《阿爾法屋》將迎來第二季 亞馬遜教你拍電視

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.

亞馬遜（Amazon）從兩年前開始製作自己的電視節目。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爲全年的黃金時段準備的節目還多。

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;

亞馬遜於今年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絃樂隊日常生活的喜劇《叢林裏的莫扎特》（Mozart in the Jungle）；由《X檔案》出品人再次操刀推出的科幻電視劇《以後》（The After）；以及根據偵探小說家邁克爾o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。

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

《財富》雜誌在《連線》（Wired）雜誌於紐約舉辦的連線商業大會上採訪了普萊斯，請他解答如何才能生產出好的電視節目，以及亞馬遜爲何要拍攝自己的電視劇。

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.

《財富》：你人在西雅圖，你的團隊在哪裏？

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

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。

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.

九年前你來到西雅圖加盟亞馬遜，當時你主要負責什麼？

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

我來了之後主要負責數字視頻商店的啓動，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。”但是八個月以後，我們就和他們簽訂了協議，但當時正是一個轉型的階段。

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.

現在差不多所有人都跳到專業製作電視節目的領域裏了。雅虎今年也宣佈了一些決定，格蘭媒體（Glam Media）也是。現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？

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?

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，而且擁有自己的觀衆。現在人們有很多創意。我認爲關鍵的問題是，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。這取決於你的業務模式是什麼——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，然後他們會找出賺錢的辦法。

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.

那麼，現在是電視行業創新的好時機嗎？

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

當然，市場對高質量節目的需求很高。對於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麼立項。任何事情都存在挑戰，但是市場有這個胃口。

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.

亞馬遜的原創視頻業務模式是怎樣運作的？

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

我們的業務模式相對比較直接，因爲我們有訂閱服務，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。

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.

生產一部電視劇要多少錢？

How much does one of these series cost to produce?

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。

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.

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

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?

我認爲《紙牌屋》的成本可能要高於平均水平，因爲他們有凱文o史派西這種大牌和大衛o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範圍。

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.

目前亞馬遜工作室一共在生產多少節目？

How many shows does Amazon Studios currently have in production?

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o斯蒂爾曼執導、在巴黎攝製的試播劇《四海爲家》（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o普爾曼和達娜o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o弗雷斯特。之後，我們還會推出更多的試播劇。

Would you say this is a significant investment for Amazon?

爲什麼你覺得這對亞馬遜是一筆意義重大的投資？

We've put out 24 pilots in the last year, which is more than a typical broadcast network will do per year for prime time for sure. We're busy because we don't have a slate, a lineup. Maybe in a few years we can pull it back a little bit.

去年我們一共生產了24部試播節目，甚至比一家普通的電視臺爲全年的黃金時段準備的節目還多。我們非常忙，因爲我們沒有自己的演員陣容。可能幾年內我們就會收回一部分投資。

Why does this make sense for Amazon?

拍電視劇對亞馬遜的意義是什麼？

Because it's all about providing value for customers, making the service feel unique and distinctive, and having a relationship with customers where they are coming back ... Part of the purpose of original content is to get people to really engage with the service.

拍電視劇是爲了向顧客提供價值，讓顧客覺得我們的服務是獨特的，同時可以與顧客建立一種關係，讓他們還會回來……生產原創內容的另一個目標是吸引顧客加入這項服務。

So Amazon crowdsources its shows. What do you want to tweak about that process?

亞馬遜通過衆包的方法在做電視劇，那麼在這個過程中你最想調整的部分是什麼？

I want to tweak nothing about that process! It allows us to be a lot more experimental. Kudos to everyone who has a success ordering straight to series, but I would think that if you were going to order everything straight to series, it probably constrains you a little bit in terms of who you are realistically going to work with. You'd probably have a shorter list.

在這個過程中我什麼也不想調整，因爲它讓我們可以有更多實驗性的東西。雖然有人通過直接向電視劇公司訂購整部電視劇也獲得了成功，但是我認爲，如果你直接從電視劇公司訂購整部劇集的話，它可能限制了你實際上能夠與誰合作。你的選擇範圍可能會更小。

What you really want in the on-demand environment, which is different than the broadcast environment, is you need to find people who really like the show enough to seek it out. You need to really want to watch the show in modern TV. It's not about changing the channel anywhere, or just seeing what's on. It's not good enough to be good-ish.

需求至上的環境與廣播環境很不同，在需求至上的環境下，你真正想要的是找到的確非常喜歡這部劇的人，只有非常喜歡的人才會費力從衆多資源中把它找出來看。觀衆必須得非常希望在現代化的電視上看到這部劇，而不能產生想換頻道的慾望或者只是簡單看看這是什麼節目就算了。現在一部拍得“還挺好”的電視劇是遠遠不夠的。

We can do a better job getting insight into whether there's a pocket of people who are really interested in the show. A while ago you had to focus more on breadth of enthusiasm rather than depth of enthusiasm. That means a show like Transparent really works in this environment. There are shows in the past that were not as distinctive but universally palatable that would have been valuable, but today for us would not be valuable.

現在我們可以更好地瞭解是否有一部分人對這部劇非常感興趣。就在不久之前，你還得更重視觀衆的熱情的廣度，而不是觀衆熱情的深度。這意味着像《透明》這種電視劇可以在這種環境下表現得很好。過去有些劇集雖然不是很獨特，但符合所有人的口味。這種劇在過去可能很有價值，但今天對我們來說就不那麼有價值了。

How big are your audiences?

你們的觀衆羣有多大？

Well, we don't disclose, but we see that often our shows are the top shows on the service right after they're released. You see Alpha House go to No. 1 for awhile, and that means it is playing a meaningful role for the service as a whole.

我們沒有披露這類數據，但是我們的電視劇經常一經推出，就在亞馬遜服務中成爲收看最多的劇集之一。比如《阿爾法屋》曾一度登上亞馬遜收視榜的榜收，意味着它在亞馬遜的整體服務中扮演了一個重要的角色。

What's ahead?

你們下一步打算做什麼？

Well we'll see a couple more pilots, and then in the fall these series will premier. And then there'll be a new round of pilots. So far we haven't released our shows all at the same time [like Netflix has done], but we might want to try it. It's complicated because you can't really test it. There is some enthusiasm in the press and with customers for doing it all at once, so we're going to take a look at it before we debut our shows this fall.

下一步我們會繼續推出幾部試播劇，到了秋季，這些劇集就會陸續上線。然後我們還會推出新一輪的試播劇。到目前爲止我們還沒有（像奈飛那樣）把我們所有的電視劇都在同一時間推出，但是我們可能想嘗試一下。這種做法比較複雜，因爲你沒法真正進行測試。媒體和顧客對這種做法都抱有一些熱情，所以我們在今年秋季這些劇集上線之前會研究一下。