Why Does Mobile Video Work? Ask Hitchcock
Here at iMedia Summit, we’re watching demo videos from Rhythm New Media, and it hits me. The demo videos are being shown onscreen inside stills of phones as the speaker (sorry, I’m terrible at names), and the aesthetic is really restrictive.
Wait a sec. Restricted view forcing the viewer to pay closer attention is what we’ve known for years as a convention of form in suspense and horror movies.
Think about it, when the cheerleader leaves the locker room alone. The shower scene in Psycho. Rear window and the view through the camera lens. What makes these scenes so riveting, suspenseful, and surprising isn’t just about what we see, but what the audience isn’t seeing. It’s about what’s around the corner that we can feel. That we know there’s more and we crave the ability to find out what that is.
As we consume more and more via small screens, we need to keep the restricted view in mind, because it’s not just about what people see on those screens, but the feeling of more that will compel us to find out more.
