nofilmschool » amazon

Rate, Review, Share: Amazon Releases 14 Original Pilots Based on Aggregated Crowdsourced Responses

V Renée — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 13:22:33 +0000

After launching in 2010, Amazon Studios has made its way to producing original content, albeit after a bit of trial and error. The 2012 changes, thousands of scripts, and your feedback have brought 14 of Amazon’s pilot episodes from script to screen, including 8 comedies (1 of which was submitted via Amazon Studios). Now that these shows are available on Amazon Instant Video, viewers are once again being asked to share their input by rating and reviewing them; a strategy that Amazon has embraced since the beginning. (more…)

Amazon Wants a Bigger Piece of Cloud Video with New Elastic Transcoder Service

Joe Marine — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 00:17:29 +0000

We may only think about transcoding in terms of dropping a file in into a batch converter and coming out with maybe a dozen file formats at most, but for really big jobs, especially those that need streaming video, letting another specialized company take care of the workload is far more efficient. So when a giant corporation like Amazon, who is at the forefront of cloud computing and servers, decides to get into video transcoding, it’s nothing to take lightly. Click through for more on Amazon’s new video transcoding service, Elastic Transcoder. (more…)

Amazon's AutoRip: Buy a CD, Get the Cloud Version Free (and Maybe Films One Day, Too?)

Dave Kendricken — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 19:26:20 +0000

Amazon has just announced a new service integrated into its powerful music sales tier called AutoRip, which grants CD buyers an immediately downloadable digital copy of that very album — or any CD purchased on Amazon for the last fifteen years (if it’s in the catalogue). Previously, you might have ripped the CD yourself when it came in the mail. AutoRip does the same thing, except, well… it’s automatic, and instant. Actually, the service sounds so obvious it’s almost a wonder no one thought of it sooner. In response, though, I have to ask: music and CDs are great, for sure — but why stop there? While you’re at it, Amazon, why not do the same for films too? (more…)

Original Comedies Coming from Amazon Studios: Your Feedback Decides Which Pilots Are Greenlit

Dave Kendricken — Sat, 22 Dec 2012 18:01:00 +0000

It’s clear that industry leaders in web-based media are taking original content very seriously — even Netflix, traditionally a home to separately created content, has rolled up its sleeves and proactively produced its own series. Now, another VOD/rental giant has decided to personally fund and cultivate original media — Amazon Studios has just announced its Instant Video component will be the home to six upcoming comedy pilots. The pilots will be helmed by everything from Emmy-winners and to up-and-comers — perhaps most importantly, they will be free to watch by anyone on Amazon Instant Video, and it will be viewer feedback that determines which of the series are greenlit and permitted to move forward. (more…)

Looking for the Latest Deals on Filmmaking Equipment? Slidoo Will Help You Find Them

Justin Minich — Sat, 22 Dec 2012 04:08:59 +0000

4/3 Rumors has been a neverending resource on all the official and unofficial news in the Micro 4/3 world, including information on price drops and sales on cameras and lenses. Now Ale -the site’s creator- has started a new venture called Slidoo; a website with a simple and slick interface that helps you find the filmmaking equipment (or pretty much anything else) you need at the price you want. Click through to check out how the site works and what it can do for you. (more…)

Amazon Studios Backtracks: New Terms Give Fair Treatment to Writers

Joe Marine — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 03:53:30 +0000

This story got swallowed up by all of the recent NAB coverage, but I think it’s very important. Much has been said here about Amazon Studios, but it quickly became clear that it was not designed to help independent filmmakers, especially those without any ties to the industry. By industry standards, the terms that Amazon Studios were giving to writers was almost laughable. For 18 months Amazon had a free option on your script. No protection at all. All of the other positives of the initiative go out the window when you lose your script for that long without any option to do anything else with it. But Amazon has changed their mind and has decided to give some fair terms to those who submit scripts. (more…)

6,000 Scripts and 600 Test Movies Later, How's Amazon Studios Doing?

Ryan Koo — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 18:51:15 +0000

A year ago I asked, “Is Amazon Studios the Future of Film or is it a Bastardization of Crowdsourcing?” If you haven’t heard of it, Amazon Studios is a kind-of-strange crowdsourced movie studio, wherein Amazon.com is asking not only for script submissions but also test movies (which most often take the form of animatics) as part of their ongoing contest. To me the whole enterprise is offputting, as I tend to like movies that are sui generis as opposed to movies that are voted into existence because of a popularity contest, but hey — the film business is in need of new ideas and no one else is doing it quite like this. So, what’s happened over the last year? (more…)

Get 5,000 Streaming Movies with Your Free 2-Day Shipping: Amazon Prime is Now a Streaming Service Too

Ryan Koo — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 13:16:55 +0000

Up until now, for $79 a year, Amazon Prime members got unlimited free 2-day shipping (and discounted $3.99 overnight shipping). Pretty straightforward. Prime now comes with an interesting twist, however: 5,000 streaming movies at no additional cost. While the catalog won’t give Netflix’s 20,000-title library a run for the money, it is an interesting entrée by Amazon into the unlimited streaming game. (more…)

Is Amazon Studios the Future of Film or is it a Bastardization of Crowdsourcing?

Ryan Koo — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 02:08:57 +0000

Amazon has launched Amazon Studios, a new online film studio with a crowdsourced development process. Amazon has $2.7 million committed to film projects through their first-look deal with Warner Bros.; they will be awarding $140k in prizes for submissions this December. However, rather than just running a standard contest, they have some very interesting ideas for how to “develop” these projects, and they’re more than a bit controversial. (more…)