Short Film in the UK: Technology and the Tiny Screen April 27, 2007
Posted by Daniel Stephens in : Artfully Deranged, Short Film , trackbackThis article is written in conjunction with several others and is best read in conjunction with them. Click the below titles to read/navigate between each individual article:
1. Short Film: A brief critical history
2. Short Film In The UK: Screen Yorkshire and the Independents
3. Short Film In The UK: Film Festivals and Competitions
4. Short Film In The UK: Technology and the Tiny Screen
5. Short Film In The UK: Availability, Audience, and the Future
6. ‘Okay, we’re done’: The story of my first short film
7. Short Film Take II: The Trouble With Mr. Goldman
8. Short Film In The UK: Recommended Links
The Technology
Light Blue Optics Ltd. is currently developing a mini projector that would be capable of transferring images from devices such as Ipod’s and mobile phones, and projecting them on to screens in much the same way a theatre projector works. According to Clint Deboer, what is known as PVPro technology ‘overcomes the size limitation of conventional projection techniques, allowing projectors to be smaller than ever before.’ This certainly intrigues Lisa Roberts of Blink Media in Huddersfield who is watching such technological advancements with enthusiasm. Roberts, who pioneered Pocket Shorts’ initiative to create a vending machine for downloading short films to mobile phones, says ‘I am following the developments in miniaturization of projection technologies closely. There is a projector by Light Blue Optics that is the size of a matchbox that they hope to shrink further to be another mobile phone feature within a few years.’
Roberts, along with Andrew Wilson, created the Blue Tooth Vendor. This acts like a conventional vending machine. As Wilson says, it’s a ‘wall-mounted unit which allows people to download films to their mobile phones.’ Through their Pocket Shorts scheme, they hope to attract filmmakers to this new way of viewing films, and they believe the short film is the way forward. ‘A lot of people download short films to their mobile phones now but these come from large commercial media companies.’ Wilson continues, ‘Pocket Shorts is about getting new filmmakers to create independent mobile phone films [that are a] bit more innovative than you would get from downloading clips from Big Brother.’
Andrew Quinn of Slack Video was one of the first to receive a commission for a Pocket Short film. ‘I found it really interesting to work with, personally. The whole idea of being short, sharp and straight to the point was really emphasised with these 4 x 15 second long films, or 1 x 1 minute films. I think as a whole it worked very well, it was certainly a challenge.’ Quinn believes you only have to consider the number of mobile phones that are being sold to see the concept has great potential. ‘If you look at the popularity for ring tones and video ring tones, you can see there’s probably going to be a demand for small media works on these kinds of portable devices.’
They’re certainly not alone in their belief that mobile phone technology is the way forward for short filmmaking. Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation has already created a mobile phone entertainment store. Named Mobizzo, it’s ‘a production studio to focus exclusively on developing cell phone entertainment in much the same way that 20th Century Fox creates movies and television.’ According to Holson, the reasons companies are rushing to support such media on mobile phones is because ‘analysts predict that the number of global mobile phone customers will double to four billion in five years.’
Through its global possibilities, Olga Kharif believes it can break down the barriers of national cinema such as Hollywood in America and Bollywood in India, to produce a worldwide cinema that has more cultural influences than ever before. ‘That virtual land is full of possibilities. With 2 billion subscribers worldwide, mobile phones represent a much greater market for film than movie theaters or PCs. No wonder studios, distributors, and independent animators and filmmakers are streaming into this virtual film genre.’ Quinn concurs, ‘by using this new technology there’s definitely an opportunity to get these kinds of works seen by a mass audience who would otherwise never experience them.’
Mobile People with Mobile Phones
However, if indeed mobile phone films become mainstream commodities, will this belittle the medium with its easy access production tools being used by amateurs? Roberts is adamant this will not happen: ‘I’ve heard a lot of this - how can having more creative product around be a bad thing? Yes, it might take more time to sift through but so what?’ Kharif sees the low-cost nature of mobile phone filmmaking as a risk worth taking. ‘These aren’t big-budget productions. Where a Hollywood production can cost millions, a cell-phone movie can be created for a few hundred dollars and with an investment of, perhaps, only 40 hours of time.
Yet others are not so sure, as Neil Hunt says: ‘To me, it seems that if you’re going to invest your time into enjoying a movie, you might as well watch it on a large screen.’ Even Andrew Quinn who produced a short mobile phone film says, ‘I still think short films look better on television or projection than compressed into a 1″ screen.’ Kharif is cautious, ‘Cell-phones are obviously nowhere near their big-screen cousins in sophistication and popularity. It’s not even clear that wireless subscribers will pay for flicks.’
In a sense there’s a contradiction. In bringing short films into the mainstream, the filmmaker has to take liberties if producing primarily for mobile phone exhibition, such as Pocket Shorts maximum run-time for films of one minute. As Kharif says, ‘Granted, today’s cell-phone flicks are no Casablanca. Take The Life Of A Ringtone, an entry from Louiza Vick, who took first place among student works [at the Zoie Cellular Film Festival]. The movie’s artfully arranged photos and video clips take viewers through a ring tone’s creation. But the flick is more akin to a slide show.’ Is it true then that mobile phone films should not be judged by their lack of quality, but just taken as they are, in the sense that they will never be as good as Casablanca? Zoie Cellular Festival creator Victoria Weston says that mobile films are ‘fast entertainment. You’re not going to be dealing with heavy plot lines.’
So effectively they differ from ‘normal’ short filmmaking. However, Andrew Quinn believes ‘people are very likely to show videos they like to their friends, which again can only be beneficial in terms of ‘getting things seen’, and therefore generating interest in short film as a whole’. Yet he stands by large screen projected exhibitions when he says ‘short film works still obviously need to be shown in festivals and screenings’ Therefore, he implies that short film as whole could be damaged by mobile films having an adverse effect on traditional filmmaking methods. For example, if mobile phone films are primarily between fifteen seconds and one minute, will this mean the end for the ten and twenty minute short? Additionally, if mobile phone films disregard heavy plot lines, will this mean an end for traditional narrative forms?
It is interesting to note that the commercial short film of the 1910s helped form the bigger and longer feature film which ultimately forced it into non-existence. Now a new possibility for commercial short film is getting smaller in size and shorter in length, breaking down the barriers of the non-mainstream modern short film. Fundamentally, it shows how important commercial value is to an art form.
However, with mobile phone-only short film competitions such as Nokia Shorts 2005 and the Pocket Film Festival beginning to come into action, the bad can be seen being filtered from the good. Additionally, with award-winning British film director Shane Meadows becoming the first filmmaker to create a short mobile phone film using a phone’s video capabilities, it would seem the format has the support of the established talent. As well as opening up more possibilities for short films to be made. ‘Meadows praised the technology and raved about the potentials of filming with mobile phones, in particular that ‘they let you get shots which might not be possible using larger camera equipment’’. ‘There’s already great creativity in mobile phone film-making’ says Pocket Film director Laurence Herzberg. As Rory Mulholland says, the Pocket Film festival came about ‘as mobile network operators in many countries are thrusting third-generation (3G) phones equipped with video cameras and internet capability on their customers in the hope of recouping some of the huge investments they made in the sector.’
Therefore, this suggests that the short film has become a marketable, commercial product once again, through this new media form. Given its commercial importance in early cinema, it’s only logical to think this could have far reaching effects on the film industry as a whole. Roberts says, ‘until recently I would say short film was viewed only as a calling card for filmmakers wanting to move onto features. However, thanks to technology and TV programming/commissioning trends over the last 5 years there has been a revolution in all things small and short.’
Theoretically, given the mobility of mobile phones and the fact they can be used and accessed wherever and whenever, the implications on the films themselves could be of vital importance.
This is important since the short film offers one fundamental advantage over the feature film – its length. If short films became mainstream phone accessories, and as Wilson claims, they are used whenever and in whatever circumstances occur, then their shortened length would appear more appealing to mobile people with mobile phones.
Citation:
Deboer, C (2006)Laser Projectors Coming to Cell Phones and PDAs [online] available from http://www.audioholics.com/news/editorials/laserprojectorscellphones.php (accesed 7 March 2006)
Herzberg, L (2005) Festival celebrates mobile phone movies [online] available from http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/film/4314894.stm (accessed 8 March 2006)
Holson, L (2006) News Corporation to Tap Not Just Its Film Vaults, but Art From the Street [online] available from http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/27/technology/27mobile.html?ex=1142053200&en=bbc788cdada4e5e2&ei=5070 (accessed 8 March 2006)
Hunt, N (2005) The Movie Theatre In Your Pocket [online] available from http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/jun2005/tc20050622_9670_tc_212.htm (accessed 8 March 2006)
Kharif, O (2005) The Movie Theatre In Your Pocket [online] available from http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/jun2005/tc20050622_9670_tc_212.htm (accessed 8 March 2006)
Mobile Films.net (2005) Mobile Filmmaking – A Birth of a new genre [online] available from http://www.mobifilms.net/scene_heard.html (accessed 8 March 2006)
Mulholland, R (2006) Festival celebrates mobile phone movies [online] available from http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/film/4314894.stm (accessed 8 March 2006)
Quinn, A (2006) Interview conducted by Daniel Stephens with Andrew Quinn at Slack Video Hull
Roberts, Lisa (2006) Interview conducted by Daniel Stephens Huddersfield
Weston, V (2005) The Movie Theatre In Your Pocket [online] available from http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/jun2005/tc20050622_9670_tc_212.htm (accessed 8 March 2006)
Wilson, A (2005) A Film In Your Pocket [online] available from http://www.bbc.co.uk/bradford/content/articles/2005/11/24/pocket_shorts_huddersfield_feature.shtml (accessed 8 March 2006)
Comments»
Projector miniaturization is one thing but why would anyone want to watch something with the crap resolutions of mobiles or ipods projected on to anything larger? Similarly, as a maker of short films myself, in one respect it’s nice to see the expansion of viewing capabilities (referring to downloading to mobiles) but this hardly facilitates appreciation of film art IMO - to illustrate, how many of today’s hoody males and females walking around with their tinny mobiles playing their favourite dance rubbish would you consider to be people who really appreciate ‘music’? The more easily accessable art becomes the less people are likely to appreciate it, I might argue - it virtually becomes disposable.
P.S. Forgot to say, nicely written and informative article by the way!
Cheers Paul. I work for a mobile phone publications company and the rhetoric that comes out is that phones seem to be the way forward for every type of media - not something I agree with.
I do agree with you that films on phones aren’t very appealing, but I can see how short films could prosper from the medium. Yet, likewise, commerce could defy the ‘art’, but you could say this started with ‘features’ way back in the seventies when Spielberg made Jaws.
I think there’s a feeling with mobile phone film producers that there could be a market for short films, but the target-audience is one which - probably - doesn’t give this type of cinema much credit in its currently distributable form (ie. film festivals, independent screenings).
That’s precisely where I’m coming from. I think the companies in question love the idea of latching on to a new(ish) technology as a means of prospering - it’s entirely understandable from a business perspective. But you’re totally right about the target audience - they’re generally at odds with the people who are likely to appreciate what they’re watching. Then again, I suppose this kind of evolution could bring about a new breed of film-makers that specifically tailor their work for this kind of medium (as did the Flash animators that were spawned with Internet revolution).
Most Interesting article. I would like to bring another mobile phone filmmaking project to your attention. The mobile-mentary. An experiment in cinematic communication. Please feel to browse to the project website (www.mobile-mentary.co.uk) and if you would like to find out more about the project in detail send us an email to info”at”mobile-mentary.co.uk
is there any way to get update on this via email?
permood
www.mobilemarkaz.com
I don’t know of any newsletters/bulletins that update on this specifically, I can only suggest searching Google or using the citation links above to see if there’s anything out there.