You can bet a lot of producers are barking into their cell phones these
days about what the rest of us will soon be able to
see on ours. Sure the video iPod is hip and the
Blackberry has its addicts, but the cell phone is ubiquitous. While
studies still indicate that far fewer than one percent of all U.S. cell
phone subscribers access video on their cells, the race to figure out
how to make engaging content for a 1.5-inch screen is on.
Eric Young produced one of the first original cell phone series
spin-offs
in the U.S., 24: Conspiracy through his
Burbank-based production company Spark Hill. Producers of "mobisodes," the one-to
two-minute made-for-cell programs are still an emerging breed. “I’m not
sure that there are many that have done more than
one,” Young said. Now that he’s honed his “nanoscreen” chops on
two-dozen mobisodes
for Mitch Feinman, VP digital content at Fox Mobile Entertainment, he’s
developing concepts for more “mini”series. According to the two
pioneers, the key concerns when producing for the 1.5-inch screen are
size, speed and light.
“You’re often viewing [your phone] when you’re outside so, number one,”
said Feinman, “it’s got to be lit. And number two, is close-ups, a lot
of close-ups.”
“We did a number of fairly wide establishing shots,” said Young, “but
we tended to emphasize close-ups and medium shots.” On a mobisode, a
four-man crew plus a DP outfitted with a pair of Panasonic DVX-100As
can be standard operating procedure. Panning shots, or movement of
actors, he notes, frequently creates lag on the phone screen due to the
15-20 fps rates of the compressed images. As insurance for any action
scene, Young recommends covering with a slowed-down alternate take. And
don’t expect to save money on lighting for mobile shows. Young said he
used the same flotilla of HMIs that would be used on big-screen shoots,
but paid close attention to adjusting contrast ratios. While his crew
aimed to emulate the look of 24, the mobisodes were
much lower contrast, with the brightest brights and the darkest darks
only several stops apart.
Young shot in 24p, feeling the frame rate played better on the small
screen, and he had to protect for a more vertical image space. Phones
and other wireless personal electronics often sport screens that are
higher than they are wide. “One of the problems,” Young said, “is that
different phones have different aspect ratios. I would say mine is more
like 3:4.”
Among US programmers, ESPN has moved aggressively to stake out mobile
bandwidth and is actually both a producer of content and a mobile
virtual network operator or MVNO (a programmer that sits on top of an
existing cellular network while controlling its customer relationships,
content and electronics). The company plans to unveil its own handset
and has been producing three hours of small screen content a day out of
its Bristol, Connecticut HQ. Most of the work is repurposing according
to Vladimir Edelman, ESPN Mobile’s director of wireless. Jump-cuts must
be removed and Chyrons and scoreboards redone.
Speaking to an audience at a panel hosted by the Producers Guild of
America and the Emmy’s Advanced Media Committee, this week in Manhattan
Edelman said, “SMS [Short Message Service] is going to be a huge piece
of the pie creatively. That’s what makes [mobile entertainment]
different from a programming rehash."
In Feinman’s view there are two ways to play mobile content, with a lot
of thumb action or without. “I’m a believer that people want to be
programmed to. Of course, I’m wearing a studio hat. They want somebody
to select and edit for them. Especially if they’re sitting on a bus at
8AM in the morning and just want to be entertained. It could be a
passive experience. There’s clearly also a strong gaming audience
that’s younger and very active with their phones. Whether that will
translate to video, who knows. But there’s probably an audience for
both.”
After 15 years of working online, Feinman started dabbling in wireless
in 1997 and believes that content needs to be produced specifically for
the small screen. He doesn’t rule out the possibility that a studio
might eventually introduce a series idea via wireless and gradually
evolve it to broadcast.
“While everyone is enamored of their iPod or Blackberry,” Feinman said,
“there are two billion cell phones around the world and we’re really
trying to focus on that device and content that might be uniquely
crafted for the medium.” Young voices the producer’s POV when he says,
“It’s very experimental right now in my opinion, but I do think that
there’s going to be a lot of opportunity.”
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