In an age of tweets and texts, cellphone novels and films created with iPhones, it seems that short is in vogue, at least when it comes to technology-enabled communications and artistic expression.

Perhaps it’s the fast pace of our lives these days. Everyone’s so busy. No one seems to have any time.

Or, maybe it’s the easy and affordable access people now have to the technology. With just the expense of a smartphone, anyone can make a film, particularly a short film, right?

For these, and other reasons, the creators of Vine would certainly like to think that short is the latest new thing.

With 210 million unique site visitors reportedly viewing over 1.9 billion videos and 707 million mobile videos in February 2013 alone, Machinima is YouTube’s number one entertainment channel.

Never heard of it?

Not sure what “machinima” means?

The term comes from the fusion of “machine” (+ “animation,” according to some) + “cinema” and, with roots in the video gaming community, has traditionally referred to,

“… original films made within a real time 3D virtual environment, combining film-making, animation and games development.” (Tracy Harwood, “The Machinima Movement,” Fallopian, October, 2009)

 On the other hand, Machinima, Inc., the company, which draws on gamer, fan-produced machinima for content, is,

“… a video entertainment network (online) for video gamers (that provides) gaming-focused editorial and community programming  (featuring) official publisher content, gameplay videos, scripted series, and original content, including weekly and daily shows to 18 to 34 year old male demographic. The company’s properties are available across various distribution platforms, including YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, iOS, and Android.  Machinima, Inc. was founded in 2000 and is based in Los Angeles, California.”  (Bloomberg Businessweek)

So, you may wonder, why has Ridley Scott (ALIEN, BLADE RUNNER) signed up to work with a gamer-oriented network like Machinima?

Things are changing.

Last year Google’s YouTube reportedly shelled out more than $100 million in advances to producers in the U.S. for the creation of original, online-native content.

This year, YouTube has turned to European producers as well, with plans to move on to Brazil, India, Japan and dozens of others sometime very soon.

With numerous film festivals held each year in cities large and small around the world, there are festivals out there for all sizes and shapes of films, filmmakers and their film loving fans. Among the latest are the mobile phone film festivals.

INDIE GAME: THE MOVIE premiered at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival where it won the award for best editing in the World Documentary Competition.

It’s the story of four struggling independent game designers, Phil Fish, Edmund McMillen, Tommy Refenes, and Johnathan Blow, and the three games, Fez, Super Meat Boy, and Braid, they fought tooth and nail to create.

It’s also the story of two independent filmmakers from Winnipeg,

Lisanne Pajot and James Swirsky,

and how they’ve used the internet to bring their feature-length documentary to life in the digital age.

The annual TV Upfronts have a new sibling:

the Digital Content Newfronts,

a collaborative undertaking by AOL, Google/YouTube, Hulu, Microsoft, and Yahoo.

The most amazing thing about OLIVE, a feature-length film by Director Hooman Khalili, is not that it had a limited theatrical release in southern California in December 2011. Or that the cast includes two-time Oscar nominee, Gena Rowlands, and Randi Zuckerberg, the sister of the founder of Facebook. Or that Khalili, and Co-Director, Pat Gilles, obtained $500,000 in independent financing from former Facebook Chief Privacy Officer, Chris Kelly, and San Francisco businessman, Bill O’Keeffe and produced OLIVE completely outside the traditional studio system.

No.

While all of those things are feats to be admired, the most truly amazing thing about OLIVE is that it was shot completely on a Nokia N8 smartphone …

Social networks as the ultimate PR — they could make critics and other “gatekeepers” obsolete.

Which of course scares the hell out of the gatekeepers.

If 356 million people (that’s 5% of the human race) can watch a YouTube video called “Charlie Bit My Thumb!” then it’s possible to find ways to market your work. BUT…if every filmmaker tries to market his or her own work, then they’re all working against one another (“pick MY site rather than his!”). The answer is to aggregate: artists in their fields need to connect, to work together to build their audience together … 

 Earlier this year the co-founders of The Rikaroo Film Collective were interviewed by author John Gaspard for his blog, Fast, Cheap Movie Thoughts.

Here’s an excerpt from the interview …