Last fall, Amazon Studios selected two filmmakers to work on a pair of promising projects: The Temple, about mercenaries facing the ultimate evil, and Velvet Elvis, about a singer struggling with the demands of his career and his calling — demon hunting. Each received $50,000 to create full-length test movies, which are visual rough drafts that give a worldwide audience a chance to assess projects in development as feature films.

In a few weeks, these test movies will make their debut on the Amazon Studios site. And filmmakers will get another chance to submit proposals for funding to make a test movie based on an Amazon Studios project. (Stay tuned for details.) We had such an enthusiastic response last year, we’re looking forward to doing it again!

Meanwhile, you can learn more about these projects and the people who made them. Alex Greenfield and Michael K. Eitelman wrote The Temple, Amazon Studios’ Best Script award-winner for July, and Greenfield directed the test movie, a motion comic, with Eitelman as post supervisor. You can learn more about the team and the process here. Jeff Stewart, meanwhile, took a live-action approach to the project we sometimes affectionately call “Velvis,” casting the amazing Kirk Ponton in the title role. Find behind-the-scenes photos and more here.

Amazon Studios also commissioned three test movies from established filmmakers, animators and others last fall:

•  Touching Blue (Best Sci-Fi/Action Script winner). See what Blue looks like here.
•  The Nevsky Prospect (Best Script winner). Get a behind-the-scenes look at the production here.
•  ZvG: Zombies vs. Gladiators (Best Script semifinalist featured in the Script Spotlight Rewrite Contest).

These test movies also will make their debut soon. We can’t wait to hear what you think of them.