Cinequest Film Festival crowns winner, advises losers
According to Kinoma Vice President Mitchell Weinstock, mobile video must feature "simple storylines, basic characters and sharp writing" in order make people hotforportableofferings, so titling his/her submission "Friends on Crack" was probably one reason Temah Nelson took top honors at the recently-wrapped Cinequest Film Festival. Weinstock made his comments as part of a panel at the 10-day San Jose festival, which also featured executives from Palm and Creative Strategies, designed to help aspiring filmmakers create compelling mobile content. All the presenters agreed that consumers don't necessarily want to watch traditional video such as feature-length movies or hour-long TV shows on their cellphones/PMPs/gaming consoles; rather, they want what Palm's Matt Crowley dubbed short "video snacks" to pass the time while in line at the post office, stopped at a traffic light, or during commercials on regular TV. Although this would seem to give an opening to independent filmmakers, skeptics argue that people want familiar content even on their small screens, and so traditional franchises will simply spread their influence to other mediums.
[Via Cnet]
