亞馬遜教你拍電視

??? 亞馬遜（Amazon）從兩年前開始制作自己的電視節目。亞馬遜工作室主管羅伊?普萊斯表示，去年亞馬遜一共生產了24部試播節目，甚至比一家普通的電視臺為全年的黃金時段準備的節目還多。

????亞馬遜于今年2月6日試播的五部喜劇和電視劇中，將有四部被正式拍成劇集，其中包括一部黑色喜劇《透明》（Transparent），圍繞一個父親是變性人的洛杉磯家庭展開；還有講述紐約的一支管弦樂隊日常生活的喜劇《叢林里的莫扎特》（Mozart in the Jungle）；由《X檔案》出品人再次操刀推出的科幻電視劇《以后》（The After）；以及根據偵探小說家邁克爾?康奈利的小說改編的電視劇《博斯》（Bosch）。另一部去年推出的電視劇《阿爾法屋》（Alpha House）則將迎來第二季。

????《財富》雜志在《連線》（Wired）雜志于紐約舉辦的連線商業大會上采訪了普萊斯，請他解答如何才能生產出好的電視節目，以及亞馬遜為何要拍攝自己的電視劇。

????《財富》：你人在西雅圖，你的團隊在哪里？

????普萊斯：他們在洛杉磯。不過如果想做電視節目的話，就必須去洛杉機。我有一張阿拉斯加航空的MVP金卡。今年八月我會搬回到洛杉磯——我就是從那兒來的。

????九年前你來到西雅圖加盟亞馬遜，當時你主要負責什么？

????我來了之后主要負責數字視頻商店的啟動，當時它還叫DVD商店。當時我們面臨的問題是，如何才能實現數字方面的視頻業務？我記得那些日子，一個工作室的負責人曾對我說：“你知道嗎，我告訴你一件事，永遠不會有人下載我們哪怕一部電影?！钡前藗€月以后，我們就和他們簽訂了協議，但當時正是一個轉型的階段。

????現在差不多所有人都跳到專業制作電視節目的領域里了。雅虎今年也宣布了一些決定，格蘭媒體（Glam Media）也是?，F在市面上已經有很多電視節目了——是不是存在一個容納極限？

????我想有些人可能會徹底失敗，但是很多人也會發現一些獨特的東西，一些值得說的東西，而且擁有自己的觀眾?，F在人們有很多創意。我認為關鍵的問題是，從業務模式的角度看，你是否能吸引足夠多的人對這部劇產生熱情。這取決于你的業務模式是什么——是靠訂閱還是靠廣告。我相信我們會看到很多試驗作品和藝術上的成功，然后他們會找出賺錢的辦法。

????那么，現在是電視行業創新的好時機嗎？

????當然，市場對高質量節目的需求很高。對于獨特的原創點子來說，有些這種點子在十年前可能是非常有挑戰的，但是現在可能最大的挑戰就是怎么立項。任何事情都存在挑戰，但是市場有這個胃口。

????亞馬遜的原創視頻業務模式是怎樣運作的？

????我們的業務模式相對比較直接，因為我們有訂閱服務，所以我們的目標只是要把人們吸引到亞馬遜金牌服務（Amazon Prime）上來。如果你訂閱了有權觀看全部電影和電視節目的視頻服務，我們會贈送你全球最大的網商提供的兩日免費發貨服務。

????生產一部電視劇要多少錢？

????我們拍電視劇不是按集算成本的，但是這些電視劇的成本與同領域的其他電視劇的成本基本持平。

????奈飛（Netflix）公司表示它拍攝《紙牌屋》的投資超過每集250萬美元，你們的花費有這么多嗎？

????我認為《紙牌屋》的成本可能要高于平均水平，因為他們有凱文?史派西這種大牌和大衛?芬奇這樣的大導演。另外我想《女子監獄》（Orange is the New Black ）、《傲骨賢妻》（The Good Wife）、《博斯》和《美國諜夢》（The Americans）這幾部劇和《紙牌屋》基本上可以列在同一陣線。但不管拍一部精品電視劇的成本是多少，對我們來說都是安全范圍。

????目前亞馬遜工作室一共在生產多少節目？

????我們有五個兒童節目和五個成人節目，也就是說我們正在生產的節目有十個，而且我們還有些試播劇。我們剛剛拍了一部由惠特?斯蒂爾曼執導、在巴黎攝制的試播劇《四海為家》（The Cosmopolitans），長度有半個小時。另外我們還剛剛拍攝了另一部很精彩的試播劇《上帝之手》（Hand of God），主演是朗?普爾曼和達娜?德拉尼，導演是《末日之戰》（ World War Z ）和《死囚之舞》（Monster's Ball）的導演馬克?弗雷斯特。之后，我們還會推出更多的試播劇。

????Two years ago, Amazon (AMZN) started developing television content. In the past year, the company produced 24 pilots, which, according to Amazon Studios director Roy Price, is more than a typical broadcast network will prepare for primetime in a year.

????Four of the five comedy and drama shows that Amazon debuted on Feb. 6 will be made into a series. They include Transparent, a dark comedy about an L.A. family with a father who is transitioning genders; Mozart in the Jungle, a comedy set amid the dramas of life in a New York orchestra; The After, a sci-fi drama from the creator of The X-Files;

????and Bosch, a drama based on books by the detective novelist Michael Connelly. Alpha House, released last year, will get a second season.

????Fortune spoke with Price on May 13 at Wired's BizCon in New York about how to make good TV and why it makes sense for Amazon.

????Fortune: You are in Seattle. Where is your team?

????Price: They're in L.A. If you want to make TV shows, you gotta go to L.A. I have MVP Gold status on Alaska [Airlines]. I'll move back to L.A. -- I'm from there -- in August.

????You moved to Seattle nine years ago to join Amazon. What were you tasked with doing then?

????I came to start the digital video store, at the time the DVD store. The question was, How are we going to approach the digital side of the video business? Those were the days when, I can remember one studio head saying to me, "You know, I can tell you one thing: No one is ever going to download one of our movies." And you know, eight months later you have a deal with them, but it was a period of transition.

????Right now, everyone is jumping into professionally produced content. Yahoo announced some things this year. So did Glam Media. There's so much television -- is there a limit?

????I suspect some people will fail outright, but a lot of people will find something that is distinctive and worth saying and has an audience. There's a lot of creativity out there. I think the question is whether you'll have enough people getting passionate about the show to make it work from a business model point of view. It depends on what your business model is -- subscription vs. advertising. I have no doubt we'll see a lot of experimentation and artistic success, and then we'll figure out the business side.

????So it's a good time to be a creative in television?

????Absolutely. There's great demand for high-quality work. And for original, distinctive ideas. The kind of idea that would have been super-challenging 10 years ago is now perhaps merely challenging to get going. Anything is challenging, but there's an appetite.

????How does the business model for original programming work for Amazon?

????Our business model is fairly straightforward because we have a subscription service so the goal of our program is simply to attract people to Amazon Prime. You've got a full subscription video service with movies and TV shows and then by the way, we'll give you free two-day shipping on the world's biggest Internet retailer for free.

????How much does one of these series cost to produce?

????We don't go into the budget per episode, but the cost of the series is the same as the cost of a series at any one of these places.

????So when Netflix (NFLX) reveals it's spending more than $2.5 million per episode on House of Cards, you are spending about the same?

????You know, I think House of Cards may be higher than average because they have [actor] Kevin Spacey and [director] David Fincher. I suspect that Orange is the New Black and The Good Wife and Bosch and The Americans are all in the same basket. Whatever premium cable broadcast budget is, that's a safe range for us.

????How many shows does Amazon Studios currently have in production?

????We have five children's shows and five adult shows. So we have 10 shows in production and then we have pilots. We just shot a pilot with Whit Stillman in Paris called The Cosmopolitans. That's a half hour. We also just shot a fabulous pilot called Hand of God starring Ron Perlman and Dana Delany and directed by Marc Forrester, who did World War Z and Monster's Ball. And we'll have more pilots after that.