I’ll have to make this one quick since I’m busy working on a film.
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Tips n’ Tricks
Mobile phones are like Swiss army knives. Take the Nokia Nseries for example. Newer mobile devices are among other things capable of playing mp3s and movies like the PSP.
So, what’s this got to do with filmmaking? Mobile devices are another way of distributing your film. Microsoft has a video downloading service for mobile devices and there are a few mobile film festivals already like the Nokia Shorts. Also there’s mobile broadcasting.
So, how does it all work? You make a mobile compatible version of your film. Then post your film on the web. People download the film to their PC, then upload it to their mobile device.
How do you make a mobile version of your film? Makayama’s software Mobile Media Maker will convert your DVDs and any other video content to various mobile formats. There’s a free program PSP Video 9 that converts to Sony’s PSP.
If you don’t want to spend the money on software you can try to do it yourself with the software you have. All you need to find out is what sound and video format the mobile device you want to distribute to, uses. At times the video frame rate has to be configured as well. So it’s a bit complex depending on what device you choose. Pocket Movies has a FAQ on getting your movie to an MPEG-1 file that can be played on Pocket PCs.
Is it really worth it? There’s no question weather there’s a market. Fox adapted their TV series for mobile devices. It’s a lot cheaper then trying to get your film played in theatres and it might just end up with the wider audience.
Filmmaker’s Journal
You could consider this part two of my last post were I basically stated that filmmakers should use the web for distribution of their films. Google Video a search engine/archive for video lets you upload your video and will also let you charge for viewing it. Currently it’s in the beta stage. Yahoo also has a video search engine.
From Vlogs to web banners, video is everywhere. It’s up to the filmmaker now to take advantage of the technology and realize were the market is.
I’m still waiting for many of the commercial services that offer the latest in Hollywood films to come to my side of the globe. I guess they don’t realize that the web is a global market making it possible for anyone anywhere any time to get whatever they want in information and entertainment. If they can’t grasp that vision then it just leaves more room for independent filmmakers to give the new kind of “moviegoer” their dose of entertainment.
My Bookmarks
Doom9 is a great source for making backups of your DVDs. Their information saved me a lot of headache when I first had to author a DVD.