Iberminuto Festival Spring 08. Madrid. Spain

These short videos could be the first step towards the use of new technologies to share environmental related contents over mobile phone networks, in real time

Roberto Ponieman

Please describe what you do:
One Minute Film Festivals. New Media Made For Mobile Content catalogues: Movies, entertainment, education, (mobile learning) and information, (in the one-minute format), for Mobile TV.

What do you enjoy most about what you do?
The opportunity of creating with no other limitation than your own imagination, based on content demand migration (from traditional screens to Mobile).

We are now just beginning to see how consumers are changing their content demand habits, from those made for traditional screens, to contents specifically created for the micro screen on your mobile handset.

There is an incredible opportunity created by the arrival of the 4th screen, (and it’s inherent demand) of custom made contents for 3G + Mobile TV, and everything that will surround this new media business environment.

What is your inspiration?
I believe that what is truly new must come from inspiration that goes beyond existing models. As in love, true inspiration is the one that takes place in flashes of undefined origin.

 

 

How would you define luxury today? (or) What is, to you, the essence of luxury today?
Wow! What a question!!… The Little Prince (by Antoine de Saint Exupery) has already said, (and I will not deny such a universal truth): That which is essential, is invisible to the eyes. But if we need to elaborate, I believe that the definition of luxury is directly related to one’s style. Within that concept we will have a million social, environmental, economic and cultural parameters.
My ideas are based upon minimalist concepts. This is how I see things going these days…
That’s the reason we focus on the production of high quality audiovisual contents, but just one minute long.
In my opinion, luxury is using my time doing the things I want to do.
And talking about Ecology, what is becoming an essential luxury is breathing fresh air, eating naturally and living in an unpolluted place.

Eco-awareness is growing as is social consciousness and the need to be responsible towards our world and its people. What part do you play in this global mission?
Submissions for The Iberminuto One Minute Film Festival of Spain, that took place in the European spring 2008, Iberminuto, were called upon the theme of Global Warming. Let’s say that in the hypothetical army of Ecological projects, we consider ourselves to be looking for the kind of results you expect when sending in the commandos.

Nowadays there are many ways to educate and raise awareness in the general public, but as in any commando action, if you do cannot draw support from certain logistic parameters of your opponent, success is very difficult to achieve.

From that kind of perspective, we understand that action necessarily starts by getting the public to participate actively in our proposals, and that’s why we take action on Web 2.0 initiatives, which by definition needs the approval and cooperation from the user, to attain visibility and generate results.

It is important to mention, by the way, the positive feedback we receive from the industry, like for example, the people in charge of distributing contents for well known film institutions such as the Sundance Film Festival, who are seeing in us a prospect partner in everything related to environment contents, with which they are highly committed, although it may not be yet visible to the eyes of the general public.
But look closer and there you will see the kind of support that great friends of the eco-system such as Al Gore, gather in his crusade to save the world from an environmental suicide. 

Let’s say that in the hypothetical army of Ecological projects, we consider ourselves to be looking for the kind of results you expect when sending in the commandos

When and how did your project originate? 
Whlie in Brugge, Belgium, around 2004, I received an invitation to a Minute Film Festival, that was taking place at Antwerp. A quite underground culture type festival. However, after more than 25 years in the field of communication, I understood right away how meaningful and transcendental this micro format for mobile platforms would soon become.

Mc Luhan said around 1950 that the medium is the message, not the content. And whoever has the vision to understand the arrival of new media types, will certainly recognize its formats.

That’s why, when I returned to Madrid I started to work immediately in a project that today has become an undeniable reality with many faces.

A) Un Minuto Porfa (One Minute Please) New media mobile content.
B) The Iberminuto One Minute Film Festival of Spain.
C) The European One Minute Global Awards of Ibiza that will be
launched in May 2009, where the best one minute films are awarded
among the winners of other European one minute festivals, scheduled to
take place within the Ibiza International Film Festival.
D) The Eco-Iberminuto One Minute Film Awards.

What continues to be your vision for this project? 
Regarding the Iberminuto Festival, we will be extending the invitation for ecologically oriented one minute contents, to an annual edition.
The festival counts as from this 2008 edition with a permanent chapter called Eco-Minutes.
There will be an annual nomination to the Best Eco One Minute Film Award Category.
Regarding the revolution that the mobile Contents initiatives will generate, it’s impossible to limit a concept that will be the one to define how we will receive tons of on the spot information, custom made , and that will shape our lives while the next new media generation lasts.
It’s not only about Mobile TV. It’s about the new mobile information society and the new era of information flow, between interactive screens. (The pattern: three screens, one service).
What I do see is, that soon, we will have broad-band access for mobile with the arrival of 4G and all those Wimax* type technologies, and that will strongly boost not only the process of change, but the demand for this type of contents as well, and therefore, the impact of these micro formats on our lives.
*(Vodafone’s former CEO, Sarin, who has just self-retired at 54, is the one behind the lobby for the adoption of this new standard. The global expense only for 2008 for the development of these new technologies is of around 30 billion of US dollars).

How are your creativity and passion an important part of this project?
Almost total. It’s (almost) all. (What would we do without fund managers!) ☺

If you were to choose a colour and an adjective to describe it, what would they be?
It’s not one colour, it’s the most amazing rainbow you can imagine.

What is the message you wish to pass on? 
The only dreams that you won’t see come true, are the ones you don’t believe in. Live up to your dreams! Go for it!

Name a person or place that has inspired you with their progressive vision.
Another entrepreneur? A visionary? Richard Branson (Virgin Galactic). His new concept of an old saying, today, completely obsolete: The sky is NO limit…

 

E-mail this post

This entry was posted on Monday, August 18th, 2008 at 8:45 pm and is filed under event. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.