ABSTRACT
In this chapter I begin by examining portable movies, by which I mean freely circulating computer and cell phone movies that are almost exclusively targeting transient – online or on-telephone – audiences. While other smaller-screen movies analyzed in this book could also fall under this subcategory (most notably the accidental video journalists discussed in Chapter 6), I focus on cellflix as a smallerscreen reality that especially emphasizes portability not only at the production and distribution level, but also as a means to develop an aesthetic of brevity. Despite the different modalities of production (some of these videos are made with digital cameras, others with mobile phones), the reality captured and mediated by these movies is condensed and shrunk not only to fit the smaller screen of the recording device but also that of the display in which these movies are circulated. Their lightness is thus defined in terms of screen dimensions, movie length, and file size, which all need to be reduced to allow them to be moved from one virtual location to another, and also to be physically carried along in one’s pocket. These movies are also often referred to as pocket movies, DIY (do-it-yourself) videos, microcinema, or – in the Chinese context – shoujidianying 手机电影 (cellflix or cell flicks).1
