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Distribution Stellar Video, Just Smaller

There's nothing better than a private screening room, but how about one no bigger than a soap bar, on a 3-minute timer? Current mobile devices can carry a huge store of video and are becoming clearer and easier to use. Smaller screens aren't just for kids anymore - everyone's using them. Here are a few tips to help you jump onto the tiny-viewer bandwagon.

At a recent seminar, where world leaders in wildlife filmmaking gather annually to share tricks of the trade and hobnob with distributors and broadcasters, a young videographer didn't realize that he was about to get his break. As they shared exotic tales from the field - about state-of-the-art camera equipment, horrific shooting conditions and beautiful results - he sank into his chair. He had spent hours taping fiddler crabs on the Monterey Peninsula and had nothing to compare to these successful pros. But he won the day and his project was greenlighted, all through the simple tool he held in his hand: a video iPod that caught his audience with perfect timing.

There were two ingredients that brought this aspiring videographer into the limelight that day: insight into the untapped market for innovative mobile device videos and creativity. He knew what played best when his idea literally balanced on his audience's knee.

For video producers, the tremendous benefits of portable video technology can't be overstated. Cell phones now stream your projects from mobile web browsers or store downloaded clips on standalone applications, and mini video players are the norm in most PDAs. But, as with any small tool, you've got to know the limits. In the same way that a paring knife can still do big jobs if you know what you're doing, you can successfully use many of the tried-and-true shooting and editing skills on the small screen. But some great video techniques are lost on portables, and using them can ruin your video career like a dull knife cuts a fool's hand.

Over 16 years ago, the PDA, or portable digital assistant, morphed spiral notebooks into a computer pad, and, among other things, replaced that dog-eared address book with a shiny screen half the size of a Wheaties box. A typical PDA today is a Swiss Army version of a computer-entertainment center.

You already know about the phone, camera and nifty global compass. You thumb-board your way to music, news, e-mail and TV programs, using IrDA, Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. The latest advances this season include a memory card slot on one phone with up to 8GB of data storage. While phone carriers offer streaming video services that are part of a closed system, some third-party video streaming services are linking to phones compatible with their own video stream. It's a revolution that brings your video to niche markets, playing on screens that are open 24/7.

Coupled with web-based virtual video galleries, the potential sale of your work is mind-boggling. With the release of the Apple iPhone in mid-2007, ultimately 115 million smartphones were sold worldwide. Cell phone sales jumped almost 14 percent in developing markets in early 2008, and this year people are buying almost as many smartphones as laptops.

When people are interested in a story, they'll do anything to get it. Almost 300 years ago, readers sported monocles on a string to read tiny print. The arrival of a 2-inch transistor television in 1959 seemed like a sure winner, but it didn't catch on. Why? For reasons arguably simpler than competition from big movie houses: miniature screens lose detail and thus demand new editing choices.

The videographer on the Monterey Peninsula astutely turned his lens from the ocean vista to the viewpoint of a fiddler crab. His idea was that a crustacean sees in closeups, extreme closeups and medium shots. The cellphone screen is a perfect analogy to a fiddler crab's looking glass.

For mobile devices, you will be shooting tight. Be careful to lock your camera on a tripod or arrange a makeshift support. Camera moves, if necessary, should be steady and reveal strong compositions. Tilts, pans and dolly shots work only if they're short.

Keep subjects close, but use wide angles sparingly for variety. Wide shots will be abstract, but when you compose with accents of color, texture, line or blocks of negative space, they can be intriguing. Remember what all great filmmaking does: it leads the viewer, presents puzzles and reveals meaning.

Technically, the basics of video shooting remain the same - among them: adjust white balance prior to recording and avoid back light and low light. Heed the warning that video still doesn't handle extremes in contrast well, so limit brightest and darkest areas in the frame, and avoid automatic camera exposure controls if your camera allows.