Amazon Prime New Video Releases
Mina Spartin
For a small fee (or in some cases for nothing at all), you can upload your movie to your choice of TVOD, SVOD, or AVOD platforms and make it immediately available to millions of people. Add to the mix a creative PR campaign and some social media ads, and an ultra-low budget movie can compete with a multi-million dollar blockbuster.
By the time the film was available to stream, I had already started shooting my next feature (White Crow), so I put my organic marketing efforts on hold. I thought I would sit back and see what happened over the next couple of months, and then re-assess once I was wrapped on production.
I started by running multiple Facebook ad campaigns targeted at several different demographics. Some of these ads were purely text and image based, and other ads used videos, such as our theatrical trailer or this 15 second social media teaser.
Around this same time, I also released the film on Vimeo On Demand so it would be available for international audiences too (currently the feature is only on the US and Canadian iTunes stores).
Filmhub was the natural choice to distribute to platforms where I was unlikely to make a ton of revenue, but could still get some added exposure (like TubiTV, for instance). That said, I specifically requested that they did not provide any services for delivering the film to Amazon.
It cost me exactly $0 to make the film instantly available to millions of their subscribers, who can now buy the film outright or stream it for free with their Prime membership. This means I can generate revenue from Amazon as both a TVOD and SVOD provider with the same upload.
Noam Kroll is an award-winning Los Angeles based filmmaker, and the founder of the boutique production house, Creative Rebellion. His work can be seen at international film festivals, on network television, and in various publications across the globe. Follow Noam on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook for more content like this!
Looking back, was the decision to go with iTunes first while you worked toward other goals an integral part of the strategy or is it just the direction you happened to take? In other words, do you think the success you had on Vimeo then on Amazon linked to going with iTunes first or could you have mixed up the order and still had the success?
the film, when released, was an instant success so viewer posted rave reviews on Imdb, and rated very high. This resulted in Imdb thinking I was fudging my ratings by having friends and family post these flattering reviews (which was not the case).
A critical question is if a prime member can get a film for free whether the filmmaker wants that or not. I saw that in a comment above, but have never heard that before. I looked up several indie films on Amazon while I was signed in to Amazon and they were NOT available for free. If that is true thats very good news, as the demographic for our feature, In the Orchard, are people over 40, perfect for a platform like Amazon.
Thanks for the information. I do have lingering questions it seems so hard to get anyone in the indie film business and or VOD platforms to answer that are crucial questions needing direct answers in an effort for investors like me to make quality decisions.
5. I noticed your post for DWF was dated May 23rd and your premiere was on June 15th. How far in advance did the festival let you know you were accepted, and did you have to pay for your own travel & accommodations?
As I understand it on Amazon the filmmaker receives 50% of the sell and rent revenue from Amazon from non-prime members but since most Amazon users are probably amazon prime members the filmmaker gets only 6 cents per hour watched when its rented or bought by prime member. Or is there a way to offer the film only with rent and buy prices without having to offer it at all with the 6 cents per hour deal ?
I just spent $1k on a 15 minute short and uploaded to Amazon. The trickiest part for me was the closed captions. I even mixed and mastered it in 5.1 surround sound and the captions were tougher! I figure I can get 1000 watches of it just from my network and get my money back at the very least! Hopefully pay for the next one! Thanks for sharing your experience Mr. Kroll.
1. I would still release it the same way, since I am not making much $$ from Amazon. For me, it was important to recoup costs first, and then release on Amazon to gain more exposure. However, for a different film it may make more sense to release on Amazon right off the bat.
- Press releases must be submitted as Microsoft Word document to PVD...@amazon.com. Allow 10 business days for approval and review the checklist under Developing the Release before submitting. Also, use the Press Release template as a guide to avoid delays.
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