The collaborative work of producing meaningful shots in mobile video telephony

In this paper we report on the first study of the uses of mobile video telephony based on the collection and analysis of naturally occurring mobile video telephony. We show how a characteristic feature of mobile video telephony, which makes it differ from any other kind of mediated interaction, is that: a) the participants may orient the camera at will to shoot almost any feature within their environment; and b) what they actually show at a given moment may be (and usually is) inspected by the recipient for its relevance to the ongoing interaction, and is produced with an orientation towards such scrutiny. A specific concern of mobile video call users at any time is therefore what they should or should not show. We demonstrate how a partial solution to that problem is the reliance on a particular (full) portrait-like 'talking heads' format as an expected default mode for interaction in mobile video calls. Finally, we discuss the implications, for design, of such an empirically grounded understanding of the specific practical concerns of mobile video telephony users.