Researching Amazon Studios

Since late 2010 Amazon Studios, a division of Amazon.com have been developing feature films & episodic series in an experimental new way, boasting an "open door" for creators. As all projects are submitted online it makes it easy for hopeful writers/film-makers from across the world to have their work seen, not only by potential investors and producers, but by like minded people who may have advice on optimising the concept. This is because Amazon Studios features a large number of users who review the movies, watch the pilots and comment on the work they see. By including the audience in the development process they can get a better idea of what the wider audience would like to see.

When a project receives a lot of good attention and ticks Amazon's boxes they put it on the Development Slate, their roster of the projects currently in development. This could mean that they organise to have their story department work with the creator on developing the script. For some projects they offer paid assignments for directing, writing and anything else that could help the story, including artwork and animations. The creator's role in production is something that will be decided over the development phase so as to get a better understanding of their skills and areas of experience.

Starting a project is a surprisingly straight forward process where all it takes is uploading an original script made up of wholly new material. If you wanted to make a series then you would submit a pilot script and a mini-bible designed to display the show at its best. You then decide whether you want to submit it publicly, where all the other users of Amazon Studios, as well as the development staff, can look at and review your work, or privately, where it will only be seen by Amazon Studios staff as well as their subcontractors. This process is made that much easier by the fact that participation is free and, in regards to copyright, uploading your material to Amazon Studios gives a dated public record of an expression of an idea. 

Once a script has been submitted, Amazon has 45 days to decide whether or not to push it into development. They do this by reading the script but also by paying attention to the ratings and reviews that other users have left. If they select a project for development then the writer gets $10,000. Should the developed script be selected for distribution as a full-budget series, the writer would receive $55,000, as well as up to 5% of Amazon's net receipts from toy & t-shirt licencing, and other royalties & bonuses. 

So far Amazon Studios have received over 10,000 feature screenplay submissions and 2,000 TV pilots. As of September 2012 the studios had 9 TV series and 17 films in active development, although none had reached the production stage as of then.

I'd like to try Amazon Studios out first hand in the upcoming weeks to get a better holistic view of the operation they've been running, but for now I'm pleased with the amount I've managed to learn about them and their business strategy. 

Client Project - Storyboard

This weekend saw the completion of the treatment and today is the first a number of client meetings this week to ensure we are up to date. Beneath is the project storyboard:

Update on Research Project

This term I have been working on three separate projects with my creative consultant, Ryan Harvey. To gain a better understanding of my research topic Ryan has agreed to experiment with unfamiliar collaboration techniques whilst we work on these projects. The aim of this is to document our experiences and review the various advantages and disadvantages of online/offline collaboration.

When I say 'online collaboration' I am referring to any means of communication that allows a space for shared contributions to a piece of work. Some notable experiences would be Celtx, Collabowrite and Amazon Studio, however there are a number of everyday gadgets that were implemented as part of the collaborative process. Skype, for example, with its "Share Screens" function, proved to be extremely useful for researching music and for sharing work. Another useful everyday gadget was "Wunderlist", the to-do list app. We were able to organise our schedule and send each other updates on work and the clients.
'Offline collaboration' pertains to face-to-face communication, such as our meeting with the client as well as any meetings we had separate to that. To get an accurate overview of our experiences we each kept a video diary to record how we thought the meetings went, both online and offline.

January proved to be the ideal time to experiment with these means of collaboration, as one of our meetings was nearly cancelled as a result of the snow, however once we rearranged our schedule we were able to have our meeting online rather than face-to-face.
I made notes in each of our meetings, pictures of which can be found here. They provide an accurate insight into each of the projects that are currently being worked on. A summary of the video diaries will be uploaded within the next 24 hours. It will aim document and evaluate the experiences Ryan & I had with the different collaborative styles.

So far this is as much as I can include in this little update, but the Video Diary Summary will have a lot more information on our working processes and what we each thought of the different techniques.

So, to summarise, over the past couple of months I have taken on three very different projects; a music video, a recruitment video and a short fantasy film. The development for these projects has been done using various methods of collaboration, both online & offline. I hope to analyse the advantages that these different approaches have in my summary of our video diary entries within a day's time.

Tour of ATRG

Today's tour of NTU's Advanced Textiles Research Group provided much needed insight into the internal client project. Luckily, the facilities that are currently in use by the innovative task force are extremely close to those I'd previously envisioned. When it comes to shooting on Wednesday I hope to get plenty of shots of the facility, as well as a short interview with some members of the ATRG such as professor Dias. This interview will hopefully churn out some useful buzz words that I can interlace with the footage of their equipment.
In my opinion, the work being done by this group has the potential for great applications in not only the medical field, but also sporting, military and even fashion. Hopefully, due to this, there will be very little narrative needed, as the advanced technology will speak for itself to a certain respect, my job here is really to make it speak up.

Behold, The Collective.

My latest film-making feat, known in its triology as 'The Collective'. Enjoy, and please post feedback.

'The Choice'

'The Chase'

'The Charity'

Justification

My idea for the DepicT project is to create a series of short films, each with independent issues but all holistically similar. The general theme, if I had to give the series one, would be that it is a crime drama, seen from the victim’s perspective, as well as that of the alleged perpetrator and the individual investigating the crime, something that I’m not entirely has been done before, at least not in the way I plan on creating it.

            In the beginning the series began as the final film on its own, being orbited by other, separate ideas to include in my pitch, and the advice I got for making that film, ‘The Chase’, was to cut the familial connection as my tutor believed that there would not be enough time to make it clear that the murdered girl was his daughter. I, myself, thought that this wouldn’t be a struggle, so, against my tutor’s recommendation, I began rewriting the story to strengthen the fact that the girl was his daughter, while at the same time fixing my other ideas to be pitched. I later realised that one of my ideas had a similar vibe, as if it was another chapter in this story. Once I realised this, the third, but chronologically first, film came to me.

            I like to think that the series possesses a contextual relevance as crime is a daily occurrence in any city on the planet, everyone will at some point be affected by crime, and everyone will at some point be accused of a crime. Anyone who does not believe this is either in denial of the  national and international crime rates or lives in a closely guarded bubble. For this series the crime is murder, which reduces the scope, as far less people will be affected by murder in their lifetime. However, as a species, we are fascinated by death; This observation is strengthened by various multicultural occurrences, hence the number of “CSI” and “Law & Order” type shows, not to mention Professor Gunther von Hagens’ frequent televised autopsies. Death is such a common occurrence that Mexico celebrates it annually as the Día de los Muertos or, “Day of the Dead”. Therefore contextually speaking, I believe that creating this series would draw an interest from various demographics.

            In terms of available resources, this shoot will be extremely low budget, as the only necessary props, such as a knife and fake blood, are already available to me at no cost, with the only foreseeable spending being that of the taxi fare between locations, which is unlikely to exceed £10. The actors will be informed of this, under the pretence that the series will  provide them with good exposure and will be a beneficial move in their career

            The expertise necessary to produce the series is something I already possess, as I am more than familiar with using both the Panasonic 151 and the Edirol R-09 having used both various times in the past. I will also be prepared for the post-production treatment in Adobe Premiere Pro, having experimented with the majority of Audio/Visual effects in the previous, ‘Projected Visual’, project. In terms of sound, I have thought of three tracks that would work well with each of the films. A jazz number, Nicholas Payton’s cover of Chinatown,  to accompany ‘The Choice’ which will give it a film noir feel. I’d like Hans Zimmer’s Mombasa, from the film Inception, to play alongside ‘The Chase’ and as for ‘The Charity’ I wanted to use something ethereal. I originally thought that Clair de Lune would be good but will probably use Max Richter’ Autumn Music instead. I have requested permission from all of the artists and am awaiting a response.

            In relation to time, I’d like to mention that this entire series could all be shot on the same day, permitting roof access for ‘The Chase’, and I imagine that editing will take, at maximum, one day per film, however I can see it being drastically less time than that. Therefore production time is estimated at between four and five days, which seems like an especially short time to create three short films, but I have no doubt that these predictions are feasible.

Storyboards

A little treat for all you who can actually sit through my drivel, Storyboards from each of the 3 upcoming films, so without further ado:

 The Charity

The Chase

The Choice