Then I notice when I look at my titles that two of my published titles are both showing up with warning exclamation points on them. When I hover over them I get this:
"We are unable to offer this title on Prime Video because we found that the following title contains content that doesn't meet our customer content quality expectations"
I'm thinking that's pretty weird. Both are "Making Of" segments that I put up a long time ago. They've been published for well over a year. Now, if they took off all the Making Of segments, then I'd chalk it up to them not wanting any kind of supplemental stuff under movies. It would be dubious, since they're basically just mini-documentaries, of which Amazon has plenty.
But they didn't take all of my Making Of movies off, so it's not that.
I sent an email to customer service to ask them why they took them down, and here's where it gets the way it ALWAYS gets with Amazon customer service. They reply with a form letter saying this:
We’ve confirmed that your titles contain content that violates our Content Policy Guidelines and we cannot offer this title on Amazon Video. We reserve the right to decide what content is appropriate, including content within your video, video title, key art, etc. Your video and other content must adhere to the Content Policy Guidelines outlined in our Help page: https://videodirect.amazon.com/home/help?topicId=201986500
Thank you for your understanding.
So the strange thing here is that they say in this message that my movies have violated a content policy guideline--even though that's not what their other message says. I sent them a reply that says "Which is it, did I violate a guideline, or was it that the content didn't meet quality expectations, as you first said?"
UPDATE: There has been no response to this message--it's been 2 days.
There's really no way to read any of what Amazon has done over the past two years as anything but hostile to indie moviemakers. I'm not sure why they did the about-face, after being a pretty decent place to stream at first--and let's not get crazy, because remember they were still only paying FIFTEEN CENTS per hour streamed. It wasn't amazing, but it was decent.
It was glorious compared to what they now offer.
Anyway, will keep you updated. I know a lot of other indie filmmakers are getting their movies pulled also.
UPDATE 1:
They just pulled one of our BEST-watched movies, "Garden of Hedon". Here's their message about that:
We are always listening to customer feedback and iterating on their behalf. During a quality assurance review, we found that the following title contains content that doesn't meet our customer content quality expectations. As a result, all offers (“Included with Prime”, Buy, and Rent) have been removed. We will not be accepting resubmission of the impacted titles. This will not impact any royalties accrued through the date it was removed and will follow standard payment timelines.
Yeah, that's gonna hurt. I'm with some of these other guys--let's start suggesting to our fans that they cancel their Amazon Prime. I mean, the funny part is that I just did this this month. I wasn't using it all that much for the shipping, and I was getting pretty irate that they're playing the SAME goddamn commercial for Mrs. Maisel on EVERY episode of EVERY TV show I watched.
So I said fuck it--they can take their price hike and shove it.
UPDATE 2:
Articles are popping up all over about Amazon's shitty new policy:
http://dailygrindhouse.com/thewire/prime-purge-amazon-prime-cutting-lifelines-indie-filmmakers/
http://www.scaredstiffreviews.com/amazon-prime-video-declares-war-on-indie-film-censorship-at-its-worst-digital-giant-exposed-breaking-news/
UPDATE 3:
A reddit petition that I've probably unwisely decided to comment on.
https://www.reddit.com/r/horror/comments/ahzwfk/amazon_has_removed_hundreds_if_not_thousands_of/
UPDATE 4:
Another reddit thread I haven't gotten into yet:
https://www.reddit.com/r/cordcutters/comments/ai2c0q/amazon_prime_video_apparently_removes_many_indie/
UPDATE 5:
A uk news article that may tangentially touch on why this is all happening(Amazon's new attitude regarding indie films vs big budget stuff). Interesting that Amazon continues to have "no comment".
https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-studios-cuts-indie-movies-big-budget-film-2018-1?r=UK
UPDATE 6:
Amazon got back to me. It's INSANE. Go ahead and read the above, then the below, and then let me know WHY THE FUCK THEY PULLED MY MOVIE, because apparently, they don't know. (and the three they pulled are still unavailable...)
Hello, Thank you for your feedback.
Please disregard the previous message. Upon further review, your titles do not rely on a video experience (for example, a video content consisting of static images and/or looped content). Please note that further violations of our Content Policy Guidelines may result in suspension of your AVD account.
Please ensure all titles are wholly compliant with our Content Policy Guidelines: https://videodirect.amazon.com/home/help?topicId=201986500
This email was sent to all listed Administrators in your Amazon Video Direct account. Thanks for using Amazon Video Direct.
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Well, I feel pretty confident saying that we did NOT get the bonus for November. I think we would have gotten an email about it by now.
So I'm thinking over the options now.
This is an interesting list--it's got a TON of distribution options. Do they pay? Some of them. But it's definitely a good list to keep handy, look into.
http://trulyfreefilm.hopeforfilm.com/2011/08/how-would-you-use-all-27-new-platforms-available-for-direct-aka-diydiwo-distribution.html
Another interesting article with some resources. I haven't heard of bidslate, so will look into it, but I'm not too confident if it's anything like kinonation.
http://filmcourage.com/2018/11/24/self-distribution-on-a-micro-budget-releasing-your-film-worldwide-without-spending-a-dime-by-john-folan/
