How To Release a Movie on Amazon Prime Video Direct: 2023 Step-by-Step Tutorial

[@alexsrednoselac]

Use my referral link for closed captions at Rev and help support the channel: rev.pxf.io/5gx4nN

[@HollyHargreaves]

Thank you, this was helpful.

[@Sinikkastudio]

I appreciate this video. Thank you for sharing the insight and congrats for putting yourself out there as a creator - you are successful!

[@alexsrednoselac]

Thanks a lot!

[@steveconwayfilms8589]

Great video, and great to see indie filmmakers helping each other like this. Iv been an independent filmmaker for over ten years now, so Iv been down a lot of these roads. For what’s it’s worth, and just my thoughts, a filmmaker could get their film on all the film streaming services they want but that still doesn’t guarantee people will watch it. Unless you are a special case, usually involving well-known names, in most circumstances once the streaming service houses your film so to speak their involvement kinda ends. They generally are not going to push or promote your film for you, that is still up to you as the indie filmmaker, to drive traffic there to watch it or already have an established audience to take with you. I'm sure many filmmakers will already know this but at the same time this part easily gets overlooked by many others during this process of what platforms to use for distribution (understandably as tend to focus on making the film mostly), so I just thought I’d chip in here with that. Best of luck with your films everyone!

[@alexsrednoselac]

100% agree

[@ybyzaq]

Great information

[@g.pearson4726]

Thank you I’m going to rent your movie. It looked good Do you know the requirements for a documentary film ? Thank you for sharing

[@alexsrednoselac]

I talk about this in my video for next week, but to my knowledge Amazon isn't accepting documentaries. You may have to go through a distributor or aggregator. One I highly recommend is Filmhub. I actually have a walkthrough for that coming up in a couple weeks. You can still try to upload your doc, but it may not work. I do appreciate the watch and the rent of the movie!

[@CollinsSchalom]

Realy good video appticiating from africa

[@manminghuang]

Thank you, your movie actually helps me a lot! But I wonder if you know which kind of movie can be seen free in prime membership?

[@alexsrednoselac]

You can’t do that anymore

[@user-th5hx7kl1l]

Merci beaucoup pour l'histoire de How to release your movie into Prime Amazon ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤😊❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤ Millions of blessings, Esther St Juste

[@HadjFilmz]

How do I get a trailer to play on the Amazon prime channel

[@mjk-media]

Are uploads only available for rent/buy or are they then included in Prime?

[@alexsrednoselac]

With Prime Video Direct you can only use Rent/Buy. To get on subscription Prime you need to use a traditional distributor or a place like Filmhub.

[@mjk-media]

@@alexsrednoselac Thanks!

[@bradkingvideo]

Hello Alex. Thank you for your valuable information. I'm curious about something with uploading the audio files. So I understand you need an English closed caption. I also have an English subtitle file for my English movie because there's two other languages that are spoken intermittently that should be translated. I don't want to burn-in these for various reasons. There's something called the forced subtitle file. Would you know if PrimeVideo Direct would allow an English subtitle in addition to the English closed captioning?

[@alexsrednoselac]

Hey Brad. Not 100% sure here since that’s a bit of a unique thing. I would maybe recommend making sure your important subtitles are captioned in English. Here’s some additional info on subtitles and captions you might find helpful: videodirect.amazon.com/home/help?topicId=G201979140

[@prpamofficial]

Hi, thank you for recommending Rev - can I ask what file type I should request they send ? There are a number of options - need to know the best one for Amazon Prime. Thank you

[@alexsrednoselac]

You'll want the .srt file.

[@prpamofficial]

Thank you so much !

[@NYCIndieFilmmakerSujewa]

another good video.

[@addikdinker5780]

I am from India. Your video is vary informative, Thank you so much alex. I have one question? if i have only Script, and i want to make movie after their approval.. so is there any process to get connect with Amazon or send Script for approval??

[@alexsrednoselac]

You would need to connect with a producer to get the movie made or make it yourself. Amazon isn't going to take your script directly.

[@addikdinker5780]

@@alexsrednoselac thanks, but actually I have producer also, but he is also new, so he depends on me, and i am a new director.

[@lukemayers9891]

Hello love your video how long after Amazon license your movie will it be available on prime to watch on tv

[@alexsrednoselac]

Until you take it off

[@lukemayers9891]

@ sorry I meant after they accept the movie on there platform how long will it roughly be until they put it on tv

[@alexsrednoselac]

@@lukemayers9891 It depends. Can be 2-10 weeks

[@gokulnath6811]

Hi alex i am from India i want to add a new language for a popular movie in prime video is there a idea

[@alexsrednoselac]

No

[@ec7834]

Thanks so much for your help. Question, I have a logo throughout the series, is this okay? Also, will the name on my logo need to match the name on my poster?

[@alexsrednoselac]

I would assume you can't have a logo. I don't quite understand your second question.

[@ec7834]

@@alexsrednoselac thank you!

[@pratiksharwan7366]

Quick question, did all the steps required but on the availability section when I click on save - earlier showed there was an error saving your title, please review the following errors and save again. I don’t see any error in anything

[@alexsrednoselac]

Trying making a change, changing it back to what you want, and then save again

[@AIDoctor-sv5nl]

I can download movies from website and send them to Amazon ?

[@alexsrednoselac]

No

[@giulia.badalassi]

are they taking short film at the moment?

[@alexsrednoselac]

They don't take short films. You can get your short film on Amazon through Filmhub, but you can't do it yourself.

[@toddprodproofing5632]

Doesnt seem like you can do this in the USA? Is that true?

[@alexsrednoselac]

I live in the USA and did this in the USA.

[@zarawoolf3664]

Hi! Amazon is telling me I must have an NCS rating, did you face this issue?

[@alexsrednoselac]

I had to look up what NCS is. Could just depend if your region requires it. I'm in the US, so I really only know US rules.

[@ChristianFranchini]

Hi, congratulations for the tutorial, it has been very useful, I need to ask you a question, I have already uploaded my film to amazon prime... but it rejects the subtitle, it gives me this error ¨The timecodes in a caption file must appear in a sequential order.¨ I have already tried to adjust the times and synchronize more in detail the text with the audio, including the references of sounds and background music, what else can be that I am not adjusting well? thank you for your help, greetings

[@alexsrednoselac]

Hi Christian. Thanks a lot for watching! I would give this a try. I would important your finished film that you rendered into an editing program like Adobe Premiere Pro. I would make your editing sequence the exact settings as your movie. I would then import your subtitles above the movie and make sure everything is timed properly. Once that it complete, I would render the movie again with the subtitles as a separate sidecar file in the .SRT format. This will make the movie and subtitles into two separate files, but they should be the same frame rate and time. If you don't have Premiere, this should work on any editor that uses subtitles (Davinci Resolve, Final Cut, Avid, etc). Try that first as that is probably the easiest option.

[@ChristianFranchini]

@@alexsrednoselac Thank you very much for the answer! Regards

[@alexsrednoselac]

Good luck!

[@rafid7011]

I have a short film in Arabic language, and I added English subtitle already, I did it using Adobe Premier, do I still need to do caption?

[@alexsrednoselac]

I don't know, but most likely yes. You'll also likely have to use a traditional distributor or filmhub. You can't distribute shorts with this method.

[@dyrraj1986]

Hi Alex I get always problem with title eroor what I can do I didn't understand they said that fillup the form and submitted again they are asking different questions regarding that whether the title belongs to you or not like that how I solve this situation please help me on this I try number of times

[@joanharmonize]

Great video. Thanks! Quick question - would you say it’s okay to upload directly to amazon prime and also upload to film hub? As Filmhub distributes movies to VODs including Amazon prime, i wonder if it will cause issues for me to also upload directly to amazon prime ? Also, I noticed you put a link to Rev for captions in the comment section. Will they generate caption accurately using manual procedure or is it some type of autogenerated caption? Thanks again for this video

[@alexsrednoselac]

You cannot upload to prime and filmhub yourself. You have to choose one or the other. You used to be able to do this, but Filmhub changed their rules since. I would recommend watching my Closed Caption video, but they have an option for human transcribing that's a bit more accurate. You will likely have to adjust a few things here and there, but it's pretty accurate compared to the AI version.

[@TRAARTVLOG]

Thanks Alex, wonderful video. i would like to know how long amazon kept your film? do thay pay for how long people watching the movie ( like 30 minuts 1$) or rent, buy ? Gr Reng

[@alexsrednoselac]

Thanks a lot! If you manage to get on the subscription prime (you can’t do without a distributor now) it’s like .01 for every watch hour. If they buy or rent, it’s 50% of what the price is no matter how much they watch. They can return the movie, but I’m not sure what the window is there. It’s pretty rare that I ever got refunds. So if you sell the movie for 10 dollars, you’d make 5 no matter what. If you rent for 2 dollars, you’d make a dollar. Hope that helps!

[@TRAARTVLOG]

@@alexsrednoselac thanks for the Reply 😊🙏

[@alexsrednoselac]

Glad to help!

[@Pavel00743]

I did not see Canada as one of the options. Is it possible to submit your film in Canada?

[@alexsrednoselac]

It’s not an option

[@puneetmakeovers7574]

We are trying to upload the movie we uploaded the trailer but the only is we are having trouble with subtitles file can you tell me or email me

[@alexsrednoselac]

What problem?

[@puneetmakeovers7574]

@@alexsrednoselacif we trying to upload SRT file then certain rating system no longer be valid episodic title. We have remove them on your behalf

[@puneetmakeovers7574]

Can you share me your email

[@alexsrednoselac]

@@puneetmakeovers7574 Send me a screenshot of the error. [e-mail]

[@puneetmakeovers7574]

Please check you email I sent pictures

[@horror_2s]

Thanks for the video. I have a project up on Amazon now, for rent or buy. Do you recommend having your movies up for free with ads, or selling/renting? If so, what tab would I change that in? Thank you

[@alexsrednoselac]

You can’t do for free yourself, so what you have is best. However with other platforms I recommend doing all options.

[@horror_2s]

@@alexsrednoselac Thank you!

[@ChristianMusicalTheatre]

Hi. Are you still here? I really need some direction on how to upload our live musical productions to sell/rent on Amazon Prime.

[@alexsrednoselac]

This video is the way to do it

[@brentgrosvenor4613]

@@alexsrednoselac Thank you. Do you know if Amazon allows for CODES to be generated that allow people to watch without paying? We are trying to figure out a way to sell our DVD's and blu-ray's at our live shows, but then giving people a code with each purchase to watch in HD or 4K (when that is allowed on Amazon). Still trying to find best options.

[@alexsrednoselac]

No you won’t be able to do that on any platform. You’d need to create your own OTT channel. That’s what I did for mine. I used Vimeo.

[@ChristianMusicalTheatre]

@@alexsrednoselac Ohhh. ok. so, I should just sell or rent to non physical copy people on Amazon and then for those who buy a physical copy, do codes elsewhere? Do you think Vimeo is the best option for that?

[@ChristianMusicalTheatre]

@@alexsrednoselac One more question. Where did you create an OTT channel?

[@rishithkumar8454]

can i upload move ? and amazon pay for it ? new actor and director with low budget and high VFX

[@alexsrednoselac]

That is what this tutorial is for. However, you can only do it in USA, UK, Germany, and Japan. Otherwise you need to use FilmHub or a distributor.

[@DaameeyFilms]

Hi, I´m in Germany i wanna submit short film on amazon pirime but i have an issue with the title, which says, ´´ There was an error saving your title. Please review the following errors, and save again´´ do you have any idea to solve this problem? thanks

[@alexsrednoselac]

I feels like part of your question is missing

[@DaameeyFilms]

@alexsrednoselac i can not submit my film, so how to solve this title issue?

[@alexsrednoselac]

Right but you didn't post an error, so I don't know how to solve the error if I don't know what it is. You listed "Please review the following errors" but didn't list the errors.

[@birdseyeboston]

Hey Alex thanks for the great video. I submitted my documentary and I got an email back from Amazon saying they're having trouble establishing ownership of the video. They asked for an independent third-party website listing my name and the film. I haven't publicized it yet because it's not on a streaming platform. So I uploaded my copyright registration but haven't heard back yet. Any tips on how to confirm ownership of the film?

[@alexsrednoselac]

That's a new problem I haven't heard of before. I couldn't find anything. You might need to try contacting them directly. If you find out, let me know as I'd love to add it to a future video.

[@bondanileonardo]

please ! @@alexsrednoselac

[@FevernovaTV]

If you have lower resolution footage in a certain scene within your film, will this be an issue with Amazon? I have certain scenes which which flash back to 1990's camcorder sequences. However 90% of the film is shot in 4K. Thanks

[@alexsrednoselac]

So since you’ll be exporting your film in all one resolution it shouldn’t be a problem. However it may not look 100% great with their compression, so you maybe have to play around with it.

[@FevernovaTV]

@@alexsrednoselac Thanks man, Just another quick question about distribution... In terms of distribution payment Amazon take 50% of the revenue. However Film hub state that I'll recieve 80% and they take 20% of revenue. If Film Hub were to get my film onto amazon prime, I was just wondering where Amazon's 50% cut would go? Surely the 50% that amazon take wouldn't just dissapear because it's distrubuted through Film Hub. I'm not sure which platform I would see more direct revenue from. The numbers seem off to me. Sorry if it's slightly confusing and I understand if you can't answer it. I thought it would be worth a shot.

[@alexsrednoselac]

@@FevernovaTV If I'm understanding correctly, this is how the math would theoretically would go. Say you made $2 on Amazon Prime through Filmhub. Amazon would take 50%, so FIlmhub would get $1. From there, you would get $0.80. I'm making some assumptions here as I'm not 100% sure if aggregators play by the same rules or not, but this would be my best guess. They just report what it brings in and not so much how many rentals, streams, etc, so it's an educated guess. My personal strategy was to do Amazon Prime in the US only on my own, and do anything else (including Amazon outside the US) on Filmhub. Looking back, I should have done the UK myself, but either way works. Filmhub is better for AVOD platforms. I would recommend watching my Filmhub walkthrough, but here's a tip. Make sure you put chapter breaks in your movie when you are inputting all of the metadata....

[@alexsrednoselac]

I was making pennies on Filmhub from all of these boutique platforms, and eventually I got picked up by Tubi. Then I started making 100-300 a month just from Tubi. So you stand a better chance on AVOD platforms than anything else. I also made a decent portion of my budget back from doing Prime US myself as I mentioned. I'll have to do another video about it some time, but it was the right decision for me.

[@FevernovaTV]

Thanks man that’s really handy information to know. Really enjoy your vids

[@Sparkly11]

Do they let you upload animated series?

[@alexsrednoselac]

Yes

[@migu3I]

Is there a way to upload a show?

[@alexsrednoselac]

You should be able to

[@migu3I]

@@alexsrednoselac thank you so much for the reply it means a lot. Very good video btw I also saw another one you made a couple years ago too

[@alexsrednoselac]

@@migu3I Appreciate it! Glad you are finding them helpful.

[@LukaPapadj]

Hello Alex, i have uploaded my movie on prime direct video,but i can't uploaded from ITALY - EUROPE . You can tell me why? Thanks. Luca

[@alexsrednoselac]

Hi Luca. Prime Video Direct only offers the US, UK, Japan, and Germany for territories. You have to use a traditional distributor or a place like FilmHub to distribute anywhere else.

[@FILOSTUDIOS]

Hi. How much Amazon pay per each view?

[@alexsrednoselac]

They don’t anymore. Buy and rentals only.

[@FILOSTUDIOS]

@@alexsrednoselacoh ok I see, I wanna upload my movie, can you help me with that? I wanna know how good it is, and how much do you make for every dollar people pay for each view. For example, If you are renting your movie in $ 1.00 how much is the percent do you recibe

[@alexsrednoselac]

@@FILOSTUDIOS I do not offer that service at this time. You make money on rentals or if someone purchases the film. It's a 50/50 split.

[@FILOSTUDIOS]

@@alexsrednoselacoh great. I wanna upload mine. How many people have rented your movie?

[@alexsrednoselac]

@@FILOSTUDIOS No idea. Maybe a couple hundred.

[@movietime_Telugu24]

How to apply Indian primary id

[@alexsrednoselac]

You need to use FilmHub or a distributor

[@movietime_Telugu24]

How to upload video in Amazon Mini TV

[@alexsrednoselac]

@@movietime_Telugu24 You need to use FilmHub or a distributor

[@youngs912]

Are you allowed to put it on KZbin for free and still have it posted on prime???

[@alexsrednoselac]

Yes!

[@nauticdixons]

@@alexsrednoselac oh wow, for real?

[@alexsrednoselac]

@@nauticdixons yes it’s non exclusive, so you can post anywhere else