Movies for mobiles

The Australian movie industry just got a lot smaller following last week's launch of the Portable Film Festival which is beaming out free video content to users of mobile phones and MP3s.

The project was inspired by the rapid growth of online video content and the growing obsession with portable media players, said festival director, Andrew Apostola.

Running until October 22nd, it is showcasing sixty seven pre-selected entries on its website which can either be watched online or downloaded free onto a selection of portable devices including 3G phones, Sony PSPs, video iPods, and laptops.

Users can also rate the movies which were chosen from more than 250 submissions based on their suitability to the small screen, use of digital technology and strong storylines.

With about fifty per cent of the films created by Australians, and other submissions from 13 different countries, Mr Apostola said he hoped the festival would "act as an independent path for filmmakers wanting to reach an international online and portable media audience".

Iain Anderson, whose short film Airport' was selected to run at the festival, said although mobile films were typically much simpler in format than traditional films, the opportunities for the medium were enormous given the rapid adoption of online video content.

"I like idea of having something small and podcastable in bite-sized pieces and Airport is an easy film to digest," he said.

Airport is a two-minute animation designed for viewing on a plane and was first aired at the Sydney Film Festival last year where it was viewed by one or two hundred people.

See it:


After appearing at the festival, his film was featured on the Boing Boing blog where Mr Anderson estimates up to 60,000 people viewed it in a single month.

"Just getting the work seen is great, but after it was picked up by Boing Boing I was contacted by Microsoft about doing some animation work and I ended up flying to Boston to make a short film for them," he said.

Viewers are being invited to download and rate the material which has been compressed for compatibility with portable devices and submissions will compete across two main categories.

A viewers' choice award will be based on viewers votes with the winner receiving $2000 and a frontpage spot on MySpace, while a Filmmakers' Peer-Review award will be decided by participating filmmakers, awarding the winner with $6000 worth of editing software.

Organisers estimate that about 20,000 unique visitors have so far visited the festival website with some from as far afield as South America and the Czech Republic.

The Portable Film Festival is not the only venture currently exhibiting locally-created mobile entertainment. Metro Screen, the Sydney film resource centre is preparing to announce winners for its DigiBytes competition, established as part of its 25 year celebrations.

Digibytes' submissions comprise content created specifically for mobile phones, and Metro has already selected eight finalists - all of which can be downloaded to a Bluetooth-enabled video phone from its website. The centre is also exhibiting three guest works from professional film-makers and winners of the DigiBytes competition will be announced on Friday.

Another one:



(c) Sidney Morning Herald