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