Amazon Studios (no more story/script submissions)

[Rodney]

Change is in the wind...

 

As of yesterday 13 April 2018 Amazon Studio is no longer accepting script submissions.

Any currently submitted scripts will be available until 30 June.

 

For more information:

https://studios.amazon.com/help/faq

 

Their recommendation to aspiring filmmakers is to submit to festivals via without-a-box.

 

[robcat2075]

How long had they been doing this?

[Rodney]

They launched in 2010.

 

Amazon Studios had received more than 10,000 feature screenplay submissions as of September 2012^[3] and 2,700 television pilots as of March 2013;^[12] 23 films and 26 television series were in active development as of March 2013.^[3][6] In late 2016

 

 

So, they aren't short on submissions.

 

Asid: If they catalogued those submissions (which I assume they did) they have a pretty good pulse on what kinds of screenplays are in play.

That data alone is valuable.

 

Given that number of submissions I foresee that more than a few lawsuits claiming "they stole my idea" will be forthcoming but I'm sure the submission criteria legalities covered that eventuality.

 

Ref: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Studios

[robcat2075]

I wonder who had to read 10,000 screen plays or if anyone ever did.

 

I recall when the Beatles started "Apple" they thought they were going be a great new place for undiscovered songwriters, but after a few months of stuff piling in they said, "OK, stop sending us your crap!"

[largento]

I remember reading the fine print back when they started this and thinking it didn't sound like a great deal. Basically, they gave you a one-time payment and then kept everything. Great, I suppose, if you're looking just to sell a script, but crummy if you wanted to be any kind of creative part of the process or share in future earnings.

 

I've debated putting up a short or two on their Prime video service, but haven't seriously looked into it. I know just from watching Prime Video that they seem to willing to publish just about anything, but that comes with the downside of getting lost in the ocean of content. Also, they pay by the hour watched, so mine would have to be watched several times to add up to an hour.