Film Festivals Go Mobile
April, 29, 2010 10:09 am | Comments On #film festivals, Movies, TribecaNo, we’re not talking about film festivals that travel around in a truck with a projector and reels.
We’re talking about festivals that screen and award movies made for the mobile platform: phones, laptops, iPods and any other device that travels easily. Some call it “cellphone cinema” and others “mobile moviemaking.”
Whatever you call it, it’s growing as fast as the use of smartphones, which Nielsen Research says will surpass so-called “feature” phones in the U.S. by 2011.
NYU professor Karoly Bardosh who teaches cell phone cinema at NYU’s Kanbar Institute of Film and Television, is one who knows. He’s not only writing the book (quite literally) on the topic, but...
Read MoreStill Framing Shots With Thumb and Forefingers?
April, 11, 2010 11:03 pm | Comments On #iPhone, Movies, Panavision
A 50-year-old manufacturer of film (and digital) cameras might not seem like the most-likely creator of an iPhone app, but Panavision has come up with a doozy.
Now, with Panascout, cinematographers, location scouts and filmmakers in general will never have to frame a shot with their fingers.
Panascout not only frames the shot, but also lets you attach important information, such as location, compass heading and time of day, and upload it all to Final Cut Pro. Photos can be framed in 2.40 (anamorphic), 1.85 (Super 35mm), 1.78 (16×9 HD) and 1.33 (4×3) aspect ratios with Panaframe.
To read more about the app's feature set, click here....
Read More45 TV Stations Are Broadcasting to Mobile Devices
March, 25, 2010 3:22 pm | Comments On #Debra Kaufman, mobile digital television, mobile phones, one-to-many, Open Mobile Video CoalitionAccording to a report by the Open Mobile Video Coalition, which represents 900 broadcast TV stations, 45 U.S. TV stations across the nation are now broadcasting to mobile devices.
Mobile Digital Television, which was standardized and launched in 2009, is currently the most likely "one-to-many" broadcast solution when the "many" is many thousands or even millions of viewers.
Broadcasters utilize the same infrastructure as over-the-air broadcasts, splitting off a portion of the signal to send to mobile DTV devices.
Mobile DTV allows consumers to also receive local channels, programming and advertising, as well as relevant local and national news, emergency information, weather and other alerts.
The Open Mobile Video Coalition predicts that 150 U.S. TV stations are expected to broadcast mobile DTV by the end of this year.
The...
Read MoreMobisodes? Learn From the Master
March, 16, 2010 11:30 am | Comments On #Debra Kaufman, Fun Little Movies, mobile, UCLA, USCWant to learn how to conceptualize, writer, produce and post produce mobisodes?
If you live in Los Angeles, you’ll have two opportunities to learn from mobile content pioneer Frank Chindamo, President/Chief Creative Officer, Fun Little Movies.
Chindamo’s Fun Little Movies boasts a library of close to 2,000 films for mobile phones. His content is on the Google Android platform, iPhones (thanks to media agency Cross Mediaworks), on a top deck channel on Sprint (thanks to MobiTV) and an app on Blackberry (thanks to Metranome).
In addition to Fun Little Movies’ availability in North...
Read MoreBroadcasters, Wireless Carriers Enter Battle Over Spectrum
March, 10, 2010 5:06 pm | Comments On #Debra Kaufman, HDTV, mobile, Open Mobile Video Coalition, spectrumWhy should you care about the TV spectrum? In short, because the battle that’s brewing over it will impact TV, broadband and mobile.
First, some history: U.S. broadcasters moved to high-definition TV, following a 15-year development of the standard. HDTV took more spectrum than standard-definition TV -- which the broadcasters already had -- but allowed viewers to get HDTV or the stations to “multicast” or split the bigger signal into several stations, serving greater audiences.
In the past year, 800 U.S. broadcasters formed the Open Mobile Video Coalition to come up with a way of using some of that existing spectrum to split off some of their on-air signal and broadcast it to mobile devices.
Within a year, they came up with and approved a standard for mobile broadcast, the ATSC-MH (the ATSC part stands for Advanced TV Systems Committee, and the...
Read MoreiPhone Apps for Hands-On Filmmakers
February, 16, 2010 3:06 pm | Comments On #iPhoneCinematographers are, at heart, geeks, so no surprise that there are now a handful of iPhone apps popping up aimed at hands-on filmmakers.
There are two such apps from Chemical Wedding.
Helios graphically predicts the path of the sun from dusk to dawn, on any given day, in any given place. That’s not only useful to cinematographers and still photographers but also to grips, gaffers, production designers, 1st assistant directors -- as well as architects, artists, landscape designers, surveyors and anyone else who needs to know exactly where the sun will be at specific times.
Since the app is based on algorithms created by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and the National Geophysical Data Center to predict the sun’s movement, it’s accurate “to a tiny fraction of a degree.”
...
Read MoreGet Mobile Video of Your Favorite Swimsuit Issue Model
February, 10, 2010 4:10 pm | Comments On #Debra Kaufman, instant video, JAGTAG, Sports Illustrated, swimsuit issueThe Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue that just hit newsstands gives readers a way to instantly receive videos of the models on their phones.
They’re called JAGTAGs and TheWrap readers can give it a try by clicking here. Access the exclusive content by sending a photo of a “mobile beauty,” which will return a video via MMS directly to your phone.
Unlike other 2D barcodes, JAGTAG delivers swimsuit videos to both standard phones and smartphones without requiring the consumer to download an application or have access to the mobile web.
JAGTAG designed custom 2D barcodes for the program featuring a “bikini icon” within the code design....
Read MoreSpurlock Moves From Super Size to 3-Minute Films
January, 25, 2010 7:07 pm | Comments On #Cinelan, Media, Morgan Spurlock, Super Size MeIf you like documentaries and mobile content, life is about to get much more interesting. CINELAN, a library of three-minute films by award-winning filmmakers, just signed a mobile/Internet distribution deal with Babelgum.
CINELAN, launched the beginning of 2008, is a company founded by filmmaker Morgan Spurlock ("Super Size Me," "Where in the World Is Osama Bin Laden" and the soon-to-debut "The Simpsons 20th Anniversary Special - in 3D! On Ice!") got together with branding guru David Wales and Arts Alliance Managing Partner Thomas Hoegh.
Then they signed up an impressive roster of documentary filmmakers: Steve James ("Hoop...
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Description
Debra Kaufman is the editor and founder of MobilizedTV , an online newsletter that covers content on mobile devices. She has covered the entertainment industry for over 20 years, writing about new media, entertainment technology and other topics for the Hollywood Reporter, Variety, Film & Video and many others. Her work has also been published in Wired, the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times and American Cinematographer.
