“Scamazon Studios”
This is awesome:
To fully appreciate how genius the satirical piece is, you have to see the original Amazon Studios video.
From the “Scamazon Studios” filmmakers:
Hey Guys,
So last week news broke that Amazon.com was starting a “movie studio” (Amazon Studios: http://studios.amazon.com ) where they would “help” emerging filmmakers by starting contests on their new website for potential prize money and making a studio feature film. Pretty cool huh? Well not so much. I looked closely at the fine print and watched this insane explanation video on their website and felt the uncontrollable urge to call bullshit on this.
I LOVE anything and everything that is made to truly help emerging filmmakers (considering I am one myself) but after looking into this one, it has a number of huge issues that any filmmaker who thinks it over would realize how bad they are screwing over anyone who enters their script, films, etc… So I made this video to help deal my frustration in, hopefully, a humorous light. Steve Greene and I wrote out the script and put it together.
I hope the right people at Amazon Studios see this and are able to make some changes so indie filmmakers won’t be getting so heavily screwed by the man!
Your Pal,
Michael Gallagher
Totally Sketch
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Co-Written & Starring
Steve Greene
http://www.youtube.com/stevegreenecomedy
http://www.twitter.com/stevegreenecom
Co-Written & Directed by
Michael Gallagher
http://www.youtube.com/totallysketch
http://www.twitter.com/totallysketch
Oh and NEW ADDITION
Follow me on DAILY BOOTH :D
http://dailybooth.com/TotallySketch
I already noted here two major problems with this idea:
* First, any script developed through Amazon Studios will not fall under WGA guidelines. In fact, the terms of the agreement are decidedly anti-writer: free option, a virtual perpetual option, apparently no sharing in ancillary revenues such as DVD, cable, foreign, etc.
* Second, it’s almost a virtual lock that any project that emerges from Amazon Studios will be subject to authorship lawsuits, legitimate or not, simply because anybody can post their ideas. And there are only so many story ideas around. So if you sell a project about a gigantic alien monkey who crushes opponents with nuclear farts, be prepared for legal action by writers who posted anything on Amazon Studios that had a gigantic creature, an alien, a monkey, nuclear, or farts in it.
Add to that this idea where other people can rewrite your story as if this is a good idea. One reason why Hollywood produces the number of bad movies it does is precisely because they hire so many writers on a project, witness this cautionary tale from Patrick Goldstein about how The A-Team employed 11 writers.
But enough from me. Listen to comedian Steve Greene in the above parody.
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