Mobile moviemaking on a device near you
By Hope Needles
A recent article in Adweek explores how brands are evolving in a Web 2.0 world, which is challenging the old model of advertising and brand positioning. Customers are playing a more active role in branding, as some companies mostly bypass traditional advertising in favor of customer service and hyper-responsiveness to customer needs, which pays off when customers share their positive experiences with others. Even consumer review sites such as Yelp are following this model, which relies on the strength of communities.
Like marketers and advertisers, large media companies are increasingly opening themselves up to new forms of interactions on the Web and mobile devices. By becoming more receptive to consumers’ interests and behaviors, many of these companies have started relinquishing control of their brands, giving consumers more of a role in the content creation process. We can see an interesting example of this happening between the entertainment industry and cell phone users.
A recent partnership between the film director Spike Lee and Nokia to direct a movie made with cell phone footage shot by everyday people greatly expands the role of the consumer in shaping the product.
Cell phone users will have the opportunity to capture footage around the themes of humanity and birth. There are very few in instructions on the Nokia Productions Web site, which gives anyone who wants to participate plenty of creative freedom.
Spike Lee and Nokia’s partnership will help provide a fuller picture of their consumers’ tastes and preferences for a feature film. By using footage shot by consumers on mobile devices, Spike Lee will be able to create a more personalized experience for moviegoers than a typical studio-produced project.
Will mobile moviemaking revolutionize the film industry? Spike Lee considered this in a recent interview.
“It’s happening already, whether people want to admit it or not. I don’t think film cameras are going to go the way of the dinosaur. There’s going to be a day when people shoot feature films on these mobile devices…Good ones will be in movie theater like everything else,” he said.
Over time, I think that advances in mobile technology will greatly increase the number of opportunities for citizen journalism and participatory media. While there are always risks to consider with user-generated content, I predict that an increase in media collected and viewed on mobile devices will create a whole new set of standards and practices for what is considered engaging content.
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