Filmmakers, advertisers rush to create content for cell phone screens

Not surprisingly, there are film festivals dedicated to movies made for cell phones. Later this month, World's Smallest Film Festival in London will be the latest put-on by BigDigit, a Los Angeles-based aggregator and distributor of mobile entertainment, reports the Chicago Tribune.

"In December, Atlanta film producer ZoieFilms will launch its Cellular Cinema Festival.

It's not just movies on the smallest screen. TV sitcoms, news shows and sports highlights already are being beamed to cell phones. And there's more to come.

Click here to view short film "Speedos" (64 seconds).

On the surface, cell phone cinema and shows resemble the media they descend from: movies and television. You see and hear people delivering dialogue. But while those screens try to involve you in a world that's as big as life, mobile movies are quick diversions. Who's in the mood to watch Dostoyevsky during the morning commute?

No time to develop character. No room for special effects. Not enough screen resolution for moody shadows or shades of meaning. When it comes to making films for the 2-inch cell phone screen, filmmakers have to think inside the box.

"In this medium, we rely on more static shots, very much on movement within the frame, as opposed to quick-cutting shots: the opposite of an MTV video.

Further constricting the medium are the mobile phones and the networks they operate on. They aren't all ready to stream video at a broadcast-quality 24 frames per second.

For instance, MobiTV, which provides television content to Sprint PCS phones that have MobiTV subscriptions, broadcasts at one to two frames a second, coming across much like a slide show with a seamless audio track.

Sprint recently unveiled its Samsung-manufactured A700 multimedia phone that can pump out MobiTV video at six to eight frames per second, showing that handset makers are gearing up for video.

Related articles and short film festivals:

-- Lights, Mobile Phone, Action

-- Zoie Films sponsors it's first annual "Cellular Cinema Festival"

-- 10 Second Film Festival announces "Call for Entries"

-- World's Shortest Film Competition

-- 15-second films for Nokia 3650s entered in The Raindance Film Festival

-- World's Smallest Film Festival Showcased

emily | 10:40 AM | Picture Phones and the Arts |
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