Pocket Cine Explorations in Mobile Video
Submitted by Pocketcine on December 19, 2006 - 10:18pm.
Pocket Cine has done a number of mobile video projects over the past year. All them have explored some kind of aspect of mobile video.
The first one we did was for the organization Genome BC. The production process for creating the video is described in a www.pocketcine.com case history. The second was an ad for the Worst Case Scenario Mobile Video contest. The contest is now running in bookstores across Canada. My partner for the contest is Raincoast Books. The third was a commissioned piece that an artist, Newel Anderson did for me. And the fourth is also a commissioned piece that another artist, Jason Doll, did for me. The fifth was a live motion video used as an example for the Worst Case Scenario contest. There may be a sixth.
Each of these videos explored some dimension of the medium, both culturally as well as technically.
Genome BC
The Genome BC "Mitosis" viral video is interesting for the fact it was for a corporate client and was professionally produced using 3D animation software and sound and video editing software. It is a test of the medium as a source of corporate work for artists. It's brief was to drive traffic to the Genome BC education website by using a cool new medium and positioning the educational site as a trusted source for understanding genetics concepts. It is part of a wider viral campaign, so it tests that.
The choice of 3D animation was deliberate, since we thought it would produce a very small file that packed a lot of punch. The small file size is critical to its ability to travel the viral net or be downloaded over the air. Indeed the first cut of the 30 second spot was only 300K in size. Eventually it grew to 600K in size. It has high production values. It remains the highest quality, smallest file size project. We explored character design (Floyd the fly) and the use of a gag.
Worst Case Scenario Contest
The "How to Jump From a Building Into a Dumpster" video explored the use of the medium to create viral ads. It was primarily used on the Raincoast site to give visitors and media people a sense of what mobile video is. This time the production method tested was 2D animation, using Adobe Flash, a vector program. Flash generates the frames which are then assembled into video.
The ad uses intellectual property we were given rights to by the publisher of the "Worst Case Scenarios" series of books. The process of negotiating for those rights was part of the study. The ad was actually very successful as a promotion device for the contest. It was produced at a low cost, part of the reason for choosing Flash as the development tool.
Commissioned "Music Video"
The "Evil Rainbow" commissioned art piece was the most experimental of the works. We gave the artist free rein to explore the medium. Newel worked with a musician to create what can be described simply as a work of art. Although it has a storyline...an evil rabbit-eating belle dame and a vengeful blue rabbit...it has the logic and feel of a music video. It was uploaded to YouTube where a cable company in Washington, D.C. spotted it and negotiated with me for the rights to run it for a year. Newel landed a gig doing a rap video for MTV. If you look at the comments the video attracted on YouTube, you will see that it is a good example of what I mean by social media. There was even somebody who did a "talking head" review of the video.
In many ways this video fulfilled a mandate of the project. It introduced an artist working as an illustrator to a new and emerging motion medium and pointed him in the direction of a future source of revenue. It did that, although the artist ironically immediately found work in television.
Worst Case Dating Scenario
Perhaps the least successful of the experiments was the "Worst Case Dating Scenario" live action video. It was shot on a shoestring budget in a restaurant using actors. Perhaps the problem is that it is evaluated as "television" rather than animation. It is relatively long and the file size is fairly large, almost 3 megs. It does look clean and sharp on the mobile phone screen, so our production process cannot be faulted. But where "Evil Rainbow" succeeds by being very personal and quirkly, the Dating video fails by being too much like a Cable TV production.
Butterflies Commissioned Story
The last commissioned piece by the artist Jason Doll used traditional 2D animation. In some ways it is the most ambitious because of the amount of work involved and the fact it will use professional voice-over and tell a self-contained, two-minute story. It is actually a reflection on the problem of creating stories for this new medium. Stay tuned for "Butterflies." I will come back and revise this blog once it is done.
The first one we did was for the organization Genome BC. The production process for creating the video is described in a www.pocketcine.com case history. The second was an ad for the Worst Case Scenario Mobile Video contest. The contest is now running in bookstores across Canada. My partner for the contest is Raincoast Books. The third was a commissioned piece that an artist, Newel Anderson did for me. And the fourth is also a commissioned piece that another artist, Jason Doll, did for me. The fifth was a live motion video used as an example for the Worst Case Scenario contest. There may be a sixth.
Each of these videos explored some dimension of the medium, both culturally as well as technically.
Genome BC
The Genome BC "Mitosis" viral video is interesting for the fact it was for a corporate client and was professionally produced using 3D animation software and sound and video editing software. It is a test of the medium as a source of corporate work for artists. It's brief was to drive traffic to the Genome BC education website by using a cool new medium and positioning the educational site as a trusted source for understanding genetics concepts. It is part of a wider viral campaign, so it tests that.
The choice of 3D animation was deliberate, since we thought it would produce a very small file that packed a lot of punch. The small file size is critical to its ability to travel the viral net or be downloaded over the air. Indeed the first cut of the 30 second spot was only 300K in size. Eventually it grew to 600K in size. It has high production values. It remains the highest quality, smallest file size project. We explored character design (Floyd the fly) and the use of a gag.
Worst Case Scenario Contest
The "How to Jump From a Building Into a Dumpster" video explored the use of the medium to create viral ads. It was primarily used on the Raincoast site to give visitors and media people a sense of what mobile video is. This time the production method tested was 2D animation, using Adobe Flash, a vector program. Flash generates the frames which are then assembled into video.
The ad uses intellectual property we were given rights to by the publisher of the "Worst Case Scenarios" series of books. The process of negotiating for those rights was part of the study. The ad was actually very successful as a promotion device for the contest. It was produced at a low cost, part of the reason for choosing Flash as the development tool.
Commissioned "Music Video"
The "Evil Rainbow" commissioned art piece was the most experimental of the works. We gave the artist free rein to explore the medium. Newel worked with a musician to create what can be described simply as a work of art. Although it has a storyline...an evil rabbit-eating belle dame and a vengeful blue rabbit...it has the logic and feel of a music video. It was uploaded to YouTube where a cable company in Washington, D.C. spotted it and negotiated with me for the rights to run it for a year. Newel landed a gig doing a rap video for MTV. If you look at the comments the video attracted on YouTube, you will see that it is a good example of what I mean by social media. There was even somebody who did a "talking head" review of the video.
In many ways this video fulfilled a mandate of the project. It introduced an artist working as an illustrator to a new and emerging motion medium and pointed him in the direction of a future source of revenue. It did that, although the artist ironically immediately found work in television.
Worst Case Dating Scenario
Perhaps the least successful of the experiments was the "Worst Case Dating Scenario" live action video. It was shot on a shoestring budget in a restaurant using actors. Perhaps the problem is that it is evaluated as "television" rather than animation. It is relatively long and the file size is fairly large, almost 3 megs. It does look clean and sharp on the mobile phone screen, so our production process cannot be faulted. But where "Evil Rainbow" succeeds by being very personal and quirkly, the Dating video fails by being too much like a Cable TV production.
Butterflies Commissioned Story
The last commissioned piece by the artist Jason Doll used traditional 2D animation. In some ways it is the most ambitious because of the amount of work involved and the fact it will use professional voice-over and tell a self-contained, two-minute story. It is actually a reflection on the problem of creating stories for this new medium. Stay tuned for "Butterflies." I will come back and revise this blog once it is done.
- Pocketcine's blog
- Login to post comments
