First Feature Film Shot for the Pocket PC

[Jason Dunn]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.pocketpcmag.com/_archives/Jan05/BackToManhattan.aspx' target='_blank'>http://www.pocketpcmag.com/_archive...oManhattan.aspx</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Independent filmmaker Rob Reilly's new comedy "Back to Manhattan" is one of the funniest gangster films of the year. However, chances are you will never see it in a theater-and Rob wouldn't have it any other way! In fact, he's more interested in getting his film into your pocket than on the screen of your local Cineplex. So, he took pains to frame his epic seventy-five minute film for the small screens of portable media players and Pocket PCs-not forty-foot theater screens. The results are stunning! Rob's film looks and sounds great, without any of the visual artifacts, color shifts, and audio inconsistencies that plague most full-screen files converted to small-screen formats. (Editor's note: As used in this article, "portable media player" is a generic term describing a portable device that plays video and audio, including the new Portable Media Center devices described in this issue, Pocket PCs, and devices that do not use the Windows Mobile OS.)"</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/Jan05_p77_1.jpg" /><br /><br />Lately I've been seeing more and more Pocket PCs in movies and TV shows (especially CSI and other crime/drama shows), and now we have movies designed specifically for Pocket PC playback. Nice! :way to go:

[bdegroodt]

Very cool. I went to order it, but shipping is "on hold" due to a license. Pretty neat to see someone produce (and understand how to do it) for the "tiny screen."

[David Prahl]

The article on Pocket PC Mag stated that the 'mobile version' of the film is free. Does anyone know if there are plans to make it available for free download?

[zilla31]

anyone actually seen this film? i wonder if it's any good?

[dudeski]

www.backtomanhattan.com (http://www.backtomanhattan.com/)

[Tom Dugan]

Jason, thanks for the unexpected plug! This is something we have spoken about for a while now but your coverage caught me by surprise. The fact is, we aren't quite ready yet!

The article was written back in September when we thought we had an approved project. There are 22 pieces of music in the film and everyone signed off on uses. The magazine and disks went to press. Enter Murphy's law. EMI Music NYC wants payment on an actor who sings a few verses of a seventies hit to himself. However a quote that was supposed to take a week is now in its fourth month!

What does this mean? I cannot ship without approval. If you would like to register at pdafreebie(at)yahoo.com, we will email you when/if EMI approves. When this happens the 650MBs of content ships on a CDROM. Content includes the film, its music, an ebook, a graphic novel and a bunch of cool extras. Shipping is $2.95. The participating artists pay for all the costs of the copyrighted material ($50,000) so that the content is "free" and unlocked to the registered user. This will work for artists and users as users share the Freebie URL with friends and eventually purchase some of the artists' products. Sharing the URL instead of the content gets everyone a virus-free master copy of the legal and licensed "free" content on a collectable archival disk, builds a user base for a monthly freebie and establishes a legal foothold in the industry as I pay for the mobile content I distribute.

By the way, the whole concept for this project came from this board. Users wanted free content - creatives wanted control of and payment for their work. This meets everyone halfway. New content is available to registered users with the expectation that some users will go on to support a favorite artist or filmmaker. It also assumes that everyone will work to make the project thrive by sharing the URL to bring friends to the user base giving me bargaining power to buy/produce future monthly collections of indie content. Rob Reilly is already writing the next "Frankie &amp; Paulie" PDAFilm (the slacker loan sharks in "Back To Manhattan") .

The only problem? EMI Music Publishing, 150 5th Avenue, New York, NY 10011! ;)

[Tom Dugan]

Zilla31, I have ate, slept and lived with this this comedy feature for a year and though it is a first effort, I think it is pretty funny. So far it has won Best Feature at the New York International Independent Film Festival, Best New Director at the Queens Film Festival, The Buzz Award at the Back East Film Festival and Best Cinematography at Greasefire. The story is a day-in-the-life of two slacker loan sharks from Queens NY on a collision course with a diehard Mets fan from Jersey. It is a cool goof on gangster / road movies with some laugh-out-loud parts, but it is not for kids or your great grandmother because of the gangster appropriate language. The cost is $2.95 shipping which covers the film, 24 MP3s from all the artists in the film, a graphic novel, a sci-fi thriller from one of ereader.com's top selling authors, with a goodie folder.

Just remember that for the time being, EMI has the whole project on hold.