Video cell phones are ideal for many situations

A video cell phone can be a great avenue for your kids to show you what they are doing during school hours in drama class or production classes at college.

Another possibility that these devices could be used for is in marketing class at college. Producing your commercials without having to rent expensive equipment for short film projects.

I like the idea of having a small video camera with me just to capture those special moments with my kids, that just happen in weird places like the mall or out for a walk.

Safety officials can use these on a job site to show management safety hazards of equipment while it is running.

Video Phones the wave of the future

Cell phone screens are now considered the "third screen" after TV and computer screens. Cell phones can send email, buy and download music, stream live television, play games, shoot video and ah yes, they can still make phone calls.

Granted, the video part of cell phones is still in its infancy, but this is sure to change. Camera phones that have video capabilities are offered with family cell phone plans, review and compare these by fining information on our main page.

I wouldn't be surprised to someday see a cell phone incorporate large programs like digital media centers like those available today by Samsung. These media devices support MPEG2, Windows Media Video, AVI, and MP3 to name just a few. Many are only about 3 or 4 inches square, but they can hold about 5 to 7 full length movies!

A smart video producer will want to know on what kind of platform his or her video might be viewed. The commercial or marketing video you produce may very well end up on thousands of small mobile screens with smaller speakers.

Naturally you would want to consider how the content will fit the small new video devices so you might, for example, avoid to small of text or other details that could be lost on such a small screen.

For instance, in a recent PBS Frontline series a documentary entitled The Persuaders explored current trends and thinking in advertising and marketing. One scene showed political volunteers going door to door offering to show a short political video to potential voters on the volunteer's PDA.

This kind of video use opens a whole new realm of possibilities for using video on one on one situations. Some wedding videographers are already showing demos this way.

According to the New York Times this year's International Documentary Film Festival in Amsterdam included an entry called "Cell Stories," sponsored by Motorola, that was shot entirely with the video camera in one of the new Motorola cell phones.

Motorola hired Director of Photography Ed Lachman (Erin Brockovich is one of his many films) to shoot a number of short videos using their new cell phone. Their web site shows a variety of videos shot with cell phones. Is the cell phone on its way to replacing the camcorder? Not likely, but video is spreading.