Kylie Robertson produces Girl Friday - a live-action interactive sitcom series for broadband and mobile platforms.

LH:
Tell me about your background before coming to medium of the mobile?

KR:
I studied scientific photography at RMIT 94’ – 96’. This course was dedicated to scientific and photographic principals. It was an interesting blend of creative and science streams. I specialised in biology, pathology and anatomy and physiology along with traditional studio and field photography. In my second year I was introduced to digital imaging, working predominantly with Photoshop. I took a keen interest in the digital medium, despite originally hating computers. From there, I took a job teaching at Darwin Universities Fine Arts Department. I worked as a lecturer in photography, along with tutor and studio manager. I taught Photoshop also. I left Darwin after around 8 months and headed back to Melbourne to pursue further studies at the Victorian College of the Arts School of Film and Television. I was part of the first post graduate degree in multimedia at the school. The course was a fantastic grounding in traditional story telling for the screen and exposed us to early adopters of the internet and CD Rom for gaming and entertainment. I spent around 8 months developing what I called an ‘interactive film’. I wrote, directed, designed and programmed the CD Rom, which was a multi-layered story based around the World War II tunnels that network under the Darwin city. I spent considerable time researching the Japanese influence in the community prior to the war and constructed a story set around a war veteran’s recollections of a Japanese lover and the stories passed on from her culture. Silent Passages (the title) won the VCA award for best film in 1998 and went on to be selected as one of fifteen interactive projects from around the world to exhibit at MILIA in 2000.

I completed work experience with Beam Software after graduating and spent a few weeks with a team working on children’s games. I quickly saw that gaming was not an avenue I wanted to pursue and decided to push into the Internet market. I started with a company called Electric Alchemy shortly after graduating, dabbling in design and moving quickly into Project Management. The experience was invaluable, but again lacking the creativity and control I wanted. Sausage Software bought out electric Alchemy and I moved across onto a large-scale online project for Britannica. Sausage went on to buy out a small film and television production company called Tribal. I quickly saw an opportunity to broaden my skill set with them and moved across as their first multimedia producer. From producing I slipped into design – broadcast and web. I picked up Adobe After Effects for 2D animation and editing on non linear suites.

During this time I also sworking on an interactive drama series called Jupiter Green. I spent considerable time establishing characters and writing storylines for the series. At the same time I was fortunate enough to be travelling with Silent Passages to various exhibitions around Europe and being exposed to new technologies from around the world.

In 2002, I become a part owner in the business Tribal. I spent close to a year as a company director and learnt quite a bit about running a small business. From Tribal I went on to freelance and landed a job at Digital Pictures, It was here that I had the opportunity to further develop my broadcast design skills, working in the DVD department designing animated menus. I took time off from DP in 2004 to develop the public pilot for Jupiter Green that was funded by the AFC and Sensis.

Then came Girl Friday….

LH:
What was it that first interested you in the mobile as a creative medium?

KR:
I’ve always had a mobile. I can’t even remember when I first started SMS’ing, but I do remember being instantly hooked. For me, the mobile phone is possibly the last piece of intimate communication that I have. I love the fact that entertainment and communication from my mobile is a solitary and intimate experience. It’s changed the way we behave socially, flirt, date and correspond. This gives me an opportunity as a storyteller, to encourage an intimate connection between the user and live action characters. It also helps to blur the boundaries between reality and fiction by allowing me to utilise tools on the mobile such as SMS and MMS for the purpose of the narrative. It’s also about portable entertainment, disconnecting you from the desk and giving you freedom with interactive content. I also find that it’s a more active viewing experience from the handset – the audience are already in the process of clicking buttons, listening, texting, calling etc.

LH:
With the emergence of 3G technologies the mobile phone has shifted from a communication device to a content-driven medium. What do you think about these “paradigm” shifts?

KR:
I think it’s a really exciting shift and an important time to think about how we integrate the ‘communication’ aspects of the mobile into the content. SMS/MMS and voicemail are useful tools to help tell a story and integrate the audience back into the narrative for example.

LH:
What do see as the mobile phones’ “genre” conventions and codes? How did this inform your Girl Friday project?

KR:
Maybe this is still evolving; however specifically for Girl Friday I kept the following aspects in mind when creating the series:

a. Only relevant story elements will be delivered via mobile. For Girl Friday, this is the mobile video diary content and SMS/MMS content from Girl Friday

b. The user must be able to contribute/correspond with the program. (i.e.: integrated SMS in the online interface, public gallery for MMS)

c. The live action content for the mobile must be personal and aimed directly at the user.

d. The content must be available on demand

e. The content should be customised to the user where possible (i.e.: building a profile of the user and serving up appropriate content such as SMS)

f. Users without 3G must receive alternate content (via MMS/SMS)

The most important step is to ensure that your story actually suits the medium. For Girl Friday the mobile is a driving force within the series. There are obvious aspects to keep in mind when shooting live action also i.e. intimate camera angles, limited use of hand held, emphasis on clean sound, considered colour/contrast and lighting.

LH:
With 3G mobile technologies one can experience a variety of different media. How does this inform work made specifically for the mobile? What, for you, are the differences between making work for the mobile as opposed to making work that then is converted into the mobile medium?

KR:
Made for mobile content allows you to utlise all the tools available to you on mobile handsets for the purpose of the narrative. For example – SMS, MMS, voicemail, image/ video capture, ring tones, wallpapers and many more. The key for me as a writer is to allow them to integrate seamlessly into the narrative – they have to be useful to the viewer. Girl Friday will use SMS to communicate directly with her audience; we will also be developing a public space where viewers can submit their own mobile video diary content. Viewers will be able to tap into Girl Friday’s voicemail, a way for us to further develop sub storylines and plots. The audience can also investigate the found mobile phone’s SMS/MMS content.

Content producers will see a great opportunity to use their library of content to retrofit for mobile. I’m sure in some instances, this will work quite well. However, made for mobile content uses specific techniques to ensure the maximum use of the small screen. It’s a different viewing experience, it’s solitary and unlike traditional film and television formats.

LH:
What types of mobile art/ projects interested you? Why?

KR:
I’m looking forward to seeing how Random Place goes in Australia. I’m particularly interested in seeing a commercial project and how it fairs in the Australian market. I also will be keen to participate in a story via mobile. I recently saw a demo for a program for Rachel B, an interactive mobile series out of Israel which looks fantastic. Rachel B is a comic strip type series about a girl who goes missing between a trip from the US to India. It is told through video, SMS/MMS, text and voice.

LH:
With the rise in convergent mobile media there is suppose to be a shift in the role of gender in both production and consumption. Do you see gender as a factor in mobile technologies? Why?

KR:
Not sure if I can actually answer this one, because I am unaware of the shift or maybe not consciously looking at it. I keep my goals as a content producer quite clear – produce material that is relevant to what I know, to my life and to those around me.

LH:
Matt Locke (2004) compares SMS with early analogue vernacular photography. He parallels characteristics such as tactility, intimacy and lightness as three key attributes of the two mediums. What parallels would you make between mobile genres (i.e. SMS, camera-phone pictures) and other, more traditional media?

KR:
Mobile media to me is just another canvas for art, communication and entertainment to collide. The intimacy of a mobile is more like viewing a still image or reading a book – the experience is usually yours and yours only. In that sense, it is very different to the more communal viewing experience of film or television. The solitary experience however, is magnified by the viewer’s ability to pass on their experience to friends/family. This is where communication and entertainment collide – this is where the mobile experience is more tribal and akin to primitive techniques of campfire storytelling (however virtual). The mobile experience (if interactive) is one that is built around the power of the viewer’s imagination – the power of the world they create from the jigsaw puzzle of content and their ability to communicate the content to others.