Tonight, the much anticipated event recognizing excellence in American primetime television will take place live on NBC: the 62nd Primetime Emmy Awards.

The Emmys, organized by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, has already established a social presence through its active Facebook and Twitter accounts. This year, it’s rolling out an even more robust social media strategy such as asking audience members to tweet speech suggestions to host Jimmy Fallon using the hashtag #iamontheemmys. [You can read more about the social stuff here on Mashery].

But what about mobile?

There has also been some consideration given to the third screen this year. If you go to their website, you’ll notice that below the video section and to the right of George Clooney, there is a nice big glitzy call-to-action banner instructing viewers to text the word EMMYS to 888777.

The Emmy Awards teamed up with Nixle WireWords, a mobile marketing company, to develop the SMS program. Users who sign up will receive news and notifications leading up to the event, as well as red carpet sightings and winner announcements during the actual ceremony. The service is free providing that text messaging is included in the subscriber’s phone plan.

Nixle’s national-to-hyperlocal messaging tool also allows simultaneous updates to Facebook and Twitter, to create synergy (and repetition?). Some messages will also contain URLs  linking viewers to images and full stories for those who have access to a web browser on their handset.

One might be surprised to hear that this is actually not the first time the award ceremony has dabbled into wireless waters. In 2006, U.S. mobile operator Sprint partnered with AirPLay Network to offer subscribers a free exclusive application called Emmys Airplay Live, which was actually more of a predictive game. Fans could accrue points throughout the live broadcast if they correctly guessed the winners of each category, and could also obtain bonus points by answering trivia. The application also streamed live commentary and conducted real-time and post-event polls for members to share their opinions.

However, all evidence seems to point to the fact that this was one-time deal, and was never repeated again. Although the actual reasons are unknown, I’m guessing the concept was perhaps too early for its time and low participation led to the idea not being picked up in the following years.

It seems that this year though, with mobile consumption and usage behaviour dramatically evolving in the last quadrennial, the Emmys are ready again to take another dip in the pool. They are advancing, however, with baby steps and extreme caution. A click on the web banner leads to a set of elementary FAQs to educate potential users on the service and the offer itself is extremely straightforward: one-way text messaging.

It’s almost too simple and only takes advantage of one basic mobile phone functionality (SMS). If their objective was to increase interactivity between the show and its audience, I don’t see how a one-way relationship is going to achieve this.

One could argue that there is very little value in sending text alerts about a show which people are watching live directly on the television, but the success of sports alerts does seem to contradict this theory. However, one could counter-back with that since there are numerous sports games in a season, there is a higher chance that a devoted fan would miss one and thus require real-time updates, whereas the Primetime Emmys are held only once a year and true fans would make certain to watch.

So how can they improve the mobile offering and create additional value?

There are a lot of potential features and interesting content, most of which the Sprint application offered a few years back and to some extent what the social media networks (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) are offering today. This includes exclusive news updates, backstage gossip, off-screen candid images and video, polls, predictions, etc.

SMS voting as a television tie-in is still very popular and successful (American Idol, Dancing with the Stars, etc.), so perhaps they could hold a special “audience pick” category where viewers determine the winner by texting in real-time during the event.

Another thing that’s pretty popular, and often used on MTV, is having (moderated!) comments scroll at the bottom or to the side of the screen which are delivered via texting by the fans.

Keeping in mind that mobile interaction has the ability to be much more personal (one-to-one) than social media networks could (one-to-many), a neat feature would be allowing one lucky viewer winning the chance to exchange a 5 minute text-message conversation with a celebrity who takes home a prize.

Regardless of this year’s mobile offering being somewhat basic, major kudos to the event for its social media efforts this year – perhaps next year will be mobile’s turn to shine. On a final note, to throw in one last mobile reference for good measure, this year’s Primetime Emmys will be held at the Nokia theatre in Los Angeles.

Mobile phones can do much more now than just call and text. (In fact one could argue they are barely even used to place a call these days, but I digress). Most come equipped with a camera that can take decent pictures and record video, and the quality is improving exponentially across all brands – not just on the iPhone. For example, the HTC Evo 4G has a 8-megapixel camera with HD-video-recording capabilities, and the Casio Exilim C721 has a 5.1-megapixel camera as well as a rotating display that makes it look and feel like a camera.

Casio Exilim C721

But, why would you want to shoot a movie on your cell phone?

For starters, there is availability and mobility: anyone can now make a movie, anywhere. The fact that everyone has and carries their phone with them allows for many more opportunities in terms of who is able to make a movie as well as impromptu on-the-spot content. A phone is less expensive than professional video equipment and is much more practical to transport. It’s the democratization of film.

Another reason is because you can. Besides the fact that some camera phones can shoot up to 12-megapixels and in HD, there are mobile video editing software such as iMovie and 3rd party video editing apps for the iPhone as well as add-on equipment like tripods and 12mm zoom lens cell phone straps for those that are a little more hardcore.

Steadicam.com

The emergence of cell phone film festivals is proof in the pudding that industry professionals are opening up to the concept, and have been for a while.

A few years ago, Boston University partnered up with U.S. operator Amp’d for an experimental course in mobile phone moviemaking. This was at a time when people were just starting to dabble in this new medium and when the term “mobisodes”, which is now widely used, was coined.

These days, Professor Bardosh at NYU’s Tisch School of Arts offers a Cell Phone Cinema class. He was also the one who partnered with the AAFT in India to organize the International Film Festival on Cell Phone Cinema who celebrated their 3rd anniversary in January 2010. Here is his description of what cell phone cinema is:

Renowned “traditional” film directors have also jumped on the bandwagon. In 2008, Spike Lee teamed up with Nokia to direct a movie compiled of user-generated footage taken from cell phone, and the first feature film ever shot on a mobile phone was South African director Aryan Kaganof’s SMS Sugar Man. Specifically, it was shot with eight Sony Ericssons W900i, and took 11 days with a $164,000 budget.

Yes, a cell phone film is the perfect medium to illustrate a love triangle between a pimp and three prostitutes with Tarantino-style music and gangsterism set in Johannesburg.

However, not everyone is thrilled about the idea of using mobile phones as a vehicle for creating and watching cinema. American unconventional filmmaker David Lynch certainly didn’t shy away from his opinion in this YouTube clip that has been viewed over 1.4 million times:

“Now, if you’re playing the movie on a telephone, you will never in a trillion years experience the film. You’ll think you have experienced it, but you’ll be cheated. It’s such a sadness, to think you’re seeing a film on your f*****g telephone. Get real.”

Obviously there are limitations to filming on the little device. Quality and functionalities will never match those of professional video equipment, and the shots will always be a little shaky if you’re holding the phone in your hand.

Same goes for watching movies – a small screen is never going to replace the experience of the large ones, and I can’t imagine ever watching the Titanic sink and Leo drown on my phone.
Certain film genres are probably better suited for cell phones than others. Shorter segments where the stories can be told quickly and doesn’t require complex visual effects such as news segments, documentaries, music videos and short stories are more ideal for the tiny screen.

Nobody is claiming that cell phones are going to replace traditional filming equipment and viewing experience, they’re not. They are however becoming an additional medium, or “fourth screen” to the industry. It’s simply an additional tool, with its own pros and cons, not the tool.

News has evolved from full-spread articles to 140 character tweets. In-depth conversations have gone from hours on the phone to 160 character texts. Music has gone from hour long symphonies to 12 second ringtones. Personal opinions have gone from lengthy discussions to clicking on a “Like” button. Anyway, you get the idea. Having movies downsized to shorter clips on smaller screens is simply in-line with modern’s society snack-sized consumption habits and obsession with technology.

And for those who sit back and sigh in despair “you can do anything these days on a cell phone“, SO WHAT? That’s the point! That’s the point of being glued to a tiny device everywhere you go: to make anything happen anywhere. No one is saying you can do everything at its best with a cell phone, but it’s a damn good substitute when you don’t have the proper equipment.

The filmmaking industry and its key people shouldn’t be threatened or horrified – it’s a way to expand vertically in your art. Embrace the new medium and enjoy the challenge. If you can make a real kick-ass movie on a mobile phone, then it’s pretty impressive. It’s a brand new market with lots of opportunities to explore, and less “been-there-done-that” than the traditional one.

And who knows, you might just be the first to win in a cell phone category at the future Oscars…

Appendix: Winner of the 2010 International Cell Phone Cinema Film Festival: Vision by H.K. Sharma
(I didn’t get it, until the very end…)