Getting your work on Amazon Prime Video and Why it'll take way longer than you think.

http://a.co/es6MDhx

Back in March, we shot ATB's second comedy special starring our friend Michael Furr. Michael is a Baltimore comedian and one of the most distinct and original voices in the current scene. Check out his debut special “Straight Acting” on Amazon Prime or directly from MichaelFurr.com

Now let’s get into why you’re really here.

You made something you want people to watch. Congrats! Now is the hard part, making it easy for them to watch. Self Distribution on your personal website is a great option and is kind of a gimme now. But, more likely than not your audience is going to want something easier. Luckily most TVs, Consoles, etc have streaming apps you can access right on the couch.

Amazon Video has a feature now called Amazon Direct. Amazon Direct allows you to self publish, setup a store page, link banking information, and even choose pricing (add free for Prime etc.).

Sounds great! But whats the catch. Well it’s just gonna take some time, especially if they reject your first few Mezzanine uploads. The Mezzanine file is essentially the Master copy you’ll submit for review. Amazon then transcodes the file to optimize for streaming on tv, phone, and lower quality options. This is a great idea in theory, but at this time it’s probably the biggest hurdle in the whole process.

Amazon gives you the export settings on how to achieve a "proper" Mezzanine file, but if you’re like us they’ll reject your first 3 attempts even after following the steps to a T. This wouldn’t be so bad if the upload tool could tell you that information, but it takes 2-4 business days for each rejection and the feedback you’ll get back just tells you you’re doing it wrong with no hint at how to correct it.

My biggest gripe with this process is that Amazon converts the Mezzanine files once they get uploaded anyways, so why even had upload restrictions?

For whatever reason following the export settings for ProRes 422 didn’t work for us. After multiple uploads and Amazon coming back with Mezzanine file errors I transcoded the file into .h264 and after a month we were finally accepted. 

Director/Editor
Eric Glaeser
Camera
Joey Malinski
George Tarrant
Sound
Jimmy Solesky
Recorded live at The Windup Space in Baltimore, MD.

- Eric

Archie Jamieson's By The Dryer

Archie Jamieson is a Baltimore Comedian and a pretty great dude. I've know Archie for about as long as he's been doing comedy and I've always admired his work ethic. For the past two years he's been nose to the grindstone working on his material. So when he came to ATB with the idea of putting together a half hour, we were already in.

A lot of people came together to make this thing happen. Thanks to Leeland Clayton, another Baltimore comedian, who brought in his camera to pick up a third angle for the shoot. We only had one chance at filming his set so this helped cover up any camera flubs our Ursa Mini/GH5 had. Thanks to Mike Franklin for bringing his sound equipment to help capture audio that night. It's a tricky balance to capture live sound at a show like this and it wouldn't have been as great without everyone working together. Thanks to Russel & The Windup Space for giving Archie the date as well as letting us record this in the bar.

Editing a piece like this is great because the material is funny so you don't mind  having to watch it a few times. I think people are going to enjoy the special because if after cutting away at it for two weeks I still catch myself laughing out loud, coming in with fresh eyes must be amazing. 

Thanks again to everyone involved behind the scenes, everyone who came out, our backs for not giving out, and to Archie for making this special!

Director
Joey Malinski
Camera
Eric Glaeser
Leeland Clayton
Editor
Max Levine
Sound
Mike Franklin
Recorded live at The Windup Space in Baltimore, MD.

- Eric

[Top Secret] Comedy Show

The Top Secret Comedy show was something we did for  Video In My Back Yard  or VIMBY FEST, a web content festival out in LA.   The festival features unique content from different cities from around the USA.  For Baltimore, I wanted to showcase the comedy scene,  which I think is up and coming and under the radar.   The goal was to shine some light on a great show called the Top Secret Comedy show hosted by Eric Glaeser.  The concept is a crazy one.   Each comic walks on stage with an enevelope full of joke premises they've never seen before written by their fellow comedians.   The first time they see the jokes are when they open it on stage.   It's a dangerous game, but that's Top Secret.   It was a fun night and ultimately turned into an entertaining video.  Check it out and let us know what you think.  

Christmas Sucks for Santa

Sometimes, ATB Productions gets to have a little fun, so for the holiday season we teamed up with comedians, Josh Kuderna, Peter Muth, and Alex Braslavsky to produce some original content.