Actress Rossellini probes insect sex in phone-films

Festiival Pocket Films, a film fest just for pocket-sized movies on mobile phones came of age in its fourth edition this weekend, with a series of flicks on the sex lives of insects by the actress Isabella Rossellini. The AFP reports.

"The minute-long films, a series of eight titled "Green Porno", are on handsets dangling on wires from a "mobile phone tree" in Paris' Pompidou Centre, for the three-day Pocket Films festival which opened Friday.

"Their format -- shot exclusively for viewing on 3G technology mobile phones -- make them the "films of the future," Rossellini told AFP in an interview. "Watching (war epic) 'Apocalypse Now' on a mobile telephone is no fun -- it was conceived as a big spectacle. But this tiny screen can be a new canvas for directors," she said."

Related: - Sex, Insects and Mobile Phones

The Times travel photo competition

The Times' Online Travel section has launched a citizen traveler photography competition. In their own words:

Citizen journalism has transformed the news - it's not just being pumped out to us from a screen in our living rooms, we're part of it.

Camera phones and pocket-sized technology make us all witnesses in a world that watches itself more and more.

What the Times' Travel section wants now are citizen travellers. Show us the over looked and the never looked-at: details; big pictures; unexpected glimpses.

Travel is changing, and we want to guide you around the world in print and online and show you what you could do with your leisure, your work, your play - but with the growing sophistication of tour operators and the burgeoning of independent travel, we're hungry for snapshots of your experiences.

We want amateur pictures from passionate travellers. Take our breath away, surprise us or amuse us and you could win a holiday and see your picture in print in the Travel section.

To wn our first prize of a weekend for two in Lisbon, we must receive entries by February 25.

The winning photograph will be published in The Times and on Times Online on Saturday Mar 1.

Send us your best shot with no more than 50 words telling us when, where and why to travelpictures@timesonline.co.uk

Pocket FIlms Festival. Call for projects.

The 4th edition of the Pocket Films Festival, organized by the Forum des images, will take place at the Pompidou Center, Paris, France, from June 13-15, 2008.

The 2008 registration forms for the Pocket Films Festival are online.

[via networked performance]

Sex, Insects and Mobile Phones

Isabella Rossellini will unveil a collection of short films about the sex lives of insects at the 58th Berlin Film Festival in February, organisers said Tuesday.

The 55-year-old actress will premiere "Green Porno", a series she directed and co-produced as "quickies" for mobile phones and mobile video players, in the Berlinale's sidebar Forum section, the festival said.

The Berlinale, which ranks among Europe's top three film festivals, will run February 7-17.

[via the AFP]

Tate launches cameraphone fest of interiors

Tate, with the help of BT, <>is inviting people around the world to photograph examples of their favourite interior spaces on their mobile phones and send the images to the Tate website with the launch of The Great Tate Mod Blog.

The images will form a photographic ‘mood board’ for the kinds of interiors spaces, ambience and design that the public would like to see in the new development of Tate Modern.

Favourite spaces might include a café or bar, chill-out space, lounge, domestic interior or public space. Herzog de Meuron, the architects of the new development of Tate Modern, and Tate staff will also be contributing pictures of their own favourite interior spaces and source material.

The project will culminate in display at Tate Modern in summer 2008, showing the photographic ‘mood board’ and some of the best ideas and comments generated over the six-month period.

People can also send pictures directly from their computer or from Flickr to www.tate.org.uk. They can add a short text message to their pictures or search the ‘mood board’ for similar tagged images.

[via TAXI Design Network]

Japan puts phone films in its Pocket

The inaugural Pocket Film Festival in Japan, showing movies made entirely on mobile phone cameras, will run Friday-Sunday in Yokohama. [via The Hollywood Reporter]

"Forty-eight films, chosen from more than 400 entries from 18 countries -- including Japan, Singapore, China, South Korea and Germany -- will screen in competition at the festival, organized by the
Tokyo National University of Fine Arts & Music.

The competition has two categories, one for films to be shown on regular screens and the other for films to be viewed on phones. The winning film will receive 500,000 yen (US$4,500).

... The festival also will feature symposiums on the possibilities for new content and applications using the medium of camera phones.

Nokia and Pangea Day combine efforts, to connect people around the world through film

At Nokia World 2007 today, Nokia today announced its global partnership with Pangea Day, a unique event that will bring together millions of people around the world through the power of film on May 10, 2008. TED blog reports.

"Pangea Day will be broadcast globally to millions on television, in digital theaters, online and via mobile devices. It will be a live 4-hour program of powerful films, visionary speakers, and uplifting music.

The goal of Pangea Day is to create greater understanding among different people and cultures, and to form a global community focused on improving the future for all people.

... Nokia and Pangea Day will work with aspiring filmmakers in disadvantaged areas and conflict zones to make it possible for their stories to also be told. By distributing video-enabled mobile devices to these filmmakers, their works can be captured and shared globally, demonstrating how wireless technology can not only provide a platform for people of diverse backgrounds to express themselves, but also to bring them together."

Cameraphone Photographer of the Year

The cameraphone has transformed photography and photojournalism. Now The Times has teamed up with Sony Ericsson for The Search, a competition to find the world’s best pictures taken on a mobile phone. Photos in the category of News and Sport will be accepted this week.

"The winner’s picture will be displayed in The Times and a leading London gallery, where it will appear along with those of the other finalists.

The best snapper will also go on an all-expenses-paid trip to capture their own news shots, and will advance to represent Britain in Sony Ericsson’s international Cameraphone Photographer of the Year.

For full competition details, and information on prizes and how to submit your entries, see www.sonyericsson.com/thesearch

Mobile phone sharp shooters are sought in new filmmaking contest

Would-be filmmakers in Lancashire are to be given the opportunity to show off their talents in a regional competition, reports The Lancashire Evening Post.

"The county's 18 to 24-year-old mobile phone users are being encouraged
to enter the Short Sharp Shots competition.

Mobile phone film clips of three minutes or under can be entered into the contest for the chance to win cash or videophones.

The best 10 submissions will be awarded funding of £250 each and a place on a mobile filmmaking bootcamp to help them produce their next movie.

They will also win a top video mobile."

YCC:Film

The Italian team won the Young Creatives Competition:Film 2007.

The competition - sponsored by Nokia Nseries - took place between Wednesday June 20th and 22nd in conjunction with the International Advertising Festival in Cannes.

Twenty young creative teams was given the same creative brief and 48 hours to create a 20-second TV commercial using the Nokia N93i.

[via Guerilla Innovation]

Camphone shot of the day

The Milan sky was filled with confetti for Danilo Di Luca, the winner of The Tour of Italy. Capture on cameraphones and posted on Giro Milano Photo Essay, via Daily Peleton.

Full length feature film shot with a cameraphone

For more than a year, filmmaker Cyrus Frisch heard and observed growing tensions between Dutch and immigrant kids beneath his office window in central Amsterdam. By The Huffington Post covering the 6th annual Tribecca Film Festiaval.

"As he worked on another film, he began shooting the heckling occurring in the plaza - with his cell phone camera. The 70-minute avant garde piece is nearly without dialogue and is seen through the perspective of an Afghan war veteran played by Frisch. The result is Why Didn't Anybody Tell Me It Would Become This Bad in Afghanistan. " ...

Storyline from The San Francisco International Film Festival: "Told through the eyes of a traumatized Dutch soldier who has returned home from a tour of Afghanistan, Why didn’t anybody . . . documents the brewing tensions between native Dutch citizenry, immigrant youth and the police in a small square in the heart of Amsterdam.

In this decidedly experimental work, shot almost entirely with a cell phone video camera, these tensions are made palpable through a process of accumulation. Scene after scene of youths gathering, police detentions and aimless protests are lensed from a claustrophobic, subjective viewpoint.

The film also happens to be the first feature-length work shot on a cell phone to screen at the Rotterdam International Film Festival making it the first such work to premiere at any international festival of prestige worldwide. "

Mobile Exposure Mobile Video and Art Festival 3: "Life in the Global Village"

Microcinema International is putting out a call for their third annual short film traveling festival of films made BY mobile devices, Mobile Exposure.

This year they are expanding the definition of mobile devices to include wearable computers as well as portable gaming systems and have added an interactive art.

This year's theme of Mobile Exposure is "Life in the Global Village", where we ask what it means to live in a world where mobile technologies continue to put us in increasingly closer proximity to one another, other places, and other cultures.

Items like the Egyptian voting scandal mentioned on your blog are topics that we'd like addressed in this year's call.

The Institute of Contemporary Arts and Sony Ericsson Launch " All Tomorro's Pictures

The Institute of Contemporary Arts is collaborating with Sony Ericsson to launch an initiative called ‘All Tomorrow’s Pictures’ to help celebrate its 60th anniversary. Members of the public are being invited to take part via a cameraphone competitio. [via Mobile Marketing]

"59 high profile names spanning the artistic and cultural spectrum from film, design, art and architecture to literature, music, fashion, dance, science and politics, have committed to produce a single image or series of images inspired by the theme of ‘Tomorrow’ - using the state-of-the-art cybershot mobile phone Sony Ericsson K800i. Names confirmed include Bloc Party, Peter Blake, Chapman Brothers, Alison Goldfrapp, Helena Christensen and Nathalie Press.

These interpretations of the future, borne from this project by eminent creative icons of our time, will be assembled into a beautifully-produced hardback book.

The 60th contributor will be chosen via a public competition in February.

We Are All Photographers Now!

We Are All Photographers Now!, at the Musée de l'Elysée in Lausanne Switzerland, a museum for photography, where anyone in the world can be part of the exhibition by uploading their pictures here. [via we-make-money-not-art.com]

This innovative project takes a close look at the current state of this exciting, rapidly mutating image environment. A highly interactive event, it welcomes submissions from across the globe, and invites both live and virtual debates between visitors of all ages, educators, representatives of industry, photographers, editors, curators and cutting-edge internauts, netizens, and digerati. And just as our image world shifts with each passing hour, minute and second, so too will our exhibition respond to new developments with constant updates.

The exhibition will attempt to shed light on many burning issues, among them:

Does the digital shift constitute a revolution, or merely an evolution?

Does the shift represent a real democratization of photography?

Is citizen photojournalism worthy of its name?

Does the shift threaten the livelihood of professional photographers in fundamental ways?

Does the shift represent a shift towards more authenticity or truthfulness — or less?

Dutch film-maker Cyrus Frisch enters mobile movie at Rotterdam Film Festival

Dutch film-maker Cyrus Frisch has made a mobile-phone movie, writes The Observer. "Determined to cast a light on the increasing fear and tension he felt within Dutch society, he began by filming what was happening outside his window, where immigrant kids gathered in a square, irritating local residents who called the police. He then filmed clashes between these youths and the police.

"Why didn't anybody tell me it would become this bad in Afghanistan" premiered last week at the Rotterdam Film Festival.

... The viewer watches the 70-minute film through the eyes of a Dutch soldier who has returned shell-shocked after a tour of duty in Afghanistan and now finds life at home as tense and fraught with uncertainty and violence."

MIT launches Cell Phone Photography Contest

In the 19th century, photographers used the emerging tools of their trade and made photography into a new art form, despite the complaints from painters, writes News.com.

"Can the same thing happen with cell phones? MIT is currently conducting the Mili-MIT Museum Cell Phone Photography Contest, in which individuals are submitting aesthetic photographs in the hope of winning eternal fame, or at least some photo printers.

The contest goes through January 29, and winners will be lauded in a ceremony on February 2."

Participate in the Pocket Films Festival

The Pocket Films Festival is seeking participants.

Send us your film shot with a cellular phone before March 30th 2007.

From June 8 - 10, 2007 at the Georges Pompidou Center in Paris, France.

[Press release]

Cameraphone Photographer of the Year

The search is on to crown the UK's Cameraphone Photographer of the Year, 2006. The Times Online reports.

"Winner shots will be printed in The Times and be displayed in a top London gallery, The Air Gallery in London', along with other finalists from the competition. Winners will spend a day with a Times photographer to learn tips from a master. And, what's more, they'll also win an all-expenses-paid trip to capture their very own news shots.

In addition, the winner will be given the chance to represent the UK as their shot will be entered into Sony Ericsson's International Cameraphone Photographer of the Year competition.

The competition's open until November. Between now and then, The Time's panel of influential news and photography judges, including the Times Picture Editor, will choose the best photo every week. This will displayed in The Galleriy . From these weekly top shots, a monthly winner will be chosen. They'll appear in The Times' T2 supplement on Monday. And they'll also receive a Sony Ericsson cameraphone."

Picture above, Winner, week five: the newly built Sage Gateshead, photographed by Alan Reynolds

Related post:
Time's Cameraphone Photographer of the Year Contest

Cell-phone cameras help amateur auteurs make movies

Cheap, easy and accessible, mobiles-as-movie cameras are breaking the motion picture mold, putting a touch of Hollywood into amateur filmmakers' hands. How-to workshops have sprung up from Boston to Abu Dhabi to Rio de Janeiro, and Paris just held its second film festival devoted exclusively to movies shot with cell phones. USA Today reports.

"Some 8,500 visitors attended screenings at the recent three-day Pocket Films Festival at Paris' Pompidou modern-art museum. In addition to nearly 100 shorts, the fare included three feature-length films — all shot on cells.

"What we're seeing is the democratization of filmmaking," said festival director Laurence Herszberg. "Now, you don't need expensive equipment and years of training to make a movie. All you need is your phone, that little object you carry around in your pocket all day."

Museums capitalize on citizen generated content too

Museums are capitalizing on citizen generated content too. The WSJ reports that a forthcoming exhibit at New York's Museum of Modern Art will feature work selected by unlikely curators: visitors to the YouTube video-sharing site.

"MoMA solicited videos to be included in a retrospective of the Residents, an avant-garde multimedia group, that will open next week. The museum has posted the clips of 11 finalists on YouTube and invited the public to weigh in. The votes and comments those works receive on the site will help determine which are screened at the museum.

It is among the latest moves by museums to capitalize on the popularity of online communities and remain relevant to the new generation of art fans.

-- London's Saatchi Gallery is sponsoring what it calls "the first reader-curated contemporary art show" later this month, in which online voters picked the participants.

-- In New York, the Smithsonian Institution's Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum has this year expanded the prestigious awards it bestows on artists, adding a "people's design award" based on votes from visitors to the museum's Web site.

-- New York's Pace/MacGill Gallery staged a summer show based on the photo-sharing site Flickr. Pace/MacGill's project, called "Self-Portraitr," included nearly 130,000 user-submitted photos, and drew a younger-than-usual audience -- one of the goals of the exhibit, a gallery spokeswoman said."

Nokia's "Eye on Fashion" Camphone Contest

Nokia has just launched an "Eye on Fashion" contest in India for camera phone photos. [via Alan Reiter's Camera Phone Report]

"The winner receives a high-end Nokia phone.

The contest runs through September 22 and participants may submit a maximum of three images -- taken with a Nokia phone -- based on the theme of "what's your fashion statement."

The Smalls Mobile Movie Competition

The Smalls is a newly launched competition launched by devilfish, with partners including London Design Festival and E-CR, celebrating the enormous creative possibilities offered by the latest generation of MP3 players and mobile phones. creativematch reports.

"Open to both professionals and students, it's about celebrating big ideas, not big budgets, say the organisers.

The only requirements are that entries are no more than 3 minutes long and represent an interpretation of the inaugural theme “Moving”. ... Click here for entry details.

15x15.org project pays homage to Andy Warhol

The project pays homage to the artist Andy Warhol and also marries‚ together two of the most prolific new media technologies: the web and mobile camera phones. 15x15 is a world first, whereby users or viewers can actually contribute to the piece directly from their mobile cameraphone.

15x15.org has had videos submitted from: the UK, Ireland, USA, France, Finland, Turkey, Netherlands, Israel, Sweden, Argentina, Korea, Russia, Japan and many more countries.

The site has been viewed literally in every corner of the world nd has been gaining momentum with over 10,000 visitors some days.

In the 21st century art is being fundamentally realigned for anyone and everyone. 15x15 is a homage to Warhol, a realisation of the artistic utilisation of new media technology and the democratisation of art in the age of digital production.

Third Screen Film Festival

The Third Screen Film Festival (TSFF) invites viewers to select their favorite short films from hundreds that have been submitted during the first phase of Hollywood’s wireless film festival.

A grant of $ 10'000 will be awarded to the winning contestant.

Presented by Columbia College Chicago, the largest arts and media college in the nation with the largest film school, and sponsored by Nano, America's first short film channel that is available wirelessly on MobiTV.

The deadline for submissions has been extended from Aug. 31 to Sept. 30.

To Qualify:

-- Films must be free of unlicensed content and vetted for commercial exhibition
-- Entrants must own rights to all content in the films they submit
-- Copyrighted music will be accepted only with proper broadcast clearance
-- Films in a foreign language must have English subtitles or be dubbed in English
-- Total runtime no longer than eight minutes
-- Content must be suitable for general audiences
-- Entrants under 18 years old must include written parental consent

Viewers who watch festival entries on their Nano-equipped cell phones, portable devices or online can vote via text messaging.

Flickr searching for the best user photos

In a bid to come up with five of its users' best images, the photo-sharing site Flickr, is currently having a contest to do just that. Daniel Terdiman reports on News.com.

To participate in The Blink of an Eye contest, users can each submit one photo, and then a panel of five judges will sift through them (there are already 1,490 images up for consideration) and choose the best five.

Those shots will then be put on display for a one-night exhibition at a gallery in New York in August."

Are you Circle Worth? Video Contest

The AtomFilms Website is calling on consumers to submit original short films.

The contest invites wireless phone users to submit video clips, filmed on their wireless handset, featuring their circle of friends and family.

Alltel Wireless is giving away cash prizes to the most interesting and unique Circles of friends in its Are You Circle Worthy? Video Contest.

The 10 most entertaining, original, and creative videos will win $1,000 and have their video displayed on AtomFilms for the public to vote on a winner. The Circle deemed most outrageous will take home $5,000. Entries are due by 11:59PM PT 7/10/06.

Click here for the official rules.

Italian directors shoot 93-minute film with cameraphone

Italian directors have completed a 93-minute documentary they say is the first feature film to be entirely shot by such a technique. (Not the first by my books*, but the longest - a 35mm feature film entitled Sugar Man was shot with the Sony Ericsson W900i last year).

Called "New Love Meetings," it was filmed in a MPEG4 format with a Nokia N90 -- a regular, higher-end cell phone on sale around the globe, documentary co-director Marcello Mencarini said.

"With the widespread availability of cell phones equipped with cameras, anybody could do this," Mencarini said in a telephone interview from Milan. "If you want to say something nowadays, thanks to the new media, you can."

[PhysOrg via The Raw Feed]

*The world’s first full-length movie to be shot entirely on cellphones - entitled SMS Sugar Man - was wrapped up in Johannesburg last Fall. The 35mm feature film was shot by Aryan Kaganof, the prolific writer/director of numerous feature films, shorts and videos.

Haydenfilms Online Film Festival – Call For Entries

The final call for entries for the Second Annual Haydenfilms Online Film Festival is approaching fast. Student and independent filmmakers can submit their short films for the chance to win a $10,000 cash prize.

Late deadline for submissions is June 15, 2006.

Short films up to 35 minutes in length are being accepted from any genre including animation, documentary and experimental (video phone submissions welcome). The top 50 films as selected by the prestigious panel of judges will be entered into the online festival beginning August 30, 2006 at haydenfilms.com

Haydenfilms members will vote online to select the winning film from these 50 finalists. The festival winner will be announced, and the top three finalists will be honored at our awards ceremony in New York City in January 2007.

"People's Choice" cameraphone competition

Photographers of all ages are invited to enter the Mayor of London's People's choice cameraphone competition, part of London's biggest free music festival, Rise: London United, taking place at Finsbury Park in July.

The photo competition encourages entrants to capture London’s diversity through their phone. [via Mobile Marketing Magazine].

Mobile Marathon. A camera phone contest

Mobil Marathon is a camera phone contest, which takes place at the upcomming Roskilde Festival in Denmark.

Festival-goers are invited to create a story, based on five images taken with their camera phones.

Participants can edit their text and images up to a week after the last day of the festival after which the best stories will receive a prize. Prizes are also awarded during the festival for the best daily image.

With approximately 100.000 visitors annually, the Roskilde Festival is one of the largest music festivals i Europe. The festival runs from June 29 to July 2.

[reblogged from Guerilla Innovation]

Action!: Chinese Cell Phone Owners as Short-Film Makers

Virtual China via Youmeiti reports on the opening of the First Cellphone Film Festival, put on by the daily Shanghai webzine Metroer.

"Shanghai based Metroer, just ended their national cell-phone enabled short-film competition. Filmmakers who created 2 minutes of original works were eligible to submit their films via their cell to Metroer's website. Films could have been produced on any format, just as long as they were submitted via cell. "

Samsung Fresh Films empower mobile film making by teens

Samsung and Fresh Films have announced Samsung's sponsorship of a multi-tiered teen filmmaking program entitled "Samsung Fresh Films". [via Mobile Tech News]

"The Samsung Fresh Films program connects 14 to 19 year-olds with film producers and the latest filmmaking and mobile technologies, teaching them how to scout locations, cast, direct, shoot and edit their own 10-minute films.

In mid-July 2006, the completed films will be showcased on www.fresh-films.com where viewers can vote for the 2006 Freshest Teen Filmmakers."

Pocket movies take France by storm

BBC writes up last year's Pocket Movie film festival, films shot on mobile phones with often startling results.

... "Pocket movies are often intimate and engaging, and because mobile phones can go anywhere the camera gets a licence to roam. You can film on a bike, or shoot the rush-hour crush; one director has even filmed herself voting.

... The ability to film on your feet means that the process of movie-making is turned on its head. The pocket movie motto is "shoot first, ask questions later".

... Many pocket movie-makers like the pixelated look and washed out colours they get from mobile phones.

While phone manufacturers themselves are doing their best to improve picture quality, the makers of these miniature masterpieces are happy for the technology to advance at a slower, more artistic pace."

Related: - Décroche wins the Festival Pocket Films competition

Canadian film fest or Short Attention Span Theatre

mobifest invites aspiring filmmakers to think small. Canada is luanching it's first mobile film festival and "will recognize talent for movies shot exclusively on mobile phones cameras, a genre currently known as "Short Attention Span Theatre".

Submissions from all over the world will be accepted until April 30th, for a May 17th ceremony. Finalists will be determined by online votes throughmobifest.ca, where all can be viewed. Award winning entries will be screened during Air Canada flights over the summer, as well as being showcased on the Short Film Channel.

[via The Hollywood News]

Shangai launches first cameraphone film fest

A local Shangai Website is organizing a nationwide cameraphone film festival The site expects office workers in Shanghai, Beijing, and Guangzhou to produce most of the movies. [via English.eastday]

Cellflix.metroer.com) kicked off the competition on Monday and will accept entries until April. The contest is open to anyone who can produce a short film and send it to the site by mobile phone. The films must be two minutes long or shorter, and must be original works that haven't been shown in competition.

... The public and professional filmmakers will vote on the winners, who are expected to receive cell phones as prizes."

National Press Photographers Association opens awards to camera phone photos

Alan Reiter's Camera Phone Report is live again - Welcome back Alan! - with an interesting post on the