Short films, big ideas

Kevin Spacey talks about mobile film at Mobile World Congress 2009, Barcelona, Spain.

After the scrum of photographers had been ushered away by the organisers, Spacey entertained the attendees with his razor-sharp wit and his personable, humble approach to creativity, culture and the arts. He is currently serving as the artistic director at the Old Vic Theatre in London, and is of the strong view that arts and culture are not a luxury, but a necessity.

He was dismayed that a US senator was proposing that US$50m of the Obama bailout that was allocated to the arts should be scrapped. “Who needs culture?” was his quip.

Short film festival

The MOFILM Festival is the world's largest short film event, with over 250 films being submitted from 100 countries. We were able to see each of the winners' submission during the session, and judging by their quality, many of the others are surely exceptional. The winners can be viewed on the Vizimo site.

The grand prize was a new Chevrolet Cruze, so if there are any aspiring South African writers and directors, start planning for next year now.

Special mention went to Mobitel in Sri Lanka, which received the Best Operator Award for its dedication and commitment to the short film genre. It has been actively involved in garnering Sri Lankan submissions and providing support to local filmmakers.

A standout submission that did not receive a category prize was Rockwell, a short film that detailed JFK's formation of the Peace Corps.

A little long for SA

Although these short films are 'short', many seem a little long for the current mobile environment in SA. At 10 minutes long, Rockwell (as an example) would take quite a while and cost a fair amount in data charges. Flat data tariffs and better broadband access are still the nirvana for content consumption of this magnitude.

When commenting on what he was anticipating when Triggerstreet.com (Kevin Spacey's company), was involved in setting up the MOFILM Festival, Spacey said, “We were expecting wedding videos and porno.”

Thankfully, the submissions were a lot more substantial than that.

For more:

• Trends from 2009 Mobile World Congress [article]
  
• Open thoughts, open world [article]
  
• Innovation wins. Again. [article]
  
• [Mobile] Mobile World Congress on the go [blog]