While the Internet is already a well-established platform for movie marketing, exploitation through mobile handsets remains in its infancy. There is not much offered in the way of mobile promotional efforts associated with films screening at TIFF, but the potential of hand-held devices is being explored by the festival itself in a couple of initiatives.

TIFF2006 will feature the world premiere of Nude Caboose, a short by Winnipeg director Guy Maddin that was shot entirely on a cell phone. Nude Caboose was created as part of the Bravo!FACT Shorts in Motion project (www.bravofact.com/shortsinmotion06/). Viewing this kind of content on a phone is quite different from seeing it on the big screen, however. But to some, this creates a desirable style all its own.

‘With the grain you get from the cell phone, and the pixelization, there’s this kind of impressionistic esthetic,’ says Ben Murray, co-programmer for TIFF’s Short Cuts Canada program. He adds that Maddin ’embraced the shortcomings of the medium to create this new, almost experimental esthetic.’

As the technology evolves and the quality of the video improves, Murray expects to see more filmmakers embrace the medium.

‘I really think it is here to stay,’ he says. ‘The sky’s really the limit with this stuff. I don’t believe it will be long before we probably see an entire feature shot [on a cell phone].’

Also this year, TIFF is presenting the MotoFilm Project, sponsored by Motorola. The 22 participants in last year’s Talent Lab – a festival program for emerging filmmakers – were tasked with creating a two-minute video ‘self-portrait’ using Motorola handsets. The work of six of these participants has undergone an innovative treatment by Technicolor to prepare it for the big screen, and snippets will be shown prior to each festival screening.

Andy Marshall, one of the project’s participants, feels that the look of content shot on a cell phone ‘might be the right esthetic for what you need to tell in that story, and eventually, as the cell phone technology becomes better and the images become sharper, you’ll start seeing longer and longer movies that are just made on cell phones.’

Ed Gass-Donnelly, another one of the filmmakers, created panoramic footage by mounting five cell phone cameras side by side in a stand fashioned out of Styrofoam. He then married the separate feeds together in a professional video editing suite.

He notes that there is no timecode with cell phone video – which led to synchronization issues – and nonstandard file formats and unconventional frame rates presented further challenges. But he found the content perfectly usable.

‘It’s never going to really replace anything,’ he says. ‘It’s just a toolbox, in the same way that you pick Super 8, or 16mm… They are still viable formats to use in contemporary cinema… It’s not so much about quality as it is about a texture that is either appealing or not for the project.’

The complete shorts go live when the festival begins Sept. 7 at www.motorola.ca/motoreel.