WE’RE NOT in Kansas anymore, Toto. Quick, whip out your smartphone and find out where we are. The Wizard of Oz is just one of the classics already available for download via iTunes, which last week made movies available to Irish customers, either to buy or to rent.
Recently, the
New York Times
reported on the growing number watching TV shows on the smartphones, with approximately 17.6 million people in the United States watching video on their phones in the fourth quarter of 2010, up from 11.2 million a year earlier. That translates to an average of three and a half hours of mobile video a month, per person.
However, the backlash against watching movies on a smartphone has already begun. Perhaps surprisingly, it’s that champion of all things technological, Avatar director James Cameron, who has led the charge. “If someone wants to watch it on an iPhone,” he said during the April release of the Blu-Ray edition of Avatar, “I’m not going to stop them, especially if they’re paying for it. But I don’t recommend it. I think it’s dumb, when you have characters that are so small in the frame that they’re not visible.”
Cameron claims that he isn’t making movies for the iPhone, but in one sense that’s a facile argument. The platforms on which we view movies have been getting progressively smaller ever since the videotape became a viable proposition, as films shrank in size first from cinema screen to TV screen, then from laptop screen to portable DVD players and on to the screens embedded in the back of seats on aircraft. Certainly there has been a diminution in size, but size isn’t everything, and your view of a screen largely depends on your perspective. Comparatively speaking, there’s very little difference in terms of screen size between sitting in the back row of a large cinema and scooching up close to a laptop. If you’re prepared to hold your smartphone close enough to your eyes, the issue of the size of the screen becomes irrelevant.
The devil, of course, is in the detail, and here Cameron is on firmer ground. Given the epic scale of Avatar, for example, much is lost to the viewer who watches the movie on a screen measuring, on average, 8x5cms.
By the same token, that argument largely depends on the movie you're watching. Charles Laughton's Night of the Hunter is a classic black-and-white noir from 1955, renowned for its chiaroscuroeffects on an expressionist background, and very little of the impact is lost in watching the movie on the iPhone. And in The Incredibles, during the scene where young Dash finally finds his feet and sprints through the jungle, you don't miss a single bug-splat on his face when he blasts through a cloud of insects.
In contrast, contemporary live-action movies tend to suffer most, due to a combination of graininess and blur. So long as you're not reviewing the movie for Sight and Sound, however, and simply watching it for the story in order to kill a couple of hours on a long train journey, the quality is more than sufficient. As with listening to music, the sound can be quite tinny using speakers alone, but it's perfect with the buds in.
However, if the pros are relative when measured against other viewing experiences, the cons are stark. To begin with, and given the viewing constraints, a pricing policy that averages at €3.99 per rental and €13.99 for purchase is by no means favourable, particularly when the platform might be expected to heavily discount in order to persuade consumers to avail of the new technology. A HD version, meanwhile, costs on average €1 extra, for a quality of picture not noticeably more impressive.
Battery use is also an issue. Downloading The Wizard of Oz, for example, took over three hours, a process that chews through the battery life of the iPhone. Similarly, watching the movie makes for a heavy drain on power. That's not a problem when you're close to a power source, but when the pitch celebrates the smartphone's capacity to allow you to watch movies on the go, and the function is an addition to the device's capability rather than its raison d'etre, then watching movies becomes something of an indulgent luxury in terms of battery life.
The size of the screen is also an issue when it comes to ergonomics. Watching YouTube snippets on a smartphone, or even half-hour TV shows, is not necessarily an uncomfortable experience. Given that the device needs to be held close for the movie to be fully appreciated, however, the viewer is courting a serious pain in the neck, while even 90 minutes of slight screen fuzziness is at best wearying on the eyes. Then there's the issue of 3D, as Hollywood, in a bid to defeat piracy, pins its hopes on the new technology and releases increasing numbers of movies in that format. But, while there are a number of 3D apps available for download, watching 3D movies such as Avataron a smartphone remains, for now at least, a technological leap too far.
All told, and given that the industry has in recent years been moving towards bigger screens, incorporating Blu-Ray, HD and 3D, the concept of watching movies on smartphones appears a retrograde one bedevilled by issues that aren’t simple glitches to be cured by the click of technology’s heels.
IS THAT A DINOSAUR OR A CHILD? RATING MINIATURE MOVIES
Night of the Hunter(1955) Exquisitely detailed, Charles Laughton's creepy masterpiece makes for a classic miniature.
The Incredibles(2004) Bright, brash and funny, Pixar's hit loses little in the translation.
Blue (1993) A simple blue screen, with Derek Jarman and others narrating his life.
Avatar(2009) Widescreen epic that clutters up the tiny screen. Plus, three hours of neck-craning will see you in traction.
Jurassic Park (1993) Tiny dinosaurs defeat the purpose.
Alien vs Predator (2004) Impenetrably murky on the big screen, you’ll go blind trying to watch it on a smartphone. Plus, it’s rubbish.
