APPLE PHOTO BOOTH FUN

Like I said earlier on this blog, I have been messing around with the Nokia N93 filmmaker's cell phone. Actually, FFC lent it to me after it was lent to him so one of us could figure it out. I asked FFC why it was lent to him. Nokia and Paramount were interested in releasing "The Godfather" on a miniSD to be played on the phone. FFC couldn't understand why anyone would want to watch a film like "The Godfather" on a tiny cell phone screen. I can totally see where he is coming from, but then again if this miniSD also had a one minute piece of FFC talking about his own creative process before "The Godfather" screened on the phone, a whole new audience of young people who are use to screening movies on laptops, ipods, portable game players, and cell phones would be aware of how great "The Godfather" truly is. In a sense, it will help to keep great art alive with our youth. I have a very young intern working with us who knew practically nothing about "The Godfather." He told me he would definitely be into watching a legendary filmmaker's film on his cell phone, especially if it was made sort of personal with a little intro by the filmmaker...putting a human face on it so to speak. I believe it is very important for our great artists to be open-minded with the digital arena precisely for this reason. The youth needs the wisdom of the old school while it is growing up with the new school...otherwise, they'll keep getting the usual visual cotton candy which makes a quick buck but doesn't stick to the bones.

As for the Nokia N93 as a tool, I liked it. It feels like a camera, not a cell phone and it has a great Zeiss lens. The editing software is a bit cumbersome to use and I would have liked a few more iMovie-like features (easy dissolves, sound overlapping, etc)...I'm pretty spoiled with Apple I guess); but just the fact that it has builtin editing software is pretty cool and bound to get better. I decided to do a little N93 weekly series called 360. No matter where I am at I will shoot a few 360's with the phone and string them together for a kind of poetic "smash cut" feel. I'm sure they will get better the more I do them. Enjoy 360.1 below.