Recreating the look of the iPhone commercials

H

HST

Member
Hi guys and gals,

So we have been filming cell phone interactive screens for a bit... basically the same as the iphone commercials, with a hand holding the phone and fingers manipulating the screen.

Now first of all, I'm aware that most of what happens in these commercials is done in post, the screen is recreated, the hands are moved around with After Effects etc. I've even heard lately that the hand holding the phone in these commercials is actually a prosthetic hand!

Regardless, we don't have the budget for any of that, so we do all our shooting the old fashioned way. Real screen with real hand model holding the phone in front of the camera. Here's an example of what we've been doing:

http://www.telusmobility.com/en/BC/samsung_nexus_s/index.shtml

Works pretty good, but I'm looking to save our editor some time by not having to reduce the amount of shake, and save myself some time by not having to instruct the hand model to "tilt slightly left" "turn slightly right" to avoid glare on the screen from lights.

SO!.... A rumor I've heard recently is that there is a device that you can use to help stabalize the phone/arm of the hand model. Be it some kind of rod that is hidden behind the models arm or it is the same colour as the green syc and is removed in post (I really don't like the idea of that though).

I've searched high and low online and have come up finding no such device anywhere. Has anyone actually seen this sort of thing out there or have any idea what it might be called?

I have a feeling I might eventually end up fashioning something myself, say with a rod and suction cup, but I'd love to see if there is a professional version of this out there already.

Thanks in advance for your help and advice!
 
Tape a baby plate to the back of the phone, then cut a hole in your seamless paper and slip the baby plate through that to another baby plate and gobo head on the table. Pretty easy.

Better yet, if you can get a baby reciever plate, you can just do that on the table, but you lose the adjust-ability of a gobo head.

Do you want it to be perfectly static? or do you want a little bit of movement? Even just running with this same idea you can have the guy rest his hand or arm on a baby plate and it'll really help with the shake.
 
Wasn’t able to load the video (“Not available in your country or area”), but if it’s a similar framing to the iPhone commercial look, this should do the job:

Gaff tape one of these to the back of the phone: http://www.filmtools.com/filmtools-teenie-weenie-base-plate.html

Connect it to one of these: http://www.filmtools.com/filmtools-teenie-weenie-three-eighths-grip-head.html

And one of these: http://www.filmtools.com/filmtools-teenie-weenie-solid-aluminum-rod-24-inch.html

Which you can then stick into a gobo head on a C Stand.

Have the model rest their arm on top of the rod, and wrap their fingers around the rod coming out of the taped on plate. Should give you a solid shot.

I haven’t actually worked with this 3/8” diameter grip hardware before, but I’ve seen videos of it, and I think the rods being smaller and lighter, and the gobo head being absolutely tiny, it should do what you need. Matthews also makes equivalent hardware in 3/8" diameters, so if you can't get Filmtools stuff on your side of the border (I'm assuming you're in Canada?), you should be able to source Matthews gear.
 
I shot a video like that for my farming company.


http://vimeo.com/m/30082856

Here's the process we used.

1. Shot about ten different swipes, pokes, pinches, pushes, etc. In front of a green screen. You shouldn't need aa big screen or lots of lights. Just big enough for the hands and that's all. To eliminate glare from the green screen, simply move back away from the screen. The model should be a few feet from the screen at least, depending on the types of lights being used.

2. Find an image of an ipad and lay it on a white background in After Effects or Motion.

3. Record your ipad screen either by jail breaking it or screen capturing it on your Mac by running it in the app development program. We used Adobes digital publishing suites built in preview function and we used a Mac program to hide our mouse during the recording.

4. Lay your screen recorded footage on top of the ipad graphic in #2 and do a simple 4 point mask or crop to line up the screens.

5. Lay your appropriate hand gestures on top of your other 2 layers and use keylight or another key tool to key it out and align/time it.

6. Add the ipad song. :-)

It may sound like a lot of work with the keying and masking and such, but I promise it is much easier than trying to accurately expose the hands and screen simultaneously or trying to do it all in camera. This is a post production intense commercial.
 
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