Mapping the Creative Dimensions of Mobile Video
Submitted by Pocketcine on January 11, 2007 - 11:31am.
In this article, we are going to get your creative juices going, by exploring a few ideas for mobile video shorts or programs.
We can say that what sets mobile video apart from other media is its “contextual” difference. Unlike a movie theater, a 40-inch LCD TV or a 20 inch LCD computer monitor, which are embedded in a fixed context (a cinema, the den or living room), a portable computer with Internet connectivity like Apple’s iPhone is stored in your pocket and activated whenever and wherever you find a need to connect (to the Internet or to another person) or when an SMS message or phone call prompts you to take it out of your pocket.
Although TVs are becoming connected, the fact is that the mobile phone is natively a social device. The computer has also become a social networking device, but it is not as intimate as the mobile phone. The phone is personal. When your phone rings with a voice call, or when an email arrives, or when an SMS message alert rings your phone, the message is addressed to you and you alone. It is your personal connection to the rest of the world and you keep it right up against your body or in your briefcase or purse.
So the context is intimacy, not the shared social context like the TV in the family living room or the computer shared by family members or connected to a corporate network.
Broadcast TV Versus Social TV
Certainly mobile devices will be used like portable television sets and their small screens probably mean that it will be “personal television.” However, the kind of interactivity provided by pocket TV will be of the pop machine variety: choose among five flavors. Mass media cannot cater to the specific tastes and niche world views of a point-to-point system like the Internet, where audiences can be as small as two people.
Social TV invites audience participation by “tagging” mobile videos with comments, rating systems, links, “favorites” and even talking head responses to mobile episodes, like the Evil Rainbow mobile video Pocketcine produced as an experiment on YouTube. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqVKFACKYrE) The video elicited twelve comments, obviously from an audience that appreciated the artist’s twisted sense of human relationships. One was a video response, making the production come full circle, from producer to consumer and back to the producer again, all in video.
The huge growth and diversification of Internet video means that you will be able to download highly specialized programming that reflects your particular interests and you will be able to participate in it. Broadcast TV that debutes in the livingroom, well never have the immediacy and quick response of video created for Internet distribution. It is a different context and the audience responds accordingly.
There are other contextual factors shaping mobile video. High definition television (1080i or better) on a large 16:9 LCD television with a contrast ratio of 5000:1 and a surround sound system is totally immersive, putting you inside the scene in a way no handheld device can ever do. What makes the television and movie theater experiences fundamentally different is the way your senses are overwhelmed by sound and image. Television and theaters sponsor immersive, passive media. Mobile video devices will never be able to engage audiences in the same way as high def television.
Mobile YouTube
We think a lot of the content for mobile phone playback will be generated by consumers. The term here is “viral video,” like the videos on YouTube. This does not preclude content generated by artists interested in deriving a revenue stream from mobile video playback. Some of the biggest hits on YouTube have been produced by advertising agencies spending big bucks, such as “Lonely Girl” and a viral video purporting to capture pranksters writing graffiti on Airforce One.
Viral video is meant to draw attention and provoke a response. It generates laughter and discussion, and is meant to be shared. On the Internet that means viral videos are shared by email or links. On the mobile phone they are downloaded to be shared in “third places.”
Third Place Video
In sociology, place is sometimes described as First Place (home), Second Place (office) and Third Place (social gathering place, usually around consumption such as the English Pub or the North American Starbucks). The theory was published in “The Great Good Place” by Ray Oldenburg, a sociologist. Oldenburg identifies third places, or "great good places," as the public places on neutral ground where people can gather and interact in a convivial atmosphere.
While the computer plays an important role in the home and office, video-capable mobile phones that have cheap and easy Internet access are going to find a home in the Third Place. The mobile phone has the potential to convert any place outside the home and office into a third place: a shared seat on the subway for example.
It is the context the makes the connected multimedia device a third place device. The computer connected to the Internet will always be a better device than the mobile phone for browsing information and interacting with applications using the keyboard and the mouse. For this reason we believe video applications will (at least in the near to mid-term) become a major application for mobile devices, eclipsing the phone’s use for information retrieval and manipulation, at least in the cultural or consumer markets.
Because video is a storytelling medium, it will play an important cultural role in reaffirming family, friends, and social networks.
Just as the mobile entertainment device itself has become an extension of personal identity, mobile video is at home in the Third Place. If you walk into many city urban coffee shops, you will see people already connected to the Internet through Wi-Fi on their laptops. Mobile video on phones will transform how rich media and connectivity will be used in Third Places, for social networking and micro-culture formation rather than Internet research. That’s because it is much easier to download content to your cell phone anywhere, anyplace, at any time. Examples are humorous viral videos, videos of family events, snippets from favorite movies or television, personal artwork and other forms of artistic expression.
For example, friends may congregate in a coffee shop or at a theater multiplex and download clips of current movies to make a group decision on which movie to see. Local cg and classic animation artists will show their latest creature or character creation or an episode from a series they are developing.
In the coming years there will be the number of video phones will be…well to paraphrase Carl Sagab, billions and billions. At that point, anything will be possible.
We can say that what sets mobile video apart from other media is its “contextual” difference. Unlike a movie theater, a 40-inch LCD TV or a 20 inch LCD computer monitor, which are embedded in a fixed context (a cinema, the den or living room), a portable computer with Internet connectivity like Apple’s iPhone is stored in your pocket and activated whenever and wherever you find a need to connect (to the Internet or to another person) or when an SMS message or phone call prompts you to take it out of your pocket.
Although TVs are becoming connected, the fact is that the mobile phone is natively a social device. The computer has also become a social networking device, but it is not as intimate as the mobile phone. The phone is personal. When your phone rings with a voice call, or when an email arrives, or when an SMS message alert rings your phone, the message is addressed to you and you alone. It is your personal connection to the rest of the world and you keep it right up against your body or in your briefcase or purse.
So the context is intimacy, not the shared social context like the TV in the family living room or the computer shared by family members or connected to a corporate network.
Broadcast TV Versus Social TV
Certainly mobile devices will be used like portable television sets and their small screens probably mean that it will be “personal television.” However, the kind of interactivity provided by pocket TV will be of the pop machine variety: choose among five flavors. Mass media cannot cater to the specific tastes and niche world views of a point-to-point system like the Internet, where audiences can be as small as two people.
Social TV invites audience participation by “tagging” mobile videos with comments, rating systems, links, “favorites” and even talking head responses to mobile episodes, like the Evil Rainbow mobile video Pocketcine produced as an experiment on YouTube. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqVKFACKYrE) The video elicited twelve comments, obviously from an audience that appreciated the artist’s twisted sense of human relationships. One was a video response, making the production come full circle, from producer to consumer and back to the producer again, all in video.
The huge growth and diversification of Internet video means that you will be able to download highly specialized programming that reflects your particular interests and you will be able to participate in it. Broadcast TV that debutes in the livingroom, well never have the immediacy and quick response of video created for Internet distribution. It is a different context and the audience responds accordingly.
There are other contextual factors shaping mobile video. High definition television (1080i or better) on a large 16:9 LCD television with a contrast ratio of 5000:1 and a surround sound system is totally immersive, putting you inside the scene in a way no handheld device can ever do. What makes the television and movie theater experiences fundamentally different is the way your senses are overwhelmed by sound and image. Television and theaters sponsor immersive, passive media. Mobile video devices will never be able to engage audiences in the same way as high def television.
Mobile YouTube
We think a lot of the content for mobile phone playback will be generated by consumers. The term here is “viral video,” like the videos on YouTube. This does not preclude content generated by artists interested in deriving a revenue stream from mobile video playback. Some of the biggest hits on YouTube have been produced by advertising agencies spending big bucks, such as “Lonely Girl” and a viral video purporting to capture pranksters writing graffiti on Airforce One.
Viral video is meant to draw attention and provoke a response. It generates laughter and discussion, and is meant to be shared. On the Internet that means viral videos are shared by email or links. On the mobile phone they are downloaded to be shared in “third places.”
Third Place Video
In sociology, place is sometimes described as First Place (home), Second Place (office) and Third Place (social gathering place, usually around consumption such as the English Pub or the North American Starbucks). The theory was published in “The Great Good Place” by Ray Oldenburg, a sociologist. Oldenburg identifies third places, or "great good places," as the public places on neutral ground where people can gather and interact in a convivial atmosphere.
While the computer plays an important role in the home and office, video-capable mobile phones that have cheap and easy Internet access are going to find a home in the Third Place. The mobile phone has the potential to convert any place outside the home and office into a third place: a shared seat on the subway for example.
It is the context the makes the connected multimedia device a third place device. The computer connected to the Internet will always be a better device than the mobile phone for browsing information and interacting with applications using the keyboard and the mouse. For this reason we believe video applications will (at least in the near to mid-term) become a major application for mobile devices, eclipsing the phone’s use for information retrieval and manipulation, at least in the cultural or consumer markets.
Because video is a storytelling medium, it will play an important cultural role in reaffirming family, friends, and social networks.
Just as the mobile entertainment device itself has become an extension of personal identity, mobile video is at home in the Third Place. If you walk into many city urban coffee shops, you will see people already connected to the Internet through Wi-Fi on their laptops. Mobile video on phones will transform how rich media and connectivity will be used in Third Places, for social networking and micro-culture formation rather than Internet research. That’s because it is much easier to download content to your cell phone anywhere, anyplace, at any time. Examples are humorous viral videos, videos of family events, snippets from favorite movies or television, personal artwork and other forms of artistic expression.
For example, friends may congregate in a coffee shop or at a theater multiplex and download clips of current movies to make a group decision on which movie to see. Local cg and classic animation artists will show their latest creature or character creation or an episode from a series they are developing.
In the coming years there will be the number of video phones will be…well to paraphrase Carl Sagab, billions and billions. At that point, anything will be possible.
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