Shooting a cell phone

M

mr_screen

Member
I am in the process of producing an ad where the script calls for shooting a cell phone. I am shooting outdoors, but I am wondering how to do this to get the best result. I will probably run the footage thru AE to make the screen pop out a little more, ie rebuild the screen to make it look good. As far as shooting it though, are there any things I need to keep in mind? Should I light it?

Thanks
mr screen
 
Re: Shooting a cell phone

Not sure exactly what the shot will entail...

Is it just the phone itself? Will talent be holding the cell phone? Can you describe exactly what shot you are going for here?

If stand alone and looking for the nice light

How about putting the phone in a soft box?
 
Re: Shooting a cell phone

Ok here goes:
The script calls for the talent pressing digits while the viewer sees the display. The there will be a zoom/transition to a shot of the screen, no talent. I have seen ads where this is done with mixed results. One of the problems with a shoot like this is that the lcd screen does not look very good when shot with dv. A workaround solution is to do a composite in ae,which is tricky due to hand movements...As far as light goes, I do not have an hmi available, and I was hoping I could use my indoor lights with blue gel...
 
Re: Shooting a cell phone

As for lighting, why don't you try using a Softbox on a boom arm and facing downward toward the cell phone. I have the BIG B&H Lighting book and they have several things to use when you need to light small objects. I saw something called the Cocoon which is an enclosed thing with 3 big holes in it. You put the object in and light the thing from all different angles. Based on the picture in the book you shoot the object through one of those openings.

If push comes to a shove, then you might be able to get away with using a desk lamp! I got one here at my computer and I needed to shoot a super tight shot of a stopwatch on my last project and I used my desk lamp to light the stopwatch and it came out better than I thought it would.
 
Re: Shooting a cell phone

Thanks for the input. I am not sure how to do this yet, but it will probably work out. I might cheat a little, take a still picture of the phone and use that for the close-up..
 
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