Mobile Content: Hammer Horror Movies coming soon

Low budget sci-fi and horror flicks are coming soon to a mobile near you. Independent-International Pictures Corp (IIP) has signed a deal with Mobilefilmworks to stream movies from the studio to mobile devices in the US. While this is great news for mobile video in general, it also shows up the weaknesses that are currently holding mobile video back.

Who’s doing what now?

IIP is a distributor, owned by film producer Sam Sherman. Sherman has been making sci-fi, horror and western movies since the 70s – and this move with Mobilefilmworks is the first move IIP has made into the wireless space. Mobilefilmworks is an entertainment company that distributes movies straight to customers devices, and it works particularly with independent movie makers. To begin with this will be a limited deal, but if it goes well the companies will be releasing more movies together.

What we think?

I can’t tell you how much I love this story, and not just because the movies IIP will be distributing through mobile have titles like “Horror of the Blood Monsters” and “Two Nights with Cleopatra”. I also like it because highlights the growing strength of Video On Demand services on mobile. Mobilefilmworks is a mobile-only company – and it has deals with 10 different carriers in the US.

I honestly don’t believe that the infrastructure currently exists to support a true mobile movie industry. And it’s not just because movies download slowly, though that is certainly part of it. Mobile devices that have big enough screens to enjoy a movie are on the market, and bigger models are rolling out this year. While 3G may not be fast enough to support a decent direct-to-mobile experience right now, there are already some 4G networks in place in the world, and LTE is fast approaching.

But even so, I have reservations. A recent story showed us that while people are happy to play music files on their phones, very few can be bothered to download them using their mobiles. Mostly they side-load from a computer. If people won’t download relatively small music files to their phones, what chance do big movie files stand? That Mobilefilmworks is a streaming service, and not a downloading one, works both for and against it. It helps to battle the downloading problem, but it does raise further issues. Streaming a 5-minute YouTube clip is one thing, but a full length movie is another matter entirely. It’s not often you’ll have enough time to sit somewhere and watch an entire film on your mobile – and if you do have that time, you’d be more comfortable watching it on your computer.

I hope that all these problems will be corrected in time as devices and networks improve. What this story shows is that there is an audience for mobile movies, and there are service providers for that audience. It’s just a matter of waiting for the technology to catch up!