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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.

It is been just about almost year since I inked the last ideas for the Pocketcine project and framed it around the idea of mobile viral videos, then pitched it to the committee considering Mobile Muse projects. At the time there was huge hype around video for the mobile phone. My project treated the mobile phone and its video capability as a new medium that Canadian artists should explore and exploit.

I am sorry about the hype because it made people think I was making movies for the phone. Thankfully the hype has died down considerably. The pundits who never believed in the arrival of the new medium point to the tiny screen and say "who would want to watch a movie on that?"

About a year ago, when I was asked to define what I meant by "mobile viral video," I offered what I thought was a commonly accepted definition. "An outrageous and contagious short funny video made for mobile playback."

I was quite surprised to hear almost the same words last week from somebody reviewing the emerging body of work the Pocketcine project has produced. Commenting on the three or four videos I presented, this person told the group she did not think any of the videos she had seen fitted that description. Plus she complained about the music.