Thursday, June 27, 2013

Amazon Studios Seeks Short Video Submissions

Amazon Studios, the content production arm of Amazon.com, which has a heavy presence in Los Angeles, has launched a new effort to accept submissions of "shorts"--the short videos that filmmakers have traditionally pitched to gain deals with local studios. According to Amazon, it has invited filmmakers to submit their short "concept videos", 2-15 minutes in length, which will be reviewed by its staff to consider for an option. The move is the first for Amazon to accept video pitches--the studio has previously been focusing first on script submissions through its service. Amazon said that projects will be eligible for a $10,000 payment which are added to its development slate. Amazon said that it is looking for ideas that are "begging to be seen on the big-screen, in full-length, full-budget form." It's unclear what Amazon hopes to do with the material--the company has been using its script submissions and subsequent productions to feed into Amazon Prime Instant Video, in the form of exclusive content and series to attract users to that video streaming service.