Mobile as the new short film distribution platform
Based on how things have developed so far, it’s natural that short films would find mobile devices as a new distribution platform. That opinion was proffered by actor and independent film supporter Robert Redford, who appeared at the Mobile World Congress with others.
The main hurdle toward turning this into a more viable business is the lack of financial support, either from carriers or advertisers or anyone else. Once that’s in place it’s more likely that short film makers will be able to have their work seen by a wide audience of mobile users.
Mobile and portable device are, realistically, not very good distribution outlets for full-length films. They’re barely passable for TV shows. But short films that run just 10 or 15 minutes and are often shot on low budgets (which only look worse the bigger the screen) are perfect for pulling up as you’re waiting in line at an airport.
Right now the model for video on mobile devices is either YouTube-esque videos or subscription/ad-supported TV programming through carrier agreements and programs. So if there’s going to be an actual business model built around short films I think it’s going to need to be the latter of the two executions. As Redford says in the story, now it’s dependent on someone stepping up and offering that support to let the idea have a go.
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[...] short film genre by distributing them via mobile phone platforms, M3’s Chris Thilk thinks the successful business model for mobile distribution of short films will be subscriptions for ad supported programming with [...]