. But is this a group of tricksters laughing in a boardroom somewhere at the rest of us? No. I don't believe that at all.

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