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Mobile Movies Showcase – Week 37 – by Donna Donato

Welcome back to the thirty-seventh article in the column, Mobile Movies. We at TheAppWhisperer have been inspired by the Flickr upgrade of 1 Terabyte of storage for everyone and have wanted to launch a mobile movie section for some time. Now seems to be perfect, the new Flickr upgrade will allow for a full three minutes of 1080p HD quality video per single film and you can have as many as you have storage space for. Each week I (you can find me on Flickr here) will curate the movie uploads to our new Flickr group –MobileMoviesTheAppWhisperer – I will view all the videos uploaded and comment on the ones selected.

”The internet has created other crossroads for films and videos. Mobile devices have democratized not only photography but also video-making. The availability of apps that give digital video the appearance of analogy film, such as grainy black and white super-8, is exciting and important. Now anyone with the desire can make a home movie or ‘film’ and upload it to the web. It is interesting to see what stories and messages people are creating and disseminating.’

All of the entries were either shot or created on mobile devices.

Here is TheAppWhisperer’s video showcase for July 19, 2014. We would like to thank this week’s contributors: Robin Robertis, Ger Van den Elzen Photography, Armineh_H, Diane Nicholette Jeon, SLP, Vanessa Vox, Chad Rankin / @sirreal, and kimartino1 Hipstafiend_Kim Martino for their submissions. Take a look at these latest gems; you’ll be glad you did. Please share our Column with your family and friends, encouraging them to create and submit their mobile videos. We are seeking all platforms, Windows, Android, iOS… Joanne Carter and I will also be scouring the web in search of mobiles movies to present to our readers.

 

‘Untitled _ Sirens Silence’ – Robin Robertis

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Flickr link

Liked this piece with its dreamy images and the Buddha Bar style music. If the ancients thought they saw sirens luring them to the rocky shores, who is to say future space travelers won’t also ‘see’ sirens of some sort swimming in the cosmos?

‘Ghost Keeping’ – Ger Van den Elzen Photography

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Flickr link

Loved the empty suits and painstakingly reproduced sewing atelier. As the camera leads the viewer around the space, couldn’t help wondering what type of exhibit this was.

‘It’s wine o’clock‘  – Armineh_H

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Flickr link

Living in France I’ve noticed that for some people ‘wine o’clock’ can be any time of the day; even early in the morning. Liked the sepia color of this piece, the flickering light and the camera’s almost loving caress of the glass, its shadow and contents.

‘Obsession’ –Diane Nicholette Jeon

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Flickr link

The tense music and rapid close-ups of a woman slathering on what appears to be facial cream may touch a chord of familiarity in the viewer. Many of us understand the compulsion to keep our faces moist, smooth and yes, as wrinkle free as possible.

‘Coffee stains and silence’ – SLP

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Flickr link

Screening this piece I thought of the children’s game of Freeze. The painterly images of hands, legs and bodies appear to be arrested in mid motion waiting to be told to move.

‘July the 11th, 2014 (Moving forward)’ – Vanessa Vox

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Flickr link

This piece felt like the opening sequence of an espionage or thriller film. The fast-paced drum solo coupled with sped up driving shots and slowed footage of a barely seen walker and his/her shadow had a slight dizzying effect. I kept trying to read the road signs to see where we were headed but we were moving too quickly.

‘Traversing Mercury ’ –  Chad Rankin / @sirreal

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Flickr link

Understandably this piece brought to mind the paintings of Salvador Dali.The spacey music and rotating, segmented cubes with their accompanying shadows were a nice touch to a piece that looks suspended in time.

‘Madness at the gym’ – Ger Van den Elzen Photography

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Flickr link

While watching this piece couldn’t help thinking of the expression, ‘no pain no gain’.  The seemingly exhausted gym users made me think of the work of Mark Kostabi, a popular 80s NYC artist.

‘Talent is a flame. Genius is a fire. – Bernard Williams‘  – Armineh_H

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Flickr link

Liked the provocative title and the way the gas burner illustrated the idea. If neither the talent nor the genius is used, will they both eventually be extinguished?

‘If you’re happy and ya know it…’ – kimartino1 Hipstafiend_Kim Martino

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Flickr link

Liked the cartoonish music and the vintage ‘film’ processing. This looks like an original Good Humor truck and I’m sure after buying their frozen goodies, little kids were happy and they knew it.

Donna is an image-maker, historian by training and a film/video editor by vocation. From a very early age she was smitten with images of all kinds. Donna absolutely loves film and filmmaking. Currently she lives in Paris, a city that has had a long and passionate love affair with ‘the movies’ and is one of the crossroads for world cinema.

2 Comments

  • Stef Lp

    Thank you so much for considering my little experiment. I have yet figured out how to include a soundtrack without copyright issues…so having these silent films appreciated is ….appreciated.
    Thank you.
    And I look forward to seeing all these other videos.
    I have been enjoying the amazing work that is being created.
    How exciting to see all these creative projects being explored , all because of being mobile.

  • Diana Jeon

    Thank you, Donna and Joanne, for including my video, Obsession in this awesome collection.