Jason Dunn
03-02-2006, 02:00 AM
<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://today.reuters.com/news/newsarticle.aspx?type=technologyNews&storyid=2006-03-01T213450Z_01_N01369223_RTRUKOC_0_US-CANADA-CELLPHONES.xml' target='_blank'>http://today.reuters.com/news/newsarticle.aspx?type=technologyNews&storyid=2006-03-01T213450Z_01_N01369223_RTRUKOC_0_US-CANADA-CELLPHONES.xml</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Budding Canadian film makers looking for a big break may want to think small -- about 2 inches by 2 inches to be exact -- organizers of Canada's first mobile film festival said on Wednesday. Mobifest producers are looking for bite-sized films that are up to 60 seconds long and produced for viewing on cellphones and other handheld devices. "The big picture is that there's a billion (mobile) phones worldwide and an increasing percentage of them are playing back video," said Duncan Kennedy, president of Nownow Corp., which is producing the contest. "It's a new distribution channel for independent film making." Similar festivals, for what is dubbed "short attention span theater", have been launched in Portugal and Asia. Industry executives recently gathered at the Sundance Film Festival to predict the future of the small screen."</i><br /><br />There's definitely some room for quality, short-form content on our devices. The big concern currently would be bandwidth - is the market of people paying $60+ USD a month for flat-rate EVDO really that big? Because those are the two things you'd need everyone to have for this to succeed - a fat download pipe and no concern for how much it might cost. Perhaps not, but it can't hurt for content creators to get ready for when the time comes. My real fear is that the carriers, in their never-ending fight to avoid being mere bit-pipes, will try to monetize this directly and expect people to pay $5 for a 60 second video clip. :roll: