Amazon Oddness

So if you read my last blog, you know it's looking bleak for us indies.

As for me personally, our numbers have gone down pretty dramatically after January, like a switch was turned off.  With the new pay reduction, I'm all ready to turn my titles to pay-only...

...and then on March 2nd our numbers spiked big time on Terrortory 2. (and slightly on the other movies)

This is the current graph on Terrortory 2. You can see the spike--it's around 3 times the previous numbers, and then as you can see at the end, it REALLY spikes to about 10 times what we were previous doing on average.

It's going to lead to my best month since December, which leaves me with the question...should I leave one of my movies up just to see what happens? And which one?

The obvious seems to be Terrortory 2, but I have to ask myself...how many of these people who are streaming it for free would have paid $2 to rent it?

What if the graph KEEPS going up? I'm not sure what's driving it all of a sudden--we got a good review at the end of February, which triggered a small bump, but that was weeks ago--so I don't know what to expect.

It's a tough call, and I have to make it soon.

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Sudden thought: What if, instead of premiering my next flick for free on Amazon Prime, I went ahead and launched it on Amazon only, pay only? Would be an interesting experience, but could fail mightily.

If I put it up for pay at first(figuring I'd make it free later), and it doesn't do well, and then I make it free, it may have fallen too far on the charts to ever get back to the top.

But if I do this next flick, it may be the perfect film to try it on, being SUPER no-budget.

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FB buddy Rob Hagans has started a Vlog titled "How To Make A Movie For $1000".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQM7G2tu4bE

I don't agree with some of what he says, but what do I know? I'm a dinosaur. But either way I'm interested to watch and see what he comes up with.

Amazon Sticks It To The Indies. AGAIN.

Actual Footage of An Amazon Rep Replying To Filmmaker Concerns

So today Amazon sent out yet ANOTHER email to the filmmakers they're now going to fuck even more. Apparently, making over TEN BILLION in profits in 2018 while simultaneously paying ZERO in taxes is not enough to make Jeff Bezos happy.

The new payout is now going into a sliding scale based on a metric THAT WE CANNOT SEE.

To boil it down, you still start at the pauper's base rate of $.06 per hour viewed. That would net you on average about $.09 for every time your movie is viewed. (assuming an average running time of 90 minutes)

Imagine if Red Box charged a dime for every rental. Sound fair?

BUT, under the new metric(called the Customer Engagement Rating), you will be either penalized or rewarded for such vague and nebulous things such as:

• Unique Customers:   Current and new Prime members who view your title. 
• Streamed Hours:   The time each customer spends engaging with your content. 
• Title Popularity:   Notable talent, relevant genres, an IMDb presence and rating, and box office performance. 
• Title Caliber:   Compelling and high-quality poster art, accurate and representative copy and metadata, localized subtitles and key art. For more information, review the publishing steps for standalone and episodic titles, art requirements, and caption (timed text) information.

Oh, don't worry, Amazon's gonna let you know what your CER is, but I assure you that they're not going to back it up with any kind of facts or figures, or details about why your title's CER is going to be low. (and I assure you, it's going to be low)

And if your title is low? You will lose up to $.02 per hour viewed. In essence, you're now going to be earning $.04 per hour.

You thought we were getting bent over before...well Amazon was like, "Hold My Beer".

Amazon also notes at the bottom of all their new bullshit:
Note: The above list is provided as general guidance and could change over time, as our policies and program may change over time. Prime Video Direct reserves the right to make judgments and implementation of the practices above doesn't guarantee engagement.

So yeah, if you don't like, too bad.

Also of note, and buried in the new details--they won't be putting up any estimated stats for any movies during the month you're looking at it. So no more real-time stats. You'll get to see what your movie did last month. Good luck reacting in real time to anything, if you're stupid enough to continue to go on with this charade.

It all starts April 1st. I'll be pulling all my movies from free streaming on the last day of March. Enough is enough. I already canceled my Amazon Prime, though that's more because of their price hike plus the commercials I was being forced to watch during some of the videos on their service.

So it appears we're all back at square one on the distribution crap fest. No bright lights. Distributor are still paying nearly nothing for advances, and the back-end will never appear.

I dunno, man. I wish I didn't feel like Jake Gyllenhaal in Brokeback Mountain. I'm like, "I can't quit you" to filmmaking, while filmmaking spits into its hand and gets ready to bend me over again.