Say goodbye to Amazon Studios

[worddigger]

A few short years ago, Amazon.com started their "Amazon Studios" in their attempt to also move into the studio film production business. They began accepting submission of scripts, had some sort of distributions deal with Warner Brothers for first-refusal of proposed films. They also put up platforms for doing online story boarding, etc.

Well, it must have failed miserably, because this week they announced that they would no longer be accepting script submissions and, effectively, were cutting and running on this particular venture. READ ANNOUNCEMENT HERE.

I have mixed emotions on this. "Mixed emotions" is defined metaphorically as: Watching your mother-in-law driving off a clift and crashing onto the rocks below while behind the wheel of your new Mercedes.

On the one hand, it's good to see that Jeff Bezos and the Amazon.com collective (resistance is futile) will not be taking over that particular area of America business. On the other hand, Independent Filmmakers are losing an alternative avenue to get their films produced outside of the established Hollywood Festival/Distribution rat race.

Three cheers and a raspberry for the system.

[Grapes]

Goodbye Amazon Studios!

[worddigger]

Amazon.com is doing something which seems worthwhile for Independent Filmmakers. They have recently set up an Amazon Video Direct service where filmmakers can use Amazon for digital distribution (streaming) of their films and elect their choice of ways to receive revenue for how Amazon customers view their offerings. For those interested in learning more, here is a link to their TERMS OF SERVICE breakdown.

Even if you have a fairly decent film to offer, it still looks like only peanuts for you and gobs for Jeff's coffers, but such is capitalism and, as usual, the filmmaker is at the bottom of the food-chain on this deal. Remember the 'Golden Rule' - He who has the gold, rules.

[jochicago]

Even if you have a fairly decent film to offer, it still looks like only peanuts for you and gobs for Jeff's coffers, but such is capitalism and, as usual, the filmmaker is at the bottom of the food-chain on this deal. Remember the 'Golden Rule' - He who has the gold, rules.

I feel it's been like that for half a decade now. Last time I checked, even getting your film into Netflix is a dead end because their default is to offer you $50k (or so) for exclusive rights for several years, which means you basically sell off any income on your film for that amount.

I honestly don't understand how anybody can profit making even an inexpensive documentary. If it takes you half a year of work to make a somewhat simple documentary, and then you are hoping to get lucky and get an offer from Netflix, you still probably just barely recouped costs and made less profit than if you had worked for minimum wage during that time.

So it seems the only people making any type of real profit are the ones with a national release and the support of a marketing campaign (so the backing of a studio that's going to keep most of the profit). I there's a different way please I'm all ears.

Same with the music industry BTW. I've been getting into the art of mixing recently, and I'm appalled by how little these guys make. I'm talking nonsense money. For instance, take a look at this:
https://www.abbeyroad.com/online-mixing

That's the top of the food chain. Abbey Road is where the Beatles recorded and mixed. It is where Adele records today. The studio sits on a fortune worth of just mixing gear and will use their priceless vintage gear on your mixes. And mixing takes no less than a full day's work even if you are doing it on the quick and cheap. Yet you can hire these icons of the industry starting at £300. Guess where that puts the little guy? Near minimum wage for artistic work performed on expensive gear (that needs tons of maintenance).

So if you get into the industry today you are hoping to spend years working for free to learn, and spend $thousands over in gear, in hope that one day, if you ever become good enough, you too can live the dream of a near minimum wage career.

[worddigger]

So if you get into the industry today you are hoping to spend years working for free to learn, and spend $thousands over in gear, in hope that one day, if you ever become good enough, you too can live the dream of a near minimum wage career.

Actually, that model applies to just about any career model, whether working for a company or self. You go to University to get a degree, you spend thousands of dollars on tuition fees, textbooks and such, then spend years in low-paying entry-level jobs while you pay off your student loan. If you are lucky. Many times people can't even land initial work in their chosen career field. Look at all the 'Liberal Arts' majors working at McDonalds.

BS + Phd translates to Burger-Serving-Patented-Hamburger-Designs.

"Yes, Sir, one Big Mac coming up. Do you want Clinical Psychoanalysis with that?"

[enc]

The studio sits on a fortune worth of just mixing gear and will use their priceless vintage gear on your mixes.
.

Does it actually state that on the website?

[jochicago]

Does it actually state that on the website?

https://www.abbeyroad.com/help/can-i...in-my-mix-1052

Yes, at the discretion of the engineer (I'm assuming they mean if it fits the project, not just to satisfy the client's whim).

[enc]

https://www.abbeyroad.com/help/can-i...in-my-mix-1052

Yes, at the discretion of the engineer (I'm assuming they mean if it fits the project, not just to satisfy the client's whim).

In reality, your "engineer" probably sits in a 3mtr x 3mtr room with a mac and pro tools .. albeit with decent monitors ...can't argue with "mixed at Abby road" would look impressive on your demo tape

[worddigger]

Does it actually state that on the website?

Are we taking this too literally? A paraphrase from the movie, 'Space Balls'. - Comb the desert!

[jochicago]

In reality, your "engineer" probably sits in a 3mtr x 3mtr room with a mac and pro tools

True. Isn't that what 99% of everyone is doing these days? Even the big name engineers that work with a "hybrid" model are essentially doing it all on the computer and then running the audio once through some vintage gear "for the magical tone" (read: so that their clients can say some analog gear was used).

So you might as well pay Abbey Road to do it. Then you can say: listen to this vocal track. The reverb sounds great, just like every other song, amiright? That's Abbey Road's authentic vocal plates, not the $39 plugin that sounds exactly the same. I swear. These guys actually spent the 90 minutes to set up the plates, vs slapping on a plugin in 2 mins. Makes my song feel* so much better (*to me.)
https://www.waves.com/plugins/abbey-road-reverb-plates

This is commentary on the video thread too. The advent of better and cheaper technology is erasing the boundaries between the pros with the super expensive gear and the little guy with a powerful laptop. These days anyone with $10k has enough gear to film and edit a documentary in full frame 4:2:2.

So all arts are becoming a race to the bottom. As technology and gear are no longer a barrier of entry, anyone with a dream to not work a 9-5 job can get into the arts and hustle, thus making the average income a bottom-end hustle type of income.

That's why Netflix can get away with offering $50k thereabouts for exclusive rights to your documentary. They know enough people will take the deal, so there's no need to offer much more.

This guy had a successful tiny (production-wise) documentary:
https://medium.com/@GriffinHammond/5...e-fd8ded8be493

After 36 months he raked in around $80k. That's around $2k per month on his investment. You could say it is still a profit, but he had to put money and time upfront, take all the risk, then hustle, pay and go to festivals, deploy on dozens of platforms, marketing, etc, to end up with an income equivalent to making around $14 an hour. I think he lives in California. If he had just taken a job in production he probably would have been making about the same with 0 risk and stress.

Other things come out of it. He is now a successful indie producer. He has earned some notoriety, etc. But the numbers alone are hard to justify considering that it could just as easily go wrong and your production may end up making no money.