Big Films, Small Screen: The Made-for-Mobile Cinema of Harley Hay

Harley Hay is a busy man

A professional drummer, a paralegal, an English teacher, a TV news videographer, and a portrait photographer, Harley is also co-founder of Puzzle Factory Films, which was created in 2005 mainly for the production of made-for-mobile films.

Bursting on to the mobile scene, "Regurgitation” is his mobile new wave “Breathless,” a one-minute study of a couple who cannot pay their restaurant bill and decided to *ahem*…“bring it on and bring it up.” It won "Best of Festival" at Mobifest 2006 (Toronto).



Mobifest: The constraints of making movies on a mobile phone have been compared to producing film on the primitive "cinematographe" camera invented by Auguste and Louis Lumières. Would "Arrival of the Train at La Ciotat", which was made in 1895 work today on mobile? Why?

Harley Hay: It's an interesting comparison. The Lumières brothers were at the beginning of making pure magic by creating moving pictures. Cell phone cameras put that same capability into the hands of virtually everyone. Where a few grainy seconds of a train arriving in a station was a huge hit in make-shift theatres more than 100 years ago, today viewers are way past being impressed by anything. Just as the first film camera captured a train arriving at a station, if a UFO landed tomorrow the first images would no doubt be filmed by cell phone.

MF: What makes a good cell phone film?

HH: A cell phone film is 'good' if it captures the viewer's attention and imagination for a few seconds or minutes, and gives the viewer a worthwhile experience. It should be time well spent - whether it's because the mobimovie is funny, enlightening, informative, thought-provoking, outrageous, inspiring, or even just entertaining, it should always say something to the viewer.

MF: Critics have accused mobile filmmaking of being "one note". How can filmmakers best use the limitations of mobile?

HH: Your greatest weakness can be your greatest strength. If mobile mini-movies are "one note", then that can be a good thing. We mobile filmmakers need to take advantage of the fact that there are certain limitations - the films need to be short, action-centered, larger than life micro-movies. Mobile filmmakers can best use the limitations by finding inspiration in those restrictions, because this really is a completely new genre of filmmaking.

MF: Can you recommend any specific tools for filmmakers who are just getting started in mobile?

HH: It's extremely easy to get started. All you need now is a relatively inexpensive Handicam and any basic computer movie-editing program (and this software often comes already loaded on your computer.) I use the amazing Panasonic DVX100B camera in 24P mode (one of the best "film look" video cameras around), and an Avid DV Xpress editing system. The Canon XL2 is a very popular camera, and as for editing software check out Final Cut, Adobe Premiere or Sony Vegas editing programs.

MF: We've all heard of Hollywood, and Bollywood. Is there one place in the world that has the potential to become Cellywood? Why?

HH: Canada, of course! We have the potential to become "Cellywood" because for one thing, in my opinion, we really have no film industry here. So we are ready to break out from the constraints of traditional filmmaking that caters only to elite producers in this country. (Don't get me started!) In any case, Canadians have an internationally recognized, much-loved sense of humor that translates well in the mobimovie genre, and we seem to be already ahead of the rest of the world in the number and quality of mini movies being made. Besides, it's really cold here and we are stuck inside for months on end with nothing else to do but play with our cell phones.