Possible international distribution for new mobile shorts, says Bravo!FACT

The head of the Bravo!FACT fund is calling groundbreaking a series of commissioned short films for mobile handset screens. Produced for the first time for the fund in a formal partnership with the National Film Board (NFB), the series dubbed Shorts in Motion was unveiled at the Banff World Television Festival. Judy Gladstone, executive director of Bravo!FACT, tells Canadian NEW MEDIA that the series is now being submitted for showing at various high-profile Canadian film festivals, and will eventually be broadcast on parent CHUM Ltd.-owned specialty TV channel Bravo!. The four shorts are mini-movies created specifically for delivery to mobile phones. All four were produced for a total of $90,000, with half the funding coming from Bravo!FACT and half from the NFB. They were directed by CBC television personality Sook-Yin Lee, Love, Sex & Eating the Bone director Sudz Sutherland, Canadian actor Mark McKinney in his directorial debut, and Canadian writer, actor and director Don McKellar. The four were chosen since they are Toronto-based. None of the foursome had ever heard of a video cell phone prior to the project, and the series’ producers were keen to be able gather them together to create a sense of camaraderie around the initiative – and to reduce travel expenses. Gladstone says a future iteration of Shorts in Motion with directors from across the country is being contemplated. The shorts were shot between March and May, and completed in time for the Banff World Television Festival, which Gladstone describes as fortuitous since the festival this year coincided with the re-mounted nextMEDIA event. That festival had a significant mobile content stream, with which the Bravo!FACT project merged nicely. The shorts are being offered to video cell phone subscribers on a pay-per-download basis, though free trailers featuring the directors have proven to be popular. Revenue from the downloads is split between the filmmakers and carriers. Theatrical and international television distribution is being handled by the NFB, which will split those revenues with the directors. Bravo!FACT won’t recoup any of its $45,000 grant, which was provided as a means to give exposure to the filmmakers, as well as generate revenue. No decision has been made on whether to continue the project, Gladstone says, though initial feedback has been positive. She cites the reaction of one Banff attendee, an organizer for the prestigious MIPCOM conference who said the content was unique. "One of her areas of responsibility is the cell phone content, and she’s been organizing workshops and seminars and presentations at MIP for the last three years, she said, on video cell phone content, and that kind of crossover with broadcasters. With all that experience behind her (the attendee) and being very aware of what’s been done in Europe and Korea and Japan and the U.K., where they kind of lead…she said she had never seen or heard of a project like ours, where the filmmakers were given the green light to go and create short films without being asked to sell anything, and it wasn’t part of a marketing campaign for a television series or for products. And they’re not going to be penalized if people don’t download. Everyone received their fee and had their costs covered, and, and the rest will be gravy. "For me, that was very interesting to hear because I’m not aware of all that’s been going on elsewhere. In terms of the Canadian market, we’re definitely amongst the first out of the gate in terms of having new content created for the cell phone consumer. Because, the content that’s out there – a lot of it right now is promoting broadcasts and giving you the weather, giving you stock market tips, or taking a little interview that was done for television."

Possible international distribution for new mobile shorts, says Bravo!FACT

Broadcast | July 8, 2005

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