Amazon Studios is Changing the Way Movies get Produced

2016 and 2017 were huge years for Amazon Studios. Amazon Studios scored big with Manchester by the Sea that went on to receive six nominations at the 89^th Academy Awards, 4 nominations at the golden Globes, and six more nominations at the 70^th British Academy Film Awards. The American Film Institute named Amazon Studio’s latest hit The Big Sick as one of the top ten films of 2017. Amazon Studios has also seen a lot of success with both their series Transparent and Mozart in the Jungle. Both shows have received Golden Globe nominations. The popularity of streaming services has skyrocketed but Amazon Studios went beyond just streaming shows and movies, the company created award winning original content. Amazon started as a book reseller but is now becoming one of the best-known movie studios with some of the most talked about films.

 

Even though it took years to get Amazon Studios to the point that it is at now, there was one man behind the scenes who worked to get Amazon Studios to the level that it is today. Roy Price came on board with Amazon in the beginning of the company’s foray into streaming. When Amazon saw how popular Netflix and Hulu were becoming they wanted to offer their own competitive streaming service and Price was hired to help not only make an Amazon streaming service possible but also to help create Amazon Studios.

 

Amazon Studios has been an anomaly in the world of entertainment. As most people are aware, the entertainment industry is strictly run out of Los Angeles. Hollywood is the place were dreams either live and flourish or die a lonely death. It is not easy to make it in La-La Land and some of the most talented people and some of the most amazing work will never see the light of day. It is a sad fact that an overwhelming majority of individuals who come to Los Angeles to try to make it big in the entertainment industry will fail. It truly is an industry where connections mean everything and can make or break a person’s success. Due to the very difficult and finicky nature of the business there are many brilliant screenplays that will never see the screen but that was about to change thanks to revolutionaries like Roy Price and Amazon.

 

Netflix had already taken the world by storm with their streaming service. People loved the idea of being able to access a large number of movies and shows at the touch of a button. Cable companies started to suffer because companies like Hulu and Netflix were becoming far more popular. Netflix and Hulu also offered shows and movies from all over the world. Shows and movies that gained popularity in other countries became available to users of the streaming service.  Streaming services were opening the door to foreign content but users wanted more.

 

Being able to stream current shows and movies was not enough. There needed to be another evolution in the future of streaming and Amazon wanted to be on the forefront of that next step. The next logical step was to create and produce original content. Streaming movies and shows from other companies was a good way to get viewers but in order to increase revenue unique content was needed to be added in addition to the streaming service.

 

Getting a movie or TV show into production can be a long and arduous process. Just getting the script in front of the right people can take a lot of hard work and sometimes luck. Having the right literary agent always helps, but that agent must be very well connected in order to get the script into the right hands. Finding a literary agent is not always easy either. Many of these agents are located in Los Angeles and the writers need to be located in the Los Angeles area for meetings with studio executives. First time independent writers and directors have a difficult time even getting to an agent, let alone getting their script into the hands of a studio executive. Many talented writers and directors are chewed up and spit out trying to make it big in Hollywood.

 

Roy Price saw an opportunity in this battle. Price was a veteran in the entertainment industry and already had produced numerous successful televisions shows. Price was born and raised in LA to a mother that was an actress and a father that was a very well known movie executive. Price had the perfect balance of experience and boldness that qualified him for the position of director at Amazon Studios. The goal of Amazon Studios was to ultimately create award-winning shows and Price was the man to get the job done.

 

Roy Price was born in Los Angeles in July of 1967 to Frank Price and Katherine Crawford. Frank Price was a television writer and executive until the mid 1970’s but later became a major Hollywood studio chief in the 1980’s. He was credited with creating the “made-for-TV movie” format and the 90 minute miniseries TV series format. He was responsible for producing some of the most famous films during the 1980’s. Films like Out of Africa, Tootsie, Gandhi, The Karate Kid and Back to the Future were all made possible thanks to Frank Price. During the 1990’s when he was President at Columbia Pictures, he was responsible for green lighting 9 out of the 10 top grossing films. Roy Price’s mother, Katherine Crawford was a well-respected actress who starred in such great films as Riding with Death, A Walk in the Spring Rain, and Gemini Man. Her father, Roy’s grandfather, was also a big player in Hollywood. Roy Huggins, Katherine Crawford’s father, also created and produced very popular TV shows like The Fugitive, The Rockford Files and Maverick.  

 

Roy Price grew up surrounded by people that knew the industry inside and out. He had access to insider knowledge at a young age and he grew to have a successful career in the entertainment industry. Price graduated from Harvard University with a BA in English and American Literature and Language and later graduated from the USC Gould School of Law in 1995. His first job in the industry was as a financial analyst for Allen & Co but soon he decided that he wanted to work more directly with the entertainment industry.

 

Before he was brought onboard at Amazon, Price had a very successful career at Walt Disney. His time at Walt Disney was productive and successful. He was the Vice President of Series Development and Current Programming and was in charge of supervising series development at Walt Disney Television Animation. While he was at Walt Disney, he was known for being a risk taker, which led to many popular and award winning animated shows. Price developed Kim Possible and it went on to become one of Disney’s most popular animated shows. He also developed Teacher’s Pet, which won the Emmy and the BAFTA for Best Daytime Animated Series. That was not his only award winning show at Disney. His other show, House of Mouse, won the Annie for Best Series. His other shows, Teamo Supremo, The Weekenders, Buzz Lightyear of Star Command, and Tarzan helped to make ABC Saturday morning programming #1 in broadcast.

 

It was his work at Disney that made the job at Amazon a perfect fit. Price had the experience and capabilities to take on creating a whole new section of Amazon. Amazon, launched in 1995, was a website that originally only sold books. Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos, started with a very simple mission that ultimately turned the company into a retail juggernaut. His goal was to create a store that would offer absolutely everything. Once the retail side of the business was booming, Bezos wanted to expand. He saw the power of Netflix and he wanted to create a competitive streaming service that would offer content produced by Amazon. Amazon wanted to take on the entertainment industry.

 

Jeff Bezos and Amazon knew that in order to compete with larger movie production companies, it would be imperative to start with a streaming service. They first created Amazon Video on Demand. Amazon launched the service in September of 2006. When Price first started at Amazon, he was the Group Product Manager and he helped to develop Amazon Unbox, which was Amazon’s first digital video store.  He also managed content licensing and product management. He negotiated deals to license television and motions pictures and ultimately created the world’s largest digital video selection. Once Amazon was able to create Amazon Video, Price was then asked to helm Amazon Studios.

 

Price knew the hardships of Hollywood and when he took over as a director at Amazon Studios, he wanted to cut out the middleman. He knew the best way to create a new and unique product was to create an application that would allow anyone from anywhere in the world to submit a screenplay for consideration. Price was always known as a risk taker and in order to stand out in the world of streaming, Amazon would need to produce some amazing original content.

 

It didn’t take Amazon long to produce some award winning television shows and movies. One the biggest hits to come out of Amazon Studios is the television show Transparent starring Jeffrey Tambor.  The award winning show, created by Jill Soloway, for Amazon Studios revolves around a family living in Los Angeles and their transgender parent. There are 3 seasons out already and Amazon Studios has renewed for both a fourth and fifth season. At the 72^nd Golden Globe Awards, the show won the Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series, Musical or Comedy, and Jeffrey Tambor won the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Television Series. The show was not only praised by critics, but also by fans for being a groundbreaking portrayal of a transgender woman and her family. The story follows Maura Pfefferman, born Morton Pfefferman, a retired college professor who begins the process of transitioning. The show delves into family dynamics of a family dealing with their father becoming a woman.

 

Amazon also scored big this last year with their movie Manchester by the Sea, a 2016 drama film written and directed by Kenneth Lonergan. The movie was first shown at the Sundance Film Festival in 2016 and Amazon Studios moved immediately to secure it for exclusive distribution. They ran a limited release in November of 2016 and then ran a wide release in December of 2016. The movie grossed $77 million worldwide and is considered one of the best films of 2016. The film, starring Casey Affleck, Michelle Williams, and Kyle Chandler, was about a man whose brother dies suddenly from a heart attack. The main character goes to help make the funeral arrangements for his brother and learns that he is now the legal guardian of his nephew. The moving and heart wrenching film received six nominations at the 89^th Academy Awards. It was nominated for the categories of Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, and Best Original Screenplay.  The film ended up winning for Best Original Screenplay and Best Actor. Affleck also won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor and the film was nominated for four other categories at the Golden Globes.

 

Amazon Studios has accomplished something within the first decade of its existence that most smaller and newer studios never accomplish. Not only have the developed and produced critically acclaimed television shows and movies, but they opened the door to indie directors, screenwriters and writers. They created a platform for these directors and writers where there was none before. Because Amazon Studios does not have a giant corporation to answer to like most Hollywood studios, there is more free reign over creativity and the results are stunning. Amazon Studios is showing no signs of slowly down. They have numerous projects in the pipeline that already have been slated to get nominations on the awards circuit.