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Amazon Preview lets viewers help shape its upcoming pilots and movies

Amazon Preview lets viewers help shape its upcoming pilots and movies

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Amazon Press Event
Amazon Press Event

Amazon Studios already asks viewers to help decide what television pilots should and shouldn't be turned into a full series, and now it's starting to bring viewers into the creation process even earlier. First noticed by All Things D, the company has launched a program called Amazon Preview, which allows viewers to look over pilots, test footage, concepts, and storyboards to offer their feedback on how they could be made better. The added voices will presumably help Amazon more carefully direct its resources and ultimately create pilots that are better received.

Amazon says that only its "best customers" will be invited to join Preview, though anyone can sign up to receive an invitation. Joining the service is free, but Amazon would like that participants promptly respond to the content surveys it sends out every two or three weeks. Though it sounds like an elaborate focus group, the program could certainly offer an interesting peek into the production process in a way the average viewer normally doesn't get to see, while helping to expand on Amazon's ongoing efforts to open up the pilot process as a whole. Whether it'll actually lead to better series and movies — and not just ones that generically please a crowd — will be another story.