A Window in Your Pocket
The world we see on screen is looking back at what we create.
Imagine a magic window as a connection to the real world and your imaginary world. Takes the saying, “A world outside your window” to a new level, doesn’t it?
By 2011, I probably had more apps on my phone than your average iPhone user. I had apps for Augmented Audio, Augmented Reality, camera apps, photo effects, social media, and many more.
In 2011 I had already spent two years promoting and trying to get a live venue for a film festival where only films shot with mobile phones would participate. It was important in order to prove it was a part of the future the film industry would become.
I was sitting at Starbucks one night, and it was packed with students from the college next door. The room was filled with energy and college vibes. I sat at my table working on my festival with my Macbook, sometimes chiming in on the conversations around me. That night I had this idea in my mind which had been transplanted into my brain a few nights before.
Forget the foldable phone, this was a foldable screen.
A screen so thin it could be folded into the size of a phone screen to fit in your pocket. The size of a large screen when fully unfolded, and any size in between when partially unfolded. That was what I thought a company could sell when so many people already had incredibly good phones and didn’t always need an upgrade.
‘It’s a new device. One that connects wirelessly with your phone.’ I told a couple guys who were learning to code and were app developers.
‘Do you think it’s possible?’ I asked.
“What would the purpose be?” they asked.
Of course, I had to explain where the rest of my brain was when I came up with this idea. I told them about making movies with smartphones.
Then I said, ‘Imagine you and your friends are kicking it somewhere, anywhere, and you have a portable screen that unfolds into a large screen. You can watch each other's videos and photos. Imagine you’re working as a salesperson or a business owner, and you want to present your product for a group of people impromptu, because you’re always pitching it. Anywhere and everywhere.”
I should point out that I envisioned it to have a pop-out stand from the frame that would hold it firmly together when folded.
These guys began to think and discuss it. They ultimately said it would be a few years before it could be possible, if anyone even wanted to create it.
But then, foldable phones came and…whatever. Foldable phones will not replace our smartphones. It’s not what I envisioned. That’s my opinion.
Looking through a window.
I was having a really great conversation with my friend, actor Mark Hadlow, on my podcast about filming with smartphone cameras. We discussed how personal an experience it was, and how easy it was to connect to the story unfolding before you while capturing it. The phone is a screen. The screen is a window.
When we watch a movie on a large screen it’s like we are pulled through a window into another world, another life. We are transported into the perspective of someone else.
Technology is everywhere. And while everyone wants to call out the next new thing, tech has become a bit like art: subjective. There is one constant we find it the hardest to disconnect from. The screen.
My laptop is my screen with a keyboard. I do a lot of my work on it. I also watch movies on it. At home, it’s connected to a Yamaha amplifier receiver and big floor speakers with built in subwoofers. I can connect my phone to the audio system in the same way. But I prefer not to because I move around in the house and outside. Plugging and unplugging audio is not my preference.
My phone is my screen when I am not working on my laptop. It’s my screen when I am not home. It’s my screen in my bedroom when I do a last check on my calendar for the next day.
I think about what we are experiencing by stepping outside my own world. It’s evolution. We are so deep in it right now.
You probably hear people say they think glasses are the next big thing. Maybe more about smart watches. Perhaps doorbell cameras, or VR headsets. All these things have become subjective. That’s because we are not back in the late nineties where tech was evolving at a slower pace.
If you write about tech, you know that it’s all about “this” today, and just as you publish “this,” “that” is now the thing.
It becomes subjective because it’s passing by us. Like art pieces in a museum as you are walking by them. “I like that, not that, okay this—maybe…”
There are two sides to the story. Those who are jumping into whatever new thing comes along and those who want nothing to do with any technology at all.
But what is solid, and has been solid for years, is the sucess of the longstanding smartphone. It’s our everything on a screen thing. That’s the magic we connect to. It’s not about experiencing another thing. It’s about connecting us to each other through the experiences we share.
Connecting through the window.
When I was a child, I sat in front of a window and watched the world for hours. Sometimes through a window on a 9th story apartment in Spain. Or a window in the mountains of San Diego, where I lived for years. And a window in a hotel in Italy when I was 13. Whatever the view, I would travel inside my imagination and let myself go. It was as if letting go was how I really felt like I was truly connected to the world around me.
There is a connection between an arc or a window being in one space looking out into another. Thousands of years ago, sitting inside a cave with a fire glowing around us while staring out into the night through the entrance to the cave was a pastime. This is very much a human experience embedded into our DNA, like storytelling in the same cave, drawing stories on the walls. I say this as I sit in front of my screen writing this story.
And so the window in our pocket is our window to connect. We connect to each other. Whether it’s making a call to someone we love and care about whose voice can soothe an emotional moment, or to experience what it’s like climbing to the top of the world on a video on social media.
We connect to our friends in far off places. We make new friends who share our views online. Whatever you and I do on our phones, our screen is the first point of contact.
A magic touch.
Touching the screen is how we get around with our phone. How many times have you seen something so incredible through a window as a child, that you put your hand on the window? Maybe your dog, maybe a grandparent looking in on you from the other side? Perhaps just an instinct to touch what is on the other side as a young child.
Handing my phone to a baby (with permission) and watching the baby touch the screen is normal. Hand them an open book and they’ll do the same thing. But we are nevertheless, looking through the window everyday. The window is magical because we can interact with places that are real and places that are imaginary.
The coolest thing in my world though—is that we can create movies with a phone camera. The window to a world we can create ourselves is empowering. It’s evolutionary. Underrated. We can change the world. It’s harder to change stationary things than it is to change something that is transitioning.
We are experiencing evolution. Now is the time to turn stories into films that can send powerful messages. Messages where others can empathize with one another. Stories that can transport us into other worlds that inspire us. An escape from a troubled moment can help us imagine solutions to our problems. Sometimes you can’t see it—until you look out through the window. Did you realize there’s a window in your pocket?
Listen to my podcast for more insights into storytelling and smartphone filmmaking. Once a year, our international community of filmmakers making movies with smartphone cameras connects in San Diego. Join us for the 12th Annual International Mobile Film Festival in San Diego April 28-30.