Mobile Phone Photography/Video Exhibition 07

The mobile phone camera has become a window to the world, a ubiquitious
media device recording the emphemera of our daily lives. So what happens when
you take these little low resolution images off the phone and blow them up into
large photographic prints?

“The Order of Magnitude” is a photographic exhibition with a difference.

Working from a manifesto that embraces the “Low Res” and celebrates
the visual digital debris produced by the mobile-phone camera
are a group of 4 artists determined to explore the unique qualities
and constraints afforded by the mobile phone camera.

Using enlarged photographs and video from mobile-phones to explore
notions of place and memory, this exhibition presents the viewer with
an engaging representation of the familiar, the mundane and the everyday.

The exhibition opens August 14, 2007 at The First Site Gallery.
Located at the vaulted basement of Storey Hall at 344 Swanston St, Melbourne.

Top Ten Tips for making Mobile Movies

Making Mobile Movies is a fun way to
get creative and make the most of your
mobile phone. You can use a mini dv,
digital camera or the digital video function
on your phone to make the movie.

Here are some tips to get you started:

1. Plan your mobile movie.
Brainstorm ideas and decide
what your movie is about?

2. How long is a mobile movie?
Short and sweet is the name of the game.
1-3 minutes work best.

3. Create a script and storyboard.
Don’t write an epic! A simple story is all you need.
Remember: you are only making a short film.
(storyboard templates and tips can be found online)

4. Start filming.
-Frame shots tightly.
-Avoid long shots. Close-ups work best.
-Excessive panning and movement can create blurry footage,
but that can also give your film a unique look.
-Experiment and create new ways of shooting and framing content.
-Bold, strong colours stand out best on the small screen.
-Lighting is very important, so choose well lit
locations, or add additional light sources.
Note: Poor lighting results in footage that can be difficult
to view on mobile phone screens.

5. Edit your movie.
Transfer your footage to the computer and edit using
digital editing software such as imovie, final cut pro, after effects, premiere, etc.
Remember to put your best foot forward.
Save as you go and only use the footage that best illustrates your story.
Remove poor quality footage and re-shoot where necessary.

6. Save your completed movie.
When you are happy with your footage, it’s time to save your movie.
I recommend exporting a full quality version to your desktop
This way you will always have a full quality original that you can play on a wide variety of formats.

7. Create a Mobile Movie file.
Remember size is important. Aim for the smallest file size that allows the best quality audio and vision. Open your movie in “Quicktime Pro” then experiment with the export options tab to control the file size and quality of your movie.
You may want to make multiple copies at different settings and compare them. Note down your “Quicktime Pro” settings so you can repeat the process if necessary. When you are happy with your movie, simply save it as a 3gpp file. Some editing applications can also export 3gpp files that will be ready to play on your mobile phone.

8. Transfer your Movie to your Phone
Use the bluetooth application on the computer, a card reader or a mobile phone connection lead to transfer the movie to your phone.

9. Play the movie on the phone
Share the fruits of your labour with friends via MMS, email or web.
You may want to enter your movie into a Mobile Movie festival

10. Congratulations!
You are now a mobile movie maker.
Take a seat in the directors chair and give yourself a pat on the back.
Now you are reday to make another mobile movie.

Enjoy,

Dean.

Mobile Media Considerations: What are the key issues?

I have been running classes on producing narrative based content
on the mobile phone for a few years now. Over that period
the mobile media industry has continued to flourish and
this has led to technological improvements in phone design
and data capabilities. The mobile phone has become a lifestyle
management tool and a portal for advertising, television and movie content.

But are the punters convinced ? Has there been a shift in
the publics’ perceptions of the mobile phone?

I have compiled a list of students suggestions that outline
the considerations and constraints afforded by the mobile phone.
I hope this is of use to other mobile media content producers.

• Comedy works best.
• Not a great medium for video and sound.
• MTV generation- instant gratification.
• Animation perhaps more suited to the medium.
• Screen too small for text.
• Speaker quality on mobile poor.
• Minimal colour palette works best.
• Short, quick and to the point.
• File size issues dictate content.
• Simple edits and transitions are most effective.
• Less talking, more self explanatory.
• Mobile movies rely heavily on the picture.
• Simple and short narratives work best.
• Convenient format.
• Good for advertising.
• A waste of time if you like high video quality.
• Sound, story and audio poor in comparison to a cinema or television.
• Mobiles need a larger screen for better viewing.
• Technology is at an infant stage and will improve.
• Viewer expectations are lower than that of traditional viewing modes.
• Most content designed for a youth market
• Content needs to develop to the needs of a wider audience.
• A medium for higher income audience.

Podcast lectures a hit with conscientious university students

Note: the above picture was not published with this article.
For more cats that look like Hitler check out
http://freshpics.blogspot.com/2006/06/hitler-cats_08.html

 

Harriet Alexander
August 11, 2006 – 3:37PM cited 14.8.06
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2006/08/11/1154803080477.html

When Nathan Moss began podcasting his introductory psychology lectures last semester, he assumed no one was listening to them.

His classes stayed full and no one commented on the podcasts that he was taking up to six hours to prepare each week, until the time he was late putting them on the website. “I started getting all these emails saying, ‘Where are the podcasts?”‘ said Dr Moss, a lecturer at Queensland University of Technology.

“It was really good because the [lecture] numbers weren’t going down at all, so they were using them to revise,” he said.

Podcasting has emerged as the latest innovation in university classroom teaching. Business and education lecturers are using it at Wollongong University, arts and medical lecturers are using it at the University of Sydney, and various disciplines are using it at Macquarie University, Newcastle University, the University of NSW and the University of Technology, Sydney.

UNSW started using podcasting this year through Lectopia, a technology developed by the University of Western Australia that is now licensed to 30 per cent of Australian universities. Lecturers request to have their classes podcast over the telephone and may provide PowerPoint presentations.

Students log in to use the recorded material on the internet and can download it onto an iPod or MP3 player.

The university introduced it for students with disabilities or poor English, only to discover other students were using it too, said Professor Tony Koppi, director of UNSW’s Educational and Technology Centre.

At UTS the dean of education, Shirley Alexander, opposed a systemic rollout of podcasting on the ground that lecturers may limit interactive activities in class that cannot be recorded. “A lecture is not just a dissemination of information,” Dr Alexander said. “Lectures can be and should be a lot more than that.

“[The US education thinker] David Thornburg said, ‘Any teacher that can be replaced by a computer should be.’

“I would modify that and say any teacher that can be replaced by a podcast should be.”

Podcasting Tutorial

Step by Step … How to Podcast Using FeedForAll

Podcasting is simply distributing audio content using RSS. The process is suprisingly simple, and by making audio content available using RSS, podcasters give listeners more control over what they listen to and when. Also, many podcasts are available for syndication, which increases a broadcasters exposure.

Generally podcasting is helpful for:
1. Music – (demo’s)
2. Training (instructional materials)
3. Self Guided Walking Tours
4. Talk Shows (discussions, commentaries)

Podcasting is simply an RSS feed that contains an MP3 or audio file in the enclosure tag.

The following is a step by step tutorial that explains how to setup your podcast.

http://www.feedforall.com/podcasting-tutorial.htm

INTERNATIONAL PODCASTING EXPO.

I can’t believe it’s NOT BUTTER!

 

No, that’s because it’s the
INTERNATIONAL PODCASTING EXPO.

An annual 3-D Virtual Expo on October 20th – 22nd.
A great opportunity to learn some tricks and tips
from the Podcasting experts.

Check out all the info at the link below.
enjoy!

http://www.internationalpodcastingexpo.com/

Making One-Minute Mobile Movies

Making One-Minute Mobile Movies
http://www.digitalforum.accenture.com/digitalforum/global/currentedition/faces cited 15.8.06

Rosario “Ross” Guercio is a Security Information Specialist on a Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) project in Accenture’s Financial Services practice in Canada, where he helps provide capital market data research services for large financial service corporations around the world through Managed Reference Data Services, Outside of work, Ross is helping pioneer a new genre in filmmaking whereby short films—only about a minute long—are available for download to a mobile phone.
These films are called “mobile movies,” or as Ross has dubbed the genre, “femtosecond films.” A femtosecond is measured as one millionth of a nanosecond (one-billionth of a second), a measurement typically used in the laser technology field. At a running time of 38 seconds, Ross’ film The Date would seem infinitely longer than a femtosecond, but blink a few times and you might need to watch it again to grasp its concept.

The Toronto resident served as producer and co-writer of The Date, which can be viewed or downloaded on Canada’s Mobile Film Festival website, mobifest.ca. The films are listed under various categories, such as advertising, animation, humor, music and sports. The Date, for its depiction of a man and woman gazing into each other’s eyes and then reaching for the same piece of fruit—a date—is categorized as humor. The message of the film goes a bit deeper, Ross says.

“The Date is a film about modern relationships, communicating that people initially approach each other on an instinctual level,” Ross said. “We parody how modern dating is driven instinctually. The man and woman fulfill their desire to ‘eat the fruit’ rather than kiss each other.”

Ross explained that the proliferation of the home video camera gave the average person the ability to record the treasured moments of their lives, giving rise to such TV shows as America’s Funniest Videos. Digital movie cameras and improvements in mobile phone technology have essentially created a new art form and provided a new audience for filmmakers. Ross teamed up on the project with a fellow cinema studies major from the University of Toronto, Ilir Pristine, who directed and co-wrote The Date and shot it on a Sony PDI150 digital movie camera. They had done short films of 15 to 20 minutes in length together in the past, and were eager to try a “minimalist” approach—simple, clear images and no dialogue—to convey their thoughts on dating in less than one minute.

Another film Ross produced, The Score, takes the viewer on a suspenseful walk on the waterfront docks, but was actually filmed in a downtown Toronto park, offering a grainy, film noir quality to the picture.
With his colleagues, Ross has made a total of three mini-movies (The Score, The Date and The Trio) for the festival. Two of the films The Date and The Trio were selected as finalists; The Trio won best film in the “Best Caught On Trio” category.

Close-ups, sparse dialogue deliver impact

People who have embraced the latest mobile technology are more likely to download the films, Ross says. He believes the best producers of movies for the very small screen are those that keep in mind that their viewers are more likely to be using mobile phones while they are on the move, perhaps in a noisy bar or restaurant, and prone to constant interruptions. So, these movies need to grab attention quickly and hold it. Steady close-ups, rather than wide shots, and sparse dialogue usually deliver more impact.

“There are so many ways to be abstract, but if you want to follow a cinematic convention, you need to present a clear image of what the audience will see,” Ross said. “This type of filmmaking is an opportunity for me to execute a concept, not necessarily for commercial purposes, and to be challenged creatively.”

Ross said femtosecond filmmaking is still in its infancy, but growing in popularity as more people find innovative ways to develop mobile content. The technology to produce this content is advancing, and there are a number of mobile film festivals offered around the world, such as The World’s Smallest Film Festival.

Mobile Books 4 u bz ppl.

That’s right, you heard me! People are now reading books on their mobile devices. The following article appeared in the “TECH” section of the Sydney Morning Herald. Just when you thought the mobile was all washed up, here comes another wave of techno-madness to keep the mobile economy chugging along nicely. Micro-movies, mobi-sodes and now movellas!

Phone a book: get a load of this

July 21, 2006 – 10:23AM

For more and more readers, the printed page is losing out to a new way of reading in the dark, writes Deborah Cameron.

THE turn of the page has met the turn of the times. No, the book is not dead, but more than ever it is backlit, portable and reduced to the size of a mobile phone screen.

The thousand-year-old Japanese classic The Tale of Genji, recognised as one of the oldest novels in the world, is now available as an online download. So is The Pillow Book, the 11th-century memoir of a shogun courtier.

But don’t suppose for one nano-second that this is just a wacky only-in-Japan trend. It is the same in the United States, where a respondent in an industry survey summed up a big advantage: “Reading in the dark! Because of the backlight … I can read in any lighting conditions.”

One of Japan’s largest online retailers of e-books, 10days book.com, lists more than 13,000 e-book titles. A couple of years ago it had 4000. Another mobile phone publisher, Mobilebook.jp, lists 5000 titles and, after starting up in April, is now the highest volume deliverer specialising in comics.

Downloading a book is an instantaneous process. Log on, pick the book, pay as a part of your phone bill, and click on handly little neon post-it notes to mark the most interesting bits. The Tale of Genii as an e-book costs 473 yen ($5.50), about half the price of the paperback.

It is the leap that great literature just had to make, Japanese publishers decided. Though this is one of the world’s largest markets for books and magazines, with annual sales of $25 billion, young readers were less interested in paper copies.

Though the rest of the world lags Japan in mobile phone technology, the e-book is catching on everywhere, says the executive director of the US-based International Digital Publishing Forum, Nick Bogaty.

Personal digital devices and laptops were the main delivery mechanism for them in the US and Europe, he said, but “I assume this will change in the next couple of years to cell phones, as is the case in the Japanese market”.

The creator of the Dilbert cartoon strip told the forum, a publishing industry organisation, that his e-book sales had been substantial. “I’ve reached a lot of readers who don’t like the higher cost of hardcover books,” Scott Adams said.

E-book sales, which have been in a pattern of doubling each year in Japan, are expected to stay true to form, according to the director of the Internet Life Research Institute, Yoshihiro Nakahima.

He predicted that industry figures to be published next month will show that sales have reached 9 billion yen ($110 million) – twice what they were last year. Helping breach the gap between traditional publishing and new readers is Japan’s readiness to convert text to comic, or manga, form.

The telecom company KDDI said its e-book sales had jumped to 5.5 million downloads last September, five times the figure for the previous September.

Comics made up 40 per cent of downloads and the main users were females aged between 10 and 20, who were also big buyers of e-book romance novels and TV drama.

“We find that e-books complement the printed publications,” said a spokeswoman for the Shinchosha publishing house, Sonoko Fukaya. “As a publisher we of course would like to see our printed publications sell well, but at the same time we find that digital contents are cultivating a new generation of readers who would not have read the contents otherwise.”

http://www.smh.com.au/news/phones–pdas/phone-a-book-get-a-load-of-this/2006/07/21/1153166556183.html