Nokia (NYSE: NOK) is tying up with director Spike Lee to “direct a short film comprising YouTube-style videos created by teenagers and adults using their mobile phones”, reports the NYT. The site (www.nokiaproductions.com) will let contributors upload material created with their mobile phones include video, music, photos and text, where Lee and his assistant directors will revise them and other site visitors will be able to peruse them and combine them with their own material to make something new. The final film will have three acts, each three to five minutes long, with three winners being incorporated into the acts. Nokia doesn’t have carrier distribution in place yet, but Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) is involved—I was automatically signed into the site on my Yahoo ID, although the competition is only available to US residents.

Nokia probably hopes Lee will bring some cachet to both the competition and to its handsets—the overall aim being to encourage the use of handsets to create media. “This is not a marketing gimmick,” said Craig Coffey, Nokia’s vice president for North American marketing and a former PepsiCo executive. “The notion of social networking and entertainment is real.” That may be true, but it’s amusing that during the interview “Mr. Lee corrected himself twice, remembering that he was supposed to call the cellphone a “mobile device”. That’s not part of Nokia’s marketing?