An Archaeology of Mobile Film: Blink, Bluevend and the Pocket Shorts

Abstract

This chapter will undertake archaeology of the first generation of film made for the ‘fourth screen’ by looking at a project set up by Blink in 2005. It will consider the project’s prototype film distribution system, the Bluvend (a splice of Bluetooth and a vending machine) and the series of commissioned films known as Pocket Shorts. In the light of this, the chapter will contend that mobile telephony’s technical affordances played a part in shaping a new generation of short form. While Bluvend turned spectatorship into a social experience and was a forerunner of social media engagement with film today.