ASK & DISCUSS INDEX

4 years, 6 months ago - Nima Akbarpour

Hi Maria,
I've uploaded my short film on Amazon and maybe can guide you to upload it yourself.
Which part of the process is difficult for you?

4 years, 6 months ago - Maria Crowcroft-Alexander

Hi Nima Thanks so much for answering my question. Well, I got up to the subtitles and its a zombie film so no one really said anything...just grunts. So I tried to put some subtitles on as they required. But then there seems to be something to do with codec? Every time I tried to upload it it would not work and said my film was in the wrong format. I don't think I had the subtitles right as well. I was working in Premiere Pro for a long time. But my computer got very old and I got a new laptop and just have nch on it which has a subtitle part. I've just got a microphone with a usb stick so ....well the short answer is I don't know whats wrong. I've been stuck for over a year. But in lockdown I've started another you tube channel and reading fairy stories for children and creating fun videos to go with them. What would your fee be to help out? Thanks again Maria

4 years, 6 months ago - Nima Akbarpour

Dear Maria,
I think you can do it by yourself because there are some personal information which is better if you keep it safe and do not share it with someone else.
I'm here to help you as much as I can.
First of all I found Video Prime a little bit tricky. It's not difficult to publish your video on this platform but it's not user friendly.
The key point will be "following the process step by step" but even in this case Video Prime will make you confused.
For instant in my case (a drama short film) the platform made me confused when I wanted to chose "Drama" as a genre but it forced me to try all the categories and subcategories one by one and finally has let me published it under "Drama - Family Life" in UK territory. But for the same movie with German subtitle they stopped me to publish it under this category and I published it under a different genre. You had to be patient and after every rejection must find another way to resubmit your video.
For the subtitle issue the rule is clear: English captions file required for all titles published in the U.S. Other regions require localised captions or localised audio (Japan requires burnt in Japanese subtitles). See Caption requirements here for the formats and the other standards:
https://videocentral.amazon.com/home/help?topicId=G201979140

If you have any problem please share the exact error message. It's even better if I can see a screenshot.

4 years, 6 months ago - Maria Crowcroft-Alexander

Dear Nima Thanks so much for your support. It has given me renewed hope. I shall attempt to tackle it again and look at the guidelines you gave. I'll take a picture of any error messages and send a copy to you. Maybe this time I can be successful. I'll keep you posted on my endaveours. best wishes Maria

4 years, 6 months ago - Maria Crowcroft-Alexander

Hi there I had another go but it says media missing and they mean the captions. I tried to get captions made from fiverr but that didn't work. I don't really understand how to do the captions in a separate file. That is my biggest stumbling block. Speically as they are zombies. thanks Maria

4 years, 6 months ago - Nima Akbarpour

If you have already added the caption to your movie on Adobe Premier Pro you can export just caption as a separate file.
This video could be helpful:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnHuo1rG4A8&ab_channel=Rev

4 years, 6 months ago - Maria Crowcroft-Alexander

Hi Nima Thank you so much for the inspiration to try again. I found some tutorials on the subject on Udemy. But they wanted £59 an hour. I don't have Premiere Pro at the moment because its too expensive for me. But I found a you tube channel that linked to a company called QuiCC. They create captions and SRT files. Under filve minutes for a film is free. I uploaded a couple of short films and the srt cards they made and now it being considered! I have everything they need...now its just if they like the movies!! Fingers crossed.

4 years, 6 months ago - Nima Akbarpour

Wish you luck Maria and please update me when you uploaded your film on Amazon. I want to watch it.

4 years, 6 months ago - Maria Crowcroft-Alexander

Thank you Nima. I will! Its difficult to wait to hear if all it ok. Its been two days and it looks ok so far. But there are another two days to wait to see if it is uploaded! It has certainly been a learning curve.

4 years, 6 months ago - Maria Crowcroft-Alexander

Hi Nima SUCCESS!!! Yay! I submitted two short films. One was just a test for the captions. The other, Zombie Cafe, had a few focus issues...but mainly with the zombies and its fine at the end so, by accident, it looked as if it was a style choice. But I wasn't sure if they would take it. But they have published it...they told me today. Evidently it takes 24 hours to upload to the site. I'm very excited. My dad was in films in the 60's and tried to make his own. The board at 20 century fox had to chose between his script and The Poisidon adventure. It was much more expensive and difficult in some ways then. I think he would be very happy... Thanks for your support! Its called Zombie Cafe. I've been waiting two weeks to hear. Its my birthday next week so this is a nice thing.