Unless you’ve been living under a rock (or just haven’t visited my Facebook page in the past week or so), you’re aware of Amazon’s latest venture. Amazon Studios is Amazon’s entry into the crowdsourcing world. Though it’s not the first attempt to bring video into the crowd-world (Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s quirkily wonderful hitRECord was the first one I noticed… back in 2006 or so), it’s certainly the most high profile.
For those not in the know, crowdsourcing is a relatively new term used to describe a certain breed of collaborative creative work via the internet. The way it usually works is that Company X needs a new logo, website, or creative copywriting done. Instead of hiring a freelancer and working with her directly, Company X uses a crowdsourcing middleman (how about Chicago-based Innovation Award winners CrowdSpring, for example?). They post a listing on the crowdsourcing company’s website with their creative and technical specifications and include, of course, the amount of money they’re willing to pay for the work they choose. What then commences is (depending on who you ask) either a messy scramble for work, contest-style or a beautiful dance confirming the idea that good ideas can come from anywhere.
Both are a bit dramatic, but the end result is the same: Dozens or hundreds of people submit work and the creator of the chosen logo, website design or copy gets the cash. Everyone else worked for free (or “on spec” for those of us who have seen Tapeheads) and doesn’t even get a credit for their trouble.
I’ve been on the fence about the crowdsourcing argument for some time. On the one hand, I do believe that good ideas can come from anywhere and that the gatekeepers of creative work shut out people baselessly. On the other hand, it does have a certain demeaning quality to those people who consider themselves professionals in their fields – the old, “Oh, you think anyone can do this?!” argument. In the long run, I suppose it’s a moot point as the very existence of crowdsourcing websites and their immense success points to a definitely disparity between the supply and demand of creative labor. Hundreds of people are willing to work for free and without credit for the chance at a paycheck. If there were agency jobs for all these people, they’d probably be there instead of working out of their dorm rooms. It’s a sad but unavoidable truth: the number of people who want to do creative work vastly outmatches the number of people willing to pay top dollar for it.
But I digress. We’re talking about Amazon here. And this argument isn’t simply a crowdsourcing one. Amazon is essentially running a contest wrapped in a shiny “creative collaboration wrapper” with two large carrots dangling on the end of its bow: Prize money and a possible movie deal!
It’s no secret that breaking into the screenwriting world in Hollywood is a rough road, piled high with the road kill of dreams too long deferred. So the temptation of the Amazon Studios model boils down to this: 1.) Submit a script. 2.) Workshop your script with thousands of Amazon users. 3.) Your script gets seen by industry types on a panel of judges. 4.) Potential to win the Amazon Studios prize and, if you’re super lucky, get your movie optioned and made by Warner Brothers!
Upon closer inspection though, many people smarter than me dug into the specifics of the agreement one had to sign in order to participate. You’re handing over your rights to your script for 18 months with no hope of legal repreive if Amazon decides to option the script. End of story.
Right?
After railing on this deal on my Facebook wall with some inductry friends, I found two very interesting forum posts on the Amazon Studios messageboard. One is a direct response from Amazon to complaints they had been overhearing. The second is an explanation of Amazon’s good intentions coupled with some truly sad figures about the supply and demand of spec scripts in Hollywood.
Ultimately I’m not convinced that Amazon’s deal is fully square. But, then again, Hollywood’s deal is unabashedly (and almost proudly) crooked. I respect Amazon’s interest in clearing the air and being transparent, but I must admit that it will be difficult to kill my childhood dream of a Lucas-like rise to power by taking points on the back-end of the hugely successful script I’m going to write any day now as soon as I get that faucet in the bathroom fixed and find a sweet cabin to hole myself up in for an entire winter as long as it doesn’t have a leaky faucet because seriously I’d have to fix that before I started writing and oh look there’s cable here!
So, basically, I don’t know where I stand. I have a feeling it will involve coming to terms with some indisputable truths about the state of creative work in the world we actually live in. I’m sure that will be tough but I’m willing to buckle down and take a long hard look at- hey, Amazon’s having a sale on video games right now so I have to go!
-Andy @ Fresh Giants